“It really drives me crazy,” veteran sportscaster Jimmy Nantz had said when talking about what is a sticking point in the PGA Tour—or more specifically, the AimPoint, which players used to judge the variations on the green. While many golfers have agreed to disagree with Nantz on the seemingly controversial method that helps players read the incline, decline, and speed of the green to improve accuracy and pace of the putt, looks like former golfer and commentator Brandel Chamblee is going to stay put in his peer’s corner. But before we dive into that…

Why all this sudden commotion surrounding AimPoint? Well, the controversy rekindled when South Korean US Women’s Open champion Kim A-lim used AimPoint roughly 1 foot from the hole during the third round of the Honda LPGA Thailand, igniting a debate on social media. On one hand, 2009 US Open champion Lucas Glover pointedly opined, “It needs to be banned.”

However, 2020 PGA Championship victor Collin Morikawa hit back, saying, “I don’t think people understand how AimPoint works to really say this is right or wrong. Does it slow down play? I think there are some players that maybe do it in the wrong spots…I have nothing against Lucas, but if we’re banning AimPoint, I think we should ban long putters as well.” However, amid this, we couldn’t help but recall that Nantz had already cited his issues with the method in October last year.

Interestingly, the sportscaster has always believed that it is nothing more than mumbo jumbo. The reporter has observed players waste a lot of time applying the method before ending up missing the putt. “It really drives me crazy when you see their backs to the hole, and they’re trying to feel the break, and they walk another five feet and they do it again,” he had said. His claims were proven true a few days ago—again—when Aaron Rai went through the entire process at the Mexico Open. After spending 3-4 minutes trying to judge the green using AimPoint, Rai failed to score the putt on the 8th hole in the final round of the event. That cost him a bogey and dropping down to 2 strokes below the top of the leaderboard.

And now, another analyst has provided some interesting date that supports Nantz’s claims. The conversation began when caddie Kip Henley started a poll on X on February 23, writing, “Putting has gotten worse on the PGA Tour the last few years because”.

The four poll options were, “Guys just forgot how”, “Greens are not as good”, “Biden was POTUS”, “1,000 guys stomping around.” While the last option received the maximum number of votes (46%), one social media user took it a notch higher by tagging Chamblee, and writing, “Do the stats support this?”.

A few hours later, Chamblee replied with a lengthy tweet, “Yes, they do. On average players putt worse/make fewer putts over the last five years (2019-2024) than they did the first five years (2004-2008) of measurement and from every distance : 4-8 feet, 10-15, 15-20, 20-25 and >25 feet.” This confirms that the average golfer has gotten worse at putting in the past couple of decades. Chamblee further added that the stats are worse…

“This despite improvements in agronomy, green reading books (since banned) improved putting diagnostic tools, video, more prevalent putting coaches and increased use of aim-point. The reason for the decrease in putting success could be tougher hole locations on more slope, although I haven’t noticed this to be the case, more likely to me is either the areas around the hole are more chewed up because of increased shuffling around the hole due to green reading histrionics or players are simply overthinking reads,” he said before concluding…

“To which I always go back to this putt by Jack Nicklaus as an example of the intuitive process players have based upon decades of experience.”

Top Comment by Nogolfpro

Professional golfers are quirky and routine oriented and always looking for a way to cut strokes especially putting. I don’t...more

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He also shared a video of Nicklaus showing off his exceptional ability to read the green. Johnny Miller faced a near-impossible 50-foot putt at the 77th KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. Nicklaus, who was paired with Miller, walked up to the spot, threw the ball on the green, and took 10 seconds to hit an unbelievable stroke. The ball swung like a pendulum from right to left and dropped into the cup as the crowd roared for the GOAT.

Nicklaus’ putt was truly magical. But not everyone can match the ability of the Golder Bear. But, what Chamblee was trying to point out was that it is only a question of ability and skill. According to him, the quality of putting has drastically dropped in the last few years. But is this a proven fact? Let’s take a look at the numbers from the past.

Have golfers gotten worse at putting in the last few years?

More recently, there have been a few players who have been really bad at short-range strokes and putts. Plane Truth Golf shared a post on Instagram back in 2022, showing the decline in the average putting percentage from 2004 to 2021. The difference in the average from various distances is not more than 2%. But, considering that the figures are for every golfer on the PGA Tour, it is still alarming.

“Interesting that putting has declined across the board on the PGA Tour given better training reading greens and detailed green books. Perhaps green speeds are faster and hole locations more difficult. What is your explanation for this?” the caption read, while the post showed a pointed difference between the two years, decades apart.

For 4-8 feet, in 2004, the figure was 70.65 and in 2021, that reduced to 68.73. Consequently, for 10-15 feet, in 2004, it was 31.35, while in 2021, it was 30.19. And then there was 15-20 feet, for which 2004 showed a figure of 19.08, and in 2021, that was 18.54. Moving on, for 20-25 feet, 13.25 was the number for 2004, and 12.43 for 2021. And last, but not the least, for the 25+ feet range, in 2004, the last showed the number to be 5.78, while for 2021, that’s gone down to 5.48.

Looks like using AimPoint might be hurting golfers, as opposed to what many think. In the end, an experienced player should be able to rely on their own skills, abilities, and intuition more than a generalized process that might or might not be suitable for them.

Having said that, do you think PGA Tour pros who use AimPoint deserve to be criticized by Nantz and Chamblee? Share your views in the comments section.