You've probably seen Dustin Johnson standing over his putts this week at The Players Championship, flashing two or three fingers in the direction of the ball as he reads it at TPC Sawgrass
What appears a bizarre gesture is giving Johnson a better idea on where the putts will go and how they'll break.
What Dustin Johnson is doing with his fingers is called AimPoint Express. It's a tactic used by players who subscribe to the AimPoint system of reading greens.
AimPoint is based entirely on using your feet to understand the slope of putts on the greens. A player is to go toward the midpoint of their putt, stand hovering over it and feel the slope. From that reading, which a player has to learn how to do, then they know the slope of putts.
Depending on what you calculate as the slope of the greens, you use your fingers to determine a spot to aim the ball with your putt. For example, if it's 2 percent, then you use two fingers to pick the spot left or right of the cup, again based on the slope you feel with your feet. If there was more pressure on his right foot, the putt would go right -- the amount of pressure would dictate how much. Likewise on the left foot.
If you'd like to learn how to read greens like Dustin Johnson, you can attend an AimPoint Express Reads seminar.
