Master green reading techniques with this comprehensive aimpoint putting lesson featuring a DP World Tour pro. Learn how to properly read slopes, measure break percentages, and develop confidence in your putting through proven drills and visualization techniques.
Jamie Donaldson Europe’s Senior AimPoint Instructor:
YouTube @JamieDonaldsongolf
Www.jamiedonaldson.co.uk
Www.makeeverything.aimpointgolf.com
⏱️ 0:00 – Introduction to green reading and current putting issues
🔍 6:45 – Proper measuring technique for short putts and Aimpoint corrections
💪 12:40 – Understanding slope feel and high foot technique for better reads
⚙️ 18:50 – Short putt training routine with multiple measurements
🎯 26:00 – Drop point visualization and creative putting approach
✅ 35:20 – Performance drill for testing Aimpoint accuracy
🏆 47:15 – Analyzing slope field ability and building confidence
📊 53:00 – Fixing left misses and technical adjustments
This comprehensive aimpoint putting lesson shows how a DP World Tour pro can transform their putting with precise green reading techniques. Learn how to use drop points effectively, measure slopes correctly, and build confidence in your reads using evidence-based practice methods developed for professional tournament play.
What You’ll Learn:
-The correct way to measure slopes for Aimpoint green reading
-How to test and improve your slope feel like a DP World Tour pro
-Using drop points to visualize breaking putts without alignment aids
-Performance drills to quantify your green reading accuracy
-How to gain confidence in your aimpoint putting numbers
-Techniques for consistent start lines and breaking putts
-Creating a robust putting system for tournament pressure situations
#aimpoint #aimpontputting #greenreading #dpworldtourpro #puttinglessons
Are we rolling? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, so, so my thoughts for you are um let’s see what you’re doing. Cool. Let’s make sure you’re doing it right. Right. Let’s look at any issues we see with putting and that’ll be displayed by how the ball rolls, where it finishes, what relation to break. Cool. But also make sure that you are up to date with with all your aim point stuff. So, I think I think the first thing we’ll do, I know you haven’t warmed up, is we’ll just hit a couple of putts and I’ll just watch what you’re doing now. Okay. So, if I was to say there’s a a 25-footer to that pin there. Cool. What we’ll do is we’ll do both putts. So, I’m going to get you to read it, play it, and finish it off. Okay. And I can observe what you’re doing. Okay. So, just go through the whole rout. Go through the whole routine. I’ll just do Yeah. Exactly what I would be doing at the moment. Yeah. Of course. Okay. I I still go behind the car. Right. Well, that’s that that might be a could be of an issue. Yeah. Right. So, and it’s just I guess because I haven’t been practicing aim point correctly and people go behind the whole for a couple of reasons now. One of them might be habit. Yeah. They just always done it and they can’t stop. Yeah. But the danger with that is is conflict. Yeah. Yeah, you know, and I think what you got to remember is the ball only knows what it touches and what happens from the other side of the hole isn’t relative really to what the ball’s going to experience. So that might be something we keep or take out. I mean, in the end of the day, it was an extra 5 seconds. So, it’s not a problem unless you look at it and then think, well, I felt X and now I see Y. Yeah. And I’m going to change. Sure. And what you’ve also got to realize is if you’re looking from that other angle and you still feel you commit to the numbers you felt, there’s a good chance your manipulations kick in because your brain saw something else. I think ideally I’d like to get to a spot where I can feel the slope really well and effectively and I don’t have to go behind the cut. Good. And that’s kind of where I want. And how do you know your slopes are good? Uh well by training them on the putting green with the spirit lung which I tend to struggle a lot though but this is my why I haven’t used it I guess well because I I struggle to feel the slope and sometimes like even the direction I will get wrong really so I just need to practice it more or we need to adjust how you feel slope and give you drills that have evidence-based success. Sure. Like you know we need to have a a series of good results in tests so you start to trust yourself. Yeah. Because there is an element of belief back in yourself and trust. Yeah. For sure. Okay. But what did you get on this one? So I felt like two and a half there. Cool. Okay. From left to right and I would be standing here. Yeah. Arm length again adjusting the Have a guess cuz we haven’t done any sort of st testing today. Cool. Um, and I think also I like using a line, but because my reads have been off, it’s just been causing some confusion. Yeah. Um, it’s all of this, you know, it’s just made me think that my stroke is bad, but I think that’s the last Yeah. of my worries. Okay. So, we’re we’re definitely in that kind of all over the place syndrome right now. Yeah. But I mean, it can only really get better, which is good. I’m I’m actually excited about working on this. Okay. Good. So, it’s good putt. Yeah. Uh, it’s about a 35 footer. Yeah. Speed was excellent. Y Okay. It didn’t go in, but it certainly curved the way you said. And I would say that the number must have been somewhere around about the right number. Yeah. Um it it missed low, but we don’t know if that was a low start, you know, but it’s a minimal miss. Sure. That’s not so bad. Okay. So, what I’ll do is I’ll um I’ll drop another ball there cuz that’s got a bit of sand on that one. So, why don’t we read this one into there now and just have a look at your process for the shorter putt. Okay. So, Okay. So that here I wouldn’t really go behind the hole at all. Um this I guess this is about 6T, right? Yeah. So I’m standing over the ball. Cool. And then I’ll do this feels like four to me from inside the cup. Nice. Um so yeah. Okay. Okay. And that’s actually a good read. Maybe a foot too fast ball speed, but whenever we have a 4 center, everything has to match. That’s one of the hardest putts to make. That was a tough putt. So, that’s actually a good putt that didn’t go in. And I’d say that the number there was also very relative to what you picked cuz you you saw how much curve there was there. But I tell you what we are going to do. We’re going to look at both those putts now and talk about what you did wrong. Okay. So, if we drop this ball roughly where it was, your second measurement was about here, which is too near the hole. Okay. Okay. So, we never ever want to measure outside the middle third. So, we we don’t measure outside the middle third ever. And the reason for this being is the ball is traveling too quick early on. Yep. So we don’t we