While the PGA Tour would have been delighted to have seen arguably their biggest name winning their latest event as Rory McIlroy clinched the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for the first time in his career, the issue of slow play once again left a sour taste in the mouth of some viewers.
It has been a frustrating start to the year for the PGA Tour, with slow play overshadowing several of the first handful of tournaments. Fans were unhappy watching The American Express after the final round took the best part of six hours, while it was a similar story at the Farmers Insurance Open.
The PGA Tour are looking to act upon slow play. However, there are concerns that not enough is going to be done given how soft the penalties have been thus far. Some think shot penalties should be handed out much sooner.
Of course, most slow players clearly believe that they are doing what is right for them. And given the money they are playing for, one mistake could definitely prove to be incredibly costly.
Lucas Glover calls for the PGA Tour to issue a ban
But it seems that some players are growing tired of the processes others use out on the golf course.
Speaking on The Lucas Glover Show, Lucas Glover admitted that he is not at all a fan of the technique used by the likes of Keegan Bradley, Collin Morikawa and Adam Scott.
“Aimpoint statistically hasn’t helped anybody make more putts since its inception on the PGA Tour,” he said. “Statistics have bared that out. It’s also kind of rude to be up near the hole, stomping around, figuring out where the break is in your feet. It needs to be banned. It takes forever.”
What Keegan Bradley said about aimpoint
It does seem that aimpoint is quite a divisive way of reading greens – much like anchored putting. Some players clearly feel that it helps them massively, while others would much rather take a more traditional approach on the putting surface.
Interestingly, Keegan Bradley is someone who also suffered because of the ban on anchored putting. But he once suggested that he expected aimpoint to completely transform how players looked at green reading over the coming years.
“Now that I’ve been doing aimpoint, I try not to let my eyes tell me anything,” he said. “I’m telling you, in 10 years, when these younger kids all get out, no one will be reading greens. Zero.”
It is hard to imagine any players being prepared to stomp around the hole and potentially on the line of others. But golf is now in a position where it arguably has to consider anything which is going to speed up rounds, particularly at the very highest level.
If the data seriously suggests that aimpoint does not benefit players, then perhaps there is a debate to be had. However, there are clearly going to be a number of players who disagree with Glover.
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