Reading greens can feel more like guesswork than skill, but the AimPoint system gives you a reliable process to find the correct line, time after time. It's the secret weapon used by pros like Adam Scott, Dustin Johnson, and Stacy Lewis to turn confusing breaks into simple aim points. This guide will break down exactly how to use the popular AimPoint Express method, giving you a clear, repeatable process to sink more putts and lower your scores.
First, let’s be clear about what AimPoint is - and what it isn't. AimPoint is a green-reading system, not a putting stroke methodology. It doesn’t tell you how to grip the putter or swing it. Instead, its sole purpose is to help you accurately predict the amount of break on any given putt. Essentially, it teaches you to turn the "art" of green-reading into a simple, reliable science.
Most amateur golfers stand behind the ball, look at the hole, make an educated guess, and hope for the best. AimPoint replaces that guessing game with a process. The “Express” method, which we’ll cover here, is the simplified version made famous on tour. It relies on using your sense of feel to measure the slope of the green and your fingers to give you a specific spot to aim at.
The beauty of this method is its consistency. It removes the doubt and second-guessing that plague so many golfers on the green. When you have a system you trust, you can step up to the ball, commit to your line, and make a confident stroke.
Before diving into the steps, it helps to understand the fundamental idea behind AimPoint. Every putt on a sloping green is trying to break toward one specific line: the "fall line," or what is often called the "zero line." This is the line of a dead-straight putt directly up or down the slope of the hill. If you were to pour a bucket of water onto the green, the path it would take is the fall line.
Your putt will always break away from the high side of the fall line and toward the low side. AimPoint is a tool that helps you do two things:
By learning to feel the side-slope, you are quantifying how much your putt will break. The system works because gravity is a constant. A 2% slope will always break the ball the same amount under the same green speed conditions. Your job is simply to learn how to identify that 2% slope with your feet.
Okay, let's get into the practical application. Learning AimPoint Express takes some practice, but the process itself is straightforward. Follow these steps on the practice green, and soon you’ll be doing it instinctively on the course.
Your process still starts the way good putting has always started: by standing behind your ball and looking toward the hole. Get a general sense of the landscape. Is the putt generally uphill, downhill, or flat? Does it look like it will break left or right? This initial overview gives your brain context before you start using your feel.
This is the most important part of the entire process. To get an accurate feel for the side-slope, walk to a spot that is approximately halfway between your ball and the hole. This spot gives you the best representation of the slope that will have the most influence on your putt.
Once you’re at that halfway point, stand straddling your putting line. Your feet should be about shoulder-width apart, and you should be facing the hole (or directly away from it). Now, with your knees slightly bent in an athletic stance, do the following:
If you're a right-handed golfer and a putt breaks from right-to-left, you will feel more pressure on the ball of your left foot. If it breaks left-to-right, you’ll feel more pressure on the ball of your right foot. The key is to be still, tune out the visual noise, and just concentrate on what your feet are telling you. This feeling of imbalance is the slope.
Once you’ve identified which foot has more pressure, your next job is to quantify how much pressure you feel. You'll assign it a number, typically from 1 to 5 (though some slopes can feel higher).
At first, this will feel subjective. That's okay! The most important part is calibrating your own personal feel. To do this, go to a practice green with a digital level (you can get an app for your phone). Find a spot, get a reading on the level, then stand there and get a feel for what a 1%, 2%, or 3% slope feels like to you. After a few sessions, you won’t need the level anymore. What feels like a "2" to you will be consistent, and that's all that matters.
Now comes the visual part of the process. Walk back behind your ball. Whatever number you assigned to the slope is the number of fingers you’ll use.
Let’s say you felt a right-to-left break and rated it a "2". Here’s what you do:
For a left-to-right putt, you do the exact same thing, your aim point will just be on the left side of the hole.
You now have your exact aim point. It’s not just a general area on the "high side," but a specific spot that your system gave you. This is your new target.
The final, critical step is to trust it completely. Visualize a line from your golf ball, over that aim point, and watch it curve back toward the cup. Step into your putt, align your putter face to that starting line, and make a confident stroke. Do not come out of the putt to look at the hole - let your beautiful stroke send the ball exactly where you intended.
AimPoint is purely for measuring the side-slope (the break). Speed control, which is affected by uphill and downhill slopes, is a separate skill you need to judge through experience. The important thing to understand is this: the aim point does not change. A right-to-left 2% slope requires the same aim point whether it's uphill or downhill. However, an uphill putt will break less because it's moving slower for a shorter period, while a downhill putt will break more because it's on the green longer. Your pace determines the total break, but your starting line from AimPoint remains your true starting line.
This is where feeling the slope at the halfway point is so valuable. For most putts, that midpoint gives you the dominant break that will affect the ball the most. Keep it simple. Don’t try to calculate two different breaks. Find the average or most significant slope number and trust that outcome. On very long, dramatic double-breakers, you might need to make a slight adjustment, but for 95% of your putts, one reading is enough.
Most players find it best to close their non-dominant eye. This tends to provide the clearest single image. If you're not sure which of your eyes is dominant, you can perform a simple test: form a small triangle with your hands, extend your arms, and center a distant object in the triangle. Close one eye, if the object stays in the frame, that open eye is your dominant one. Experiment on the practice green to see what works best for you and gives you the sharpest target.
Learning AimPoint Express gives you a reliable, tour-proven method to take the uncertainty out of reading greens. By trusting your feel, following a consistent routine, and committing to your line, you can stop guessing and start making more putts. Practice these steps and you’ll build the confidence that only comes from knowing you’ve given every putt its best chance.
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