don’t worry about what happens in that first third because of the speed the ball’s traveling early on. Yeah. Now the the axis of the ball has been tilted through this middle section and that’s that’s all we need to worry about when it comes to what’s going to be the main contributing slope for the break on this putt. Okay. So you went too deep. Wasn’t going to give you a bad number in this case. It’s just bad habits. And if you’re on a a 10-ft putt and you’re starting to read that last third, potentially you’re reading slopes that won’t affect the brake or won’t be what we need to understand. Uh, and one other thing, if you come and stand here, you see where I’ve put those teegs. Yeah. Left of where I got the break. You you were you were on a very straight line to the cup. So, what I want you to do is to think about standing over where the ball’s going to be. Okay. It’s really important for us to try and mirror the path the ball’s going to take. And it’s always a bit of a estimation at this stage. But what I want you to start thinking about as you’re walking to get your first slope, I can feel a quite a slope this way. So I’m going to go up the slope. You know, I’m going to offset it. Sure. But I’m listening to my feet as I go. Sure. So if we walk to that first teg, and as you’re walking, just drift up the slope to sort of match how what you’re feeling. There we go. And now all of a sudden, yeah, that feels like Yeah. over three. Cool. So, we could be talking four now. Sure. All right. So, if I pick that up now, go to that second TEG. There we go. Yeah. Quite quite a bit. Okay. So, if we took that putt again, we would probably play a four, right? I think so. I think so. Although I I haven’t felt a four and checked it on a level for a long time. But yeah, I think that does feel like more than a three. But I tell you what I’m going to say now is the ball’s going to be our first feedback to numbers. Like it it you know for this length putt, if it is over three, four or a five would still finish very close. Yeah. And because we’re at this length, it’s almost like we’re not really expecting to hold them, but we don’t want the stress of the second putt. Yeah. So this is definitely a close miss would be a key thing. If it goes in, it’s just a bonus. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, let’s play a four and have a look at how the ball behaves. Just feels high. Feels high. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, nice. Beautiful. Yeah. It’s so high. Okay. Good. So, so it felt wrong, but it’s actually turned out great. Really good. Like I would say that’s a great putt. Yeah. And the thing about that feels high is once we open the little sort of [ __ ] in the curtains and we can start letting doubt creep in. I think that’s one of the first things we got to learn with you is how can we be a little bit more cast iron with our process and it’s just doubt. Doubt maybe made a few mistakes, you know, things don’t go your way and it’s like, well, what if? Yeah. And and we can cope with that. Sure. And the the the simplest way is that cause and effect. We played the four. We didn’t like the four. It worked beautifully. And it’s like, okay, we’ll That was nice. Yeah. We’ll feel it again on the way to get the ball. So, we’re going to as we walk to it, we’re going to remind ourselves that four was was correct. Sure. So, that’s it. Yeah. I just Yeah. No, it’s quite severe. Yeah. And I think your number was excellent. Yeah. Okay. So, this is the putt we had earlier, and we only measured it once. Yes. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to measure everything a minimum of two times. Okay. So, I’d like you to measure this one here and here. So, even in the short putts, we’re doing the the well, the third, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Cool. and and um we’re going to talk a little bit about where we’re aiming our body as well. That’s good. And the second one. There we go. Yeah. Okay. So, I think I don’t think the four changes. No, I don’t think so. Okay. Um and let’s let’s play it again. Sure. Cuz I didn’t dislike the read earlier. I just think the speed has to be perfect for these big breaking putts. If you don’t get the speed quite right, you miss. So it’s I know it’s first thing in the morning. Last thing is 4 footers from six foot four percentage from 6 foot. It’s good. But why not? [Music] Yeah. Good. Okay. So that’s the difference of speed. Yeah. Which also can be a contributing factor to why you think you’re putting bad because if the speed doesn’t match the line, the ball will probably miss. Yeah. No, it’s it’s been a mixture of poor speed and poor reads. Yeah. And then that makes me think like it’s my stroke. Yeah, of course. Um I feel like with the obviously refamiliarizing myself with these numbers and points, I don’t actually care where this line is pointing so much. Yeah. Is that something that you find? Totally. Well, I like the creativity of of face at impact more than at address. So there there’s two kind of schools of thought on uh aiming and that is we aim with a line on the ball. We aim at the the aim point. Uh every putt’s a straight line. We just focus on starting it on that line and let gravity take it. But a lot of people are a little bit more into visualizing curve. And those people are less rigid with the aim at a dress. Y they’re more into how do I get it to go over a sequence of points to be correct for the hole. Yeah. And you know the thing about perfect aim at a dress is if it’s not the same impact then you probably miss. Sure. So it doesn’t leave room for creativity or you know people do manipulate when they put and and sometimes the instincts or the subconscious we can’t fight it. Sure. Um but if I said to you hit hit me a nice snap hook down the first hole there through the trees onto the fairway. Um you’d swing it right and close the face. But you wouldn’t know how much. Yeah, you certainly wouldn’t line your ball up with a tree there. It’s true. You know, so I think we got to remember that a lot of golf is played without actually knowing really where you’re aiming. Yeah. So when we get onto the green, we suddenly put this microscope o over it. And that also we see is detrimental to players performance. Yeah. So we’ll have a chat in a bit about aiming strategies or visualization strategies. Uh and they’re also good because they can give really good feedback on how how good is your start line. Yeah, unless we hook you up to a machine here, you wouldn’t know how good your start line is. But there are ways we can find out more organically. Sure. Good. Okay. So, there’s a couple of things already. It’s it’s we just need to tidy up where you’re reading putts. Um I like the numbers, but I’ve put some discs out here. So, why don’t we just run through the the numbers and I can give you some options on what’s the best way for you to do it? Because there is no rules like narrow, wide, eyes shut that we don’t specify, but people are better in certain ways than others. Yeah. I feel like sometimes I’ve I’ve I’m better like feeling it in one foot than the other. So like I’ll have to turn around and Right. Well, we’re going to talk about that because I’m going to show you a read or I’m going to improve your reads and we’ll do that one off camera. Yeah. Cuz that’s the the very latest technique. But you have to be facing the hole to get it right. Okay. So, we don’t teach anyone to turn their back on the target. Uh, but I’m going to tell you why I think that happens. Sure. So, let’s just run through these P. Let’s just go one to five there. Start Start with this. Start down here for me, mate. Just come and feel that. And obviously, that’s pretty flat. Not much. Not much in there. Okay, let’s go to the two. Although I can feel it. And I think it’s of course you can feel it. You’re good at this. You just need to wearing the right shoes is important. The shoes you play in. Yeah, cuz I feel like I haven’t worn these. I actually left my shoes in uh Turkey cuz I was like, I can’t feel anything. I just was like I left them in the locker room cuz I was like I’m going to go back to wearing just classic shoes, not trainer type. And I can actually feel the soap a little better. It might sound silly, but like I would say wear what you play in as much as possible to practice. Um but thing about this is it’s just body weight. It’s you can’t really switch off shoes, maybe mask it sometimes, but also you’re back in that area of I just think you’re in this really gray area of of not really knowing what’s right for you, and that just I’d agree causes you to make some decisions. Yeah. You know, well, you know, we we talked about Brandon earlier, like he he honestly considers he’s the best putter in the world. He I think he is. And he is. I think he is. But the funny thing is even if he wasn’t putting great, he’d consider himself to be the best putter there. And and that’s you’re the opposite of that. Yeah, at the moment I am. All you told me is is you’re the worst putter. Yeah. No, but I would like to try and become like the best putter in the world. I think I can. I know I am a good putter. I think I probably phrased it wrong. Like I’m a good putter, but I have just not been putting well. Right. I because I’ Yeah. I can hold everything on my day. Of course you can. And and there’s no physical limitations here. You probably won’t carry it 400 yards with a driver. Yeah, but you can certainly be the world’s best putter. Yeah. Okay. So, so when you felt those, they’re pretty standard, right? One through to to five there. But let let’s talk about that turning around. And uh if we use this one here as an example, if I came into this with my low foot first, if you look at how my my body moves, I’m I’m moving into the slope. Yeah. As I put my my second foot down, I’m leaning into the slope, which means it’s it’s it’s softening the slope feel. I’m adjusting my gate to balance. But if I come in high foot first, like the slope’s got much gravity is working a lot better. Sure. So, I think the whole flipping around stuff is because people have a preference with which foot they lead with. So, why don’t you step into that for me? I want you to go Yeah. Go left foot first. There we go. And you see how much it pushed you. Yeah. Yeah. Now do it again. Right foot first. There you go. And you probably felt that less the second time. So why don’t we feel all these going high foot first and I want you to be kind of sloppy with that low foot. There you go. Yeah. Definitely like you can feel it. Yeah. For sure. Quite heavy the the lower foot. That’s it. You know, our our our one of our primary functions is to stay upright. Yeah. Yeah. So, what your body does is it changes its gate because of what you’re walking across. Now, what we’re going to we’re going to switch off that balance and say, let let the slope push us, you know, actually we want to be almost toppling. That makes sense. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I see what you’re saying here. So, so that’s that can certainly stop people making poor decisions on slopes. Yeah. But really important, it stops people turning around. So that’s what our pet hates. Yeah. Facing the hole. Cuz when you turn around, you you you I’m going to show you a reading a bit, which means you need to be facing the hole. Okay. All right. Okay. So flat, average, steep, severe. And what we’ll also do in a minute is is I’ll show you my kind of 9 to 20 foot test that will give you evidence based on how good your slopes are. Okay? So we’ll we’ll come along come on to that in a minute. Um, so, so I don’t think slope issues really a problem. I think over there it was where did you measure it? And on those short putts, it’s the amount of measurements you took. Okay. Happy. Yeah. But it’s fine. Like it’s it’ll come. Yeah. I’m I’m sure. It’s an interesting one that like you you probably you’ve done more last week than 95% of all the people wanting to play professionally have done yet you’re kind of looking backwards thinking I want to do a different career. It’s weird, isn’t it? Do you know what I’m saying? Yeah. Like you know you’re in thick of it still, but you probably feel like you’re in the the back end of it. But once this turns around on good and be hopefully I can help you be part of that. Yeah, 100%. Right, read this twice. Short putts. Yeah. Okay. What are you feeling? I feel like one minimal movement left to right. Yeah. Okay. So, we’re going to do things differently. Six foot in. Cool. Okay. So, uh pop your toes level with the ball. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to So that’s a new read by the videos. This is going to be the start of your short putt training, right? Because to be honest with you, as far as performance goes with putting, it’s it’s it’s as much about doing the right things when you practice as it is having an amazing stroke. Sure. and the the standard five foot circle drill it’s not great because a you get a picture for the break but secondly they’re just five foot putts that seem to have no there’s no jeopardy if you miss one you start again uh and what we’re going to say here is we’ve got three random putts that are all inside six feet okay so they’re all different distances different angles and we’re going to play each of these but the the game is going to be we have to do six sets of three to different holes all over the green. Okay? And if you can get that 18 in a row, then you complete this drill. Okay? So, this would be a even if you get to the fifth set and you miss one, you go back and start again. Cool. Brutal. Brutal, but also um we’ve got to have the pressure because in practice, you’ll just banging fivefooters. Yeah, I agree. Don’t mean anything. And what we’re certainly not doing is putting a mirror down and saying, “Keep doing this. Keep doing this. Keep doing this because that’s just a satisfaction loop. That just makes you feel better about yourself.” Yeah. Um and we’re getting to really understand reads. Okay. Um and we might learn a little bit about your how you visualize putts or we might change a little bit to do with what you’re doing in a process manner. Sure. Uh okay. So start with that one there. And it’s always the two fields. Okay. Felt like a two. Okay. So, everything’s toes at ball. Yeah. Okay. And now we will play that. So, go. Cool. From the inside. Always from the middle. Everything is from the middle of the cup. Cool. Good. Okay. Good speed. Middle of the cup. The number must be good. Yeah. Yeah. So, it’s there’s your kind of feedback there. Okay. So, let’s go into this one. Now, the thing about that new read I showed you, you don’t need to know the length of the putt cuz now we’re using the fingers again that the distance you are from the hole takes care of the angle. Yeah. So, everything 3 to six feet, you’d use that new read. Yeah. And you don’t have to say like we used to use a chart, didn’t we, with at 6T it breaks 2 in. Problem with that is people were thinking 6T was 5 foot and they’d miss high. True. Or vice versa. Yeah. No one really measures out. No. And and the problem is it’s another thing to get wrong. The reason the express system works so well is because the distance is fairly irrelevant. It’s taken care of by the angle from the fingers. Yeah. So, one thing you don’t have to know is how long is the part because then you can’t get it wrong. Yeah. And I think that’s one thing with aim points. People don’t realize that that we’re just taking away another number that could be miscalculated. Okay. So, I got one there. Cool. This is uh inside the cup. I think I must have on the last if I got a one I aimed it on the edge. Miss I think you must have had too much arm bend. Yeah. Yeah. Good. And one thing we’ll do today is say, how do you test your arm bend? Yeah, that would be that would be really really good. Good. Okay, made it. But it’s high side again. So, so what I would do if I was playing today and I was you would start straightening my arm. Okay. I I I would use those three putts to say to me, “My arm bend must be a bit too much.” Sure. And and do you know what? That’s what that’s the sort of feedback loop we should be tapping into. By now, you should go, okay, I’ve made I’ve made those two putts, but I’m definitely high side of middle. Yeah. So, with this next read, straighten it out. Straighten your arm out. Cool. And this should be happening in play as well. Yeah. Like we would also use that for uphill downhill, aggressive putts, lag putts. You know, if you got a if you’ve got a big breaking putt, the last thing you want to do is be aggressive. Yeah. Some putts you can there’s a green light and some are a bit more amber and it down to the hole. Mhm. So I feel just the one here. Yeah. Okay. Well, that didn’t break that much. That’s interesting part. Yeah, that didn’t break a huge amount. So one or two is a decent number. Sure. But but a two if you if if it’s a one and you play two, it can still go in. Yeah. Like it shouldn’t have missed by as much as it did. Yeah. So I’m going to say that’s possibly a bad putt. Now whether that bad putt was caused by bad aim, I think it’s bad. I tend to I think I struggle aiming this like a line to be honest. Well, well, should we should we should we stay on this for the moment then? Cuz you remember I talked to you about the visualization aspect. I think this is this is probably time for us to say what’s available. Yeah. Because if you put the line down wrong Yeah. then you’re in trouble. Sure. If your putter doesn’t match the line, you’re in trouble. Yeah. If you get over the ball and the line looks wrong, you’ve now got a potential to manipulate. So, the thing about line on ball is it never looks right. And that’s why you use a line cuz your eyes aren’t good at aiming. Yeah. So, what we have to say is if you got be really bloody minded if you use a line that you stand over and go, “This is what I’m doing.” And I’m not sure that’s the case right now. No. So, let me just grab my chalk pen and I’m going to show you a little drill we can do right here. So, so what we’re going to do there is we’re going to investigate um visuals. Okay. We’re going to investigate can we get you comfortable over a putt um and not have our subconscious or instincts trying to derail us. Yeah. So, so we played a one, right? Yeah. So, just set up your one again as in as in the the the aim point read. That’s it. And just tell me where it has us aiming. Somewhere there. Yeah. Okay. So, so we have got a couple of things available to us here. We could have a straight line from the ball to the teg, but also we have a thing called the drop point. And the drop point is a spot in this putt where we can measure exactly where it will be. Y but we have to use aim point to figure out a drop point. Yeah. Now, the apex moves too too far this way and that way. It’s quite random, but the drop point is pretty much always at 2/3. Yeah. It’s a nice safe area for us to measure. And it’s like it’s in between the apex and the straight line to the cup. Right. Exactly. In between the aim point and this halfway between them. So, if you hold up the shaft and draw a straight line to your teg. Uh, yep. Okay. What we’ll do is you tell I’m going to put a white dot on that. Yep. Is that good? Yeah, that’s good. How about that? And then tell me when we’ve got a white dot directly between the ball and the hole. That’s perfect. Okay, there we go. You’ve done this before. It’s always a good day when it starts that easy. So, what we’ve created there is where we would want the ball to be where we want the ball to be at that stage in the park. So, this is this is a bit more like that draw shot you’re going to hit where you picture a shape and you create the shape. Yeah. through body position or swing path, whatever. So, think of this as more creativity like this. The line is just bang, I’m following that line. Don’t like it. Could it be wrong? Who knows? But let’s say here the game is going to be aim where you want. All right? So, it’s I’m going to take this away. Don’t overthink your aim address. Okay? But figure out how you’re going to get the ball between those two dots. Okay? And as you look at it, what’s the feedback? Um, as I look at this, it looks like I’m going to have to keep the pace up a bit to do the results. So, it looks low. It looks low to me. Yeah. Beautiful. Okay, let’s test it. [Music] Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. So, this is the funky thing about this is cuz even when I set up to that, it was like it looked like to get the ball between those dots, I was going to miss left all day. Um, you know, and it’s it’s kind of pe it when I put that down and you looked at it and it looked wrong, that meant that your brain was considering what’s right even though you probably weren’t tapping into that in the process. Yeah. So the thing is I think people actually are figuring out where it will be putting two and two together and getting five. So we might as well add that to our routine because it’s correct and get used to it being correct. I think also if I had a line here it would have seemed even more low. Yeah. And that’s just extra confusion. So I don’t Yeah, that was that was very interesting cuz I wasn’t expecting that. Wasn’t it good? That’s what we like to hear. So, so why don’t we set up a little drill here to this disc? Okay. Um, and we’re back to another routine. Like we, one of the things we we talked about earlier was how do you practice? How do we get the most out of practice? And what are you going to do that’s specific to making you the world’s best putter? Well, this would be one of those drills. And if you could just go into this part and get me two numbers to this, that’s it. So, that feels Yeah. two. Okay. So, it’s it’s double that one. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, at least I’d say it’s a bit more than two. Well, let’s play. I wasn’t putting words in your mouth then. Maybe. Um, let’s play two and a half. Sure. Yeah. Um, so that’s it. You’ve already got that read down. So, see, we’re going to go here. And then what we do is I would just drop that finger and play the the middle of that knuckle cuz that gives you your Yep. your two and a half. Okay. Tell me where this goes. Yep. like that. Yeah, that’s my party trick. We don’t get where we are today without knowing. That’s crazy. Okay, now draw the straight line to that teg. Okay, about here. Uh just a bit inside that. Yep. Okay. So, there’s our outside number. There’s our dead straight. Um yep, a bit inside. Uh, so inside, inside. Yeah, that’s good. Okay. So, now we’ve got our the aim point and our dead straight line. And whilst we’re at it, okay, if you look at this, this could be your line almost dead weight. But the thing is, you you couldn’t go below that. Yeah. Sorry, that. And not make the P without hitting it about 4T past. So, you know, the whole kind of hit it high and soft, low and hard, it’s it’s a fractional change. It’s not really a good habit to take the high line and the low line and explore speeds. Let’s play every speed one foot past. Sure. Which means the middle of that is your correct line, but also you got a little buffer there cuz if you start it a fraction high and you’re lucky enough to lose a bit of speed, you’ll make it. If you start it a fraction low and you’ve hit it a bit harder, you can make it. So, the other thing about performance is if we stay in that nice corridor, we can we can we can error off off it and still make putts. Like if you if you want to be an aggressive putter, then the low line’s good for you, but as soon as you start a fraction high, you’ve missed. Yeah, it’s true. I like the idea of sometimes you hit them hard, sometimes you hit them soft unintentionally. I’ve always been on the side of softer. Yeah. And just trickling them in. And well, the hole’s bigger. Yeah. If it’s going 6 to 12 in past. Sure. You know, anything shorter imperfections knock it off line. Anything longer than a foot and the entrance to the hole shrinks rapidly. Cool. Okay. How does that look? This looks like it’s going to be easier to get through Cool. than it was to get it through the Good. So, when it’s a slightly bigger break, we actually are more comfortable with curve. Yeah. Beautiful. And and here’s the next thing. Most of your tournament golf, it’ll be fairly flat around the hole. Yeah. So, the ones that you’ve disliked the most are the ones you’re going to be faced with under Sure. pressure situations. So, so you know, like a lot of time on a flattish area getting used to seeing it. And you know what? It’ll this will look very comfortable practicing. Then you’re getting your first event. It’ll look low. We’ve got to commit. Sure. And then you’re up and running. Yeah. You know, that will happen. You’ll get to a you’ll get in a tournament and go, “Oh, wow. That looks low now.” Yeah. But hopefully you’ve done enough work to say, we go with it. Okay. Good. So, just try to roll it through. And and just there’s no aim assist. It’s just a case of how you going to get it through that gap. What have you got to do to find that area? Perfect. Yeah. Beautiful. And and what’s important here, Pav, is there’s been nothing’s helped you aim. And I haven’t seen a patter and said, “Yeah, but that was aim.” We’re not questioning aim at this stage. Yeah. Happy with the way it’s going. Yeah. Already more comfortable to be. Yeah. Um but I think Yeah. Just getting a system in place to stick to. Yeah. Um would be 100%. You know, we need we need some, you know, just and I do feel like this range for me, like this is more where I struggle, you know, more so than the short putts. Like totally my approach play is my strength. The last round on Sunday, my strokes getting two uh approach was plus four. Wow. And like I just, you know, so this for me is like where like my ball striking is my strength like five miles. But that that’s why you could afford to putt bad and still make the cut and do okay. Yeah. And and the problem with that is it’s it’s your ball strike has to be exceptional to to to make the cuts. Yeah. And what we need is we we when you’re exceptional and you put decent, we should be top 10. Winning. Yeah. Winning. Honestly, you know, it’s it’s the problem for you is it’s like soon as you don’t hit it that great. Yeah. It’s going home. Well, yeah. cuz I had one bad I guess somewhat poor ball striking round in round three, but then my ping was minus four and then I kind of blow myself out the tournament like moving day in the wrong direction. Here’s six balls and they are from 9 to let’s say 20 ft. So this is this is the this is the best performance drill I’ve got at the moment for understanding everything that’s going on. Yeah. And this is a drill that I would like you to do like three four times a week if you’re practicing most days. And there’s a couple of reasons for this. One of them is it’s going to give us a handicap on our slope field. So the question is how good are you at numbers? This is the only way to test find out and keep a record. So it’s going to give you like a handicap if you like for your slope field. Secondly, it’s a it’s a pressure test. This is this is six birdie putts and it will hopefully it will resonate with your competitiveness and say yeah, how many of these can you make? It’s also birdie putts. It’s not a pass. It’s not just a 15 foot par. These represent birdie chances so we can create a little bit of that kind of excitement if you like. Y um and I want to separate par from birdie. Sure. Cuz people don’t treat the putts the same. No. Now what I will say is is let’s treat that as putt number one. Okay. And what I want you to do is tell me how long is the putt. Okay. And which is the what slope are we going to use for this putt? Okay. So, go into your read and I’m going to create a little chart in my phone for you. Okay. I got 12T. Yeah. Got two and a half now. See, we’ve gone straight to the line. Oh, shoot. So, we’re going to lose the line. But I tell you what we are going to do. And this is a little bit bigger than what I’d normally use. I’ll probably use a little white ball marker as a rule. But once you’ve got your read, hold up the shaft to your aim point. Yeah. So then put this where the drop point is. Yeah. Now imagine the straight line. Yeah. And then I’m going to put the disc in as a a visual. Perfect. First time. So now it’s a a game of play it through that area, you know, and and and you know, you’re stood back here. I want you thinking about what’s it going to feel like to get it out over that disc at a speed of the hole. You know, that whole kind of visualization and feel part comes in. Yeah. Um and then we’ll go. Cool. Cool. Okay. Okay. So, that started higher. Yeah. Quite a lot higher. Yeah. Quite a lot. Now, if it hits the disc, where does the ball finish? In the cup. There we go. So, it’s a good chance that the read’s spot on. Yeah. But my aim or stroke. Yeah. Aim or stroke. But tell you what, would you change the number? No. Right. Good. So, it’s just a missed putt. Yeah. If we if it did something very different to what we felt, I would say go and feel it again. Yeah. But I’d also say you’ve got five more chances. Sure. It’s almost like don’t overthink, what did I do wrong? No, I think that was good. I just started it a bit left. There you go. And it doesn’t mean this one has to feel like it starts right. No. Yeah, of course. What we do is we just go into that’s a missed opportunity. Yeah. And if I put into notes, uh, left miss, we’ll we’ll look for patterns. Sure. Afterwards. So, what we need to do is secondly work out what the real numbers are when we finished. Yep. And then we’ll look if there’s any correlation to your performance. Okay. Um, okay. Let’s go. Same again. Yeah. And now use the right side of the shaft. Yep. And can you visualize on your own where that ball will be at that 2/3 point? Yeah. Right. So there’s your there’s your some people see a white line yellow you know think of that Tiger Woods. I’m just visualizing a disc there. Really perfect to be honest. So now let’s play a game of hit it through that window. Good. Okay. So one half a% and the distance was 12 1/2 ft. Okay. So, I’m going to put that into the into the list. Half a percent. We’re going to write in here made. Sure. Okay. And what we can also do is we can add a strokes gain to practice afterwards because I think when you look at strokes gain, it tells you deficit or credit. We don’t know what band it is. And I want you to start thinking of putts in par save. Yeah. From chip shots, par save from long two putts. birdie putts because you might find that there’s a pattern there as well. Yeah. You know, if you’re losing strokes gained, it could be just because your second putts are bad and that might mean the first putt has to get better. Yeah, for sure. Um if you have a lot of fivefooters, you will miss some because well, six foots are two in three make on tour. So for every three sixfooter you give yourself, theoretically you miss one. Yeah, it’s crazy. Now, if you have a lot of sixfooters, you know, you end up missing putts. Yeah, for sure. And the quickest way to not have sixfooters is chip it closer, first putt closer. Yeah. Or be incredible with ball striking. But most of your short birdie putts will come from second putts on par fives or chip shots on short par fours. Okay. We might hit one iron inside 6T around. Okay. Sis, what do you reckon that is? 9 and 1 half to 10t. Okay. That’s a 9 foot. Maybe 9 foot again. I think this is like a half from the left. Not much. Okay. I don’t feel much. This disc I can see. Yeah. Just there. Okay. So, that’s interesting. What number did you go with again? I went with half. Okay. So, 0.5 again. And we will investigate afterwards what we think. Okay. Yeah. So, don’t don’t overthink that. It certainly didn’t move much. No. Okay. Let’s have the next three. We’ve got 15 ft. Yep. a good strength for you. Cool. Okay, next one. There is a a little pattern emerging there. Left misses. Yeah, it’s 13 ft or so. 12 and a half. Okay. So, that’s interesting. I think that was good. Just wrong speed. Wrong speed. Yeah. Uh, sometimes a bit of frustration potentially. A little bit of hold it up. Don’t go left because the brain says there’s a left miss in there. 10 foot. Okay. It’s about 2 and 1 half I think. [Music] Good. All right. Nice. Okay. So, let’s let’s get some numbers. If I give you the level. Cool. If you could measure this first one for me and just shout out what’s the biggest number you find from both points. Right. Yep. Measure them both and just tell me which is the biggest. Two. Uh, okay. 2.5. Cool. Oh, wow. There we go. It’s a good start. Now, this one. Okay. 0.1 1.6. I’ll tell you what, just measure that there cuz that’s the end of the middle third. Okay. Not that’s going to change the number much, but it’s a good habit for you to get into. Um, you tend to you tend to measure early and late. Okay. Oh, so that’s too early, right? Yeah, that’s it. That’s perfect. 4. Mhm. Five. [Music] Nice. 1.2. Yeah. 1.2 is the biggest one there. 2.4 [Music] 2.6 3 2.6. Um the first one should be measured about here. Right. Okay. So this is the legend. We’ve got we’ve got the numbers that you’ve picked on the left, the real percentage there. We’ve got notes from uh what happened and the footage there. So, we’re able to to have a what we call a difference. And this is the difference between what you felt and what’s really there. And this is all about your um slope field ability. Now, level par is 3% out. Now, we were look zero and then we were 7 out. Yep. 0.9 as a total. Uh, yep. Yeah. 1.5 out two. So, your slope fields were actually in the elite level bracket. Beautiful. That is not going to be the key area for you to work on. But what I want you to do, see, and see how you feel about your slopes. Suddenly, it’s like, oh, I’m pretty good at that. Yeah. Surprising. So this if you did this three four times a week and we see these numbers regularly you you would believe you have the best slope field out of anyone. And this is this is one of the things we did with Brandon. We got him doing this regularly and he’s like self-confessed best at feeling slopes in the world because he’s got evidence and he’s I think one’s the best he’s ever done. So so setting this kind of course record. I’ve got to beat that. I’ve got to beat that. There we go. Beat that. Then send it to him. And and what I’d encourage is if you look at these, all of these are.5s or solids. So what I say to him is what is it exactly? 2.3, you know, start thinking that you can feel 2.3. Yeah. 2.2. No, 2.2. I’m going because we only need to be half to 1% out and we make the putt still. But if we start tightening it to the fractions and believing we can feel those fractions, you’re Yeah, for sure. your personally you will believe you can feel slopes better. Love this. That’s great. That’s awesome. This is fantastic. And what happens is I’ve given this to players that have been struggling with numbers. 3 weeks later, let’s do some slope feel. Don’t need to. I’m good at it. And you’re like, okay. Seeing that the the only miss really was left is interesting. That’s good. Align with what I’ve seen. Yeah. So now we know there is a technical Yeah. There is a there is a technical thing in there. the left miss and it could be heavy left aim. Yeah. You know, I know we’re being more creative. We could put the drop point in for all these putts, by the way, and see if it changes drastically. It’ be interesting to see well like to compare results with a line without a line. Totally. See, now you’ve got tangible cuz if I am good at sloped, then I think maybe using a line could be good. So, and this is it. Well, they’re totally This is now how you make a decision. Yeah. As opposed to [ __ ] I better do something because it’s not working. Yeah. Right. So, um, that’s all great. Do you have your phone on your pocket? Oh, it’s in my ear. Okay, let’s grab your phone cuz I just want to show you a thing called strokes gain calculator. Um, so, so let’s just let’s just look at that test again. Number-wise, you’re you’re very very good. Now, we could do it in flat areas, steep areas, and I suggest you kind of move it around and and challenge yourself to see if you can get see if you can beat that 1% out. Um, three would be functional, but below three is an elite level. So, now that we’ve got those numbers, not that you need to worry about numbers, but we also have an area where you can train numbers. Yeah. And here’s the thing, they’re not just nice numbers in a straight line. 1 2 3 4 5. These are.5s, 2s, left to right, right to left, uphill, downhill, optical illusions, shadows. You’ve now got the real world, which is there’s other stuff that Yeah. goes on. So, let let’s play those putts again. And what I’d want you to do is to come and refill this one. And as you refill it, you said 2.5, it’s a 2.5. Good. Just refill it and say that is a 2.5. Yeah. Okay. So, play your 2.5. We’re going to We’re going to go drop point first. Okay. And if you connect your shaft to the to the aim point. Yeah. Happy. Ready to put on. Okay. So, let’s let’s see what it’s like having a nice solid drop point. There we go. So, so you know, you talk we sort of started say you could reintroduce the line. I’m not sure. Maybe it’s just getting better at hitting that spot there. Yeah, for sure. Um or maybe when you stood over it earlier, you went, “Wow, there’s a massive slope there. The greens, you know, probably didn’t trust it.” Didn’t trust it. That’s more important to me as than what’s the best way of lining your ball up. Yeah. For me, this there’s a massive slope there. There’s a They’ve cut the green this way on the fringe. All that goes to make it look like there’s a big slope. Yeah. But at the end of the day, the golden rule is the ball only knows what it touches. Sure. It’s not touching that or that. So it doesn’t affect it, but it does affect your eyes. So yeah, that I mean that felt a lot easier with obviously with something there. It’s like that’s it. So So what we do is we remind ourselves how good we are at putting with the the with the indicators and then we learn to take them off on the golf course. Yeah. Okay, let’s do that next one. Okay, this is 1.2. So keep working out where that 1.2 is. Okay, let’s play the roll it through that point. [Music] Awesome. Cool. Speed a bit off, but that Yeah, you wouldn’t take the start line back, would you? No, that was good. That was very good. Two from two. Yeah. That’s crazy. I feel like with this um with the drop point there. Yeah. I definitely feel like I’m aiming lower like on all the parts. So, I think that’s something I need to get over. Right. Totally. And and and like and that was similar on that putt there, right? When I thought it was really low. And what happen is you’ll get in the tournament and then the first one comes up and it looks low and you’ve got to commit. You got to realize that you see it. I think just the more I use this even on the course when I’m playing it. Yeah. Use these. Yeah. Like in your practice rounds, put the white discs down. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s just a case of getting confident and believing and creating a robust system. Okay. This is a half. You actually got this one correct? Yeah. Good. Beautiful. Perfect. Right, the next one was 1.2. So, let’s find that 1.2. Don’t feel this one as well as the other ones. Okay. I think I know why. Because it’s quite steep uphill. So, when you’re on this one, you’ve got influence in your heels and and and aim points very much side to side. So there’s a note to self. Uphill putts, spend a bit more time practicing them, getting better numbers. You you might create this test could be all uphill. Yeah. You know, it’s like now you’ve got a focus point. You’ve actually got a a an area to go to to get good at. I would have this a little lower. Yeah. Yep. Perfect. I just pulled that straight off the face. There’s our left. Yeah. Yeah. Now, that’s the first left in this run of putts. Yeah. Um and I would say there’s something to to look at there. Yeah, for sure. So, I mean, there’s there hasn’t been one that’s missed right. So, uh No. So, let left miss seems to be a cons a consistent miss for you. Let’s just see you hit a couple on that again. And again, good. At least you’re consistent. Should we go to the next one? No, just hit a couple on there. I just want to watch a few now. So, this is the time I don’t mind getting into repeating putts. I just want to see where that left miss comes from. I think it’s probably cuz I’m I was aiming that at the drop point. I’m obviously not trying to, but like on a putt like this when I’m trying to hit it through it, I think I’m just aiming at that. Right. Well, we’ve got to think it it’s it’s going to break as soon as you hit it. Yeah. So, putts break as soon as you hit them. So, part of the visualization is is back to that draw shot again. Yeah. It starts right and comes back. So, we’ve got to kind of filter in what we think is acceptable start line to hit that point. Maybe you got too quick on the process potentially. And I do think like this is where potentially a line would help me. Yeah. On maybe it’s just on right to left. I don’t know. Like or or we just went or you didn’t spend enough time visualizing it. Yeah. Perhaps you know you’ve got cuz I did struggle to aim this on even both of them. I think I aimed them without trying to. I aim them both at the at the drop point. So, but I I know it needs to be like at least what a foot out. Yeah. Yeah. Um there you go. Yeah. Much better. Much better. It It could have been too quick through the routine and not enough visualization. Yeah. It could be a a technical error or a line on the ball could could save you. But I’m I’m I’m leaning away from the line at this stage. Sure. To be honest with you. Yep. I’m I’m I’m No, cuz they’ve all been pretty good still. Totally. And I want you to feel freer. Yeah. I really feel like having the ability to kind of be more more creative with your putts is going to be good for you. Yeah, for sure. Was this a two? This was a 2.6. Okay. And you missed this one long. So you under red by 6 and you instinctively hit it aggressively. Yeah. So that that’s another speed can be affected by read and what you think should happen. Yeah. So taking control of that might stop a few speed issues. Yeah, that’s pretty perfect spot on. All right. Now play it over it. work out how we’re going to get it over that spot. There we go. So, so we we’ve made four. Yes. Three or four? We made four. We made all but Yeah, we all but one. We’ve made two more than last time. You’ve still got a putt less. So, we’re gaining two strokes. Yeah. And now you’ve And you’ve got another putt to go to gain three. Yeah. Now, that makes a bit of difference, isn’t it? Uncharted territory here. I love it. Let’s hold this. And we haven’t done much. No. Well, we’ve done a lot. We have, but but but we haven’t changed you much. And I think that’s what I would find most exciting about this is is all the all the pieces are there. Yes. The the left. Let’s watch the left, but let’s not jump to conclusions like that. That’ll be six, seven rounds in. Yeah. You know, you watch that and let me know. Yeah. That’s very much uh I’m not I’m not overthinking that right now. And when I’m looking at you set up and hit putts, I don’t see a glaring what’s left. I’m not overly fussed. Yeah. It’s just one putt as well. At the end of the day, in six rounds time, if if it’s the most common, then that’s when we get the the systems out and we’ll check some data. But until then, it’s sure it’s not a thing till it’s a thing. Agreed. You know, I mean, that’s how I work. Yeah. Okay. This is a three. Well, that’s a I know it’s going to be a good day when I get them right first time. Right now, just just figure out how you’re going to get it over it. Figure out what you’re going to do to get it over that spot. bit firm. Yeah. Not dreadful and a little bit high. Yeah. I’d rather that than one that dives left, but it didn’t go left. Yeah. So, he’s always got a chance kind of. Yeah. And and and I don’t mind repeating a couple of these now. Is that halfway between dead straight and the aim point? I think it’s probably a bit high. I think so too. Looking at that. Just hold up the shaft for me. Yeah. I’ll just do that again. Yeah. I mean that maybe me putting it down wasn’t right. Or or is it good? No, I think it’s a little little high. Yeah. Okay. So So let’s hit a couple and just figure out how we’re going to get it over that spot. Close now. Arm bend. Too much. Yes. Let’s get a little bit more. Oh, yeah. Well, then that then this is like quite a bit high. All right. Cool. Perfect. There we go. Cool. So then I guess this is the final thing just how and and it’s been great and then as the slopes increased it just crept in there. Yeah. So maybe that you just got to stay on top of that not being a turns into a how you manage the under readads of the past. Yeah, if that makes sense. Yeah, for sure. Cuz you two wrongs will make a right. You think it’s a two and you do that and it goes in. Yeah. Now I I that’s not a consistent long-term plan, but it does get you out of jail every now and then. Yeah. Um now getting this right, we we changed our arm extension over there, and I think it’s just crept back to more bend. Um, and then in terms of like, you know, when I when you’re changing courses, green speed, and like how we can this all out as well, but like how would I Yeah, I’m going to send you a uh a prompt card, we call them. It’s where you measure a 10 ft putt, and I’m going to give you the brake values from 3 to 10T. Okay? And what you do is you stick tegs for an eight stimp and a 14 stimp. And you just kind of work through them until we’re hitting the target. Okay? And once you know which is the right teeg, then you’ll move your arm to fit that. But um you will need when you go to a tournament to start with your arm arm bend prep. And you know I guess that’s another subject, isn’t it? Tournament prep. 100%. 100%. You know that was that’s that is another thing we should cover as well. But but this was I think very good. Get back into it. Yeah. Get back on the horse. Get back on the horse. create some understanding, you know, just just sort of size it all up. Yeah. And make a plan for sure. And and obviously set some goals. Yeah. So your goal is full playing rights. Yeah. My goal Well, yeah. Q score at the end of the year. Beautiful. Get a full card back. Beautiful. I mean, we have to have that goal cuz cuz then all the every all the drills we do and the kind of levels of testing has to be set to PJ tour winner. Yeah. Because average probably isn’t good enough. No, it’s not like tour school. You need to the stats have to be better than average. Yeah. So all of our drills in our tests want to be set. The bar needs to be higher. Yeah. And for even for Q school, like getting a card, I don’t want like 20th place card. Like I want to get one of the top ones. So get into every event. Um why not? And until then, if I get starts wherever like the goal is just to win. I love it. to gain if I gain strokes putting for the tournament, I should have a chance of winning every week. So, well, I’d like to help you uh follow that path to be fair. Yeah, we’ll be able to do that. I’m like, this is already making me feel a lot more confident about my putting. That’s what that’s the key, right? It’s like, let’s get let’s let’s how do we make you think you’re the best putter out there? Yeah. You know, and there will come a time we should check the technical, but it’s just not on my radar right now. We could put you straight on a capto and sand part and tell you what you’re doing wrong, but it’s it might not be relative to performance. Yeah. You no one does anything perfectly. In fact, a perfect stroke is bad. Yeah. If you can’t really agree or control speed. Yeah. Exactly. Sometimes having a little bit of a problem plus a speed issue actually is successful. Not four days in a row, but
1 Comment
Really enjoyed this video with Pavan (awesome player btw)
Let me know if you have any AimPoint questions!