Missing the AimPoint

Last week, Lucas Glover made waves in our very little corner of the golf nerd world when he suggested banning AimPoint because it slows down pace of play and is also “rude.” Glover was on his radio program and appeared to be reading off some scattershot notes on his phone about how to improve pace of play, among them, getting rid of the kid standard bearers who can get in the way in an age of digital scoring. He was rolling. But the Aimpoint comments, a practice used by so many of his peers on the PGA Tour, were certainly not going to drift off with the vapors unanswered.

Collin Morikawa came to the plate first on Tuesday at the Genesis Invitational. When asked he responded, “I have nothing against Lucas, but if we’re banning AimPoint I think we should ban long putters as well.”

This league! I love it. The response is in bounds, for sure, as Glover set the terms of engagement. The praise quickly followed, with conclusions that Morikawa had “bodybagged” Glover. The only problem is that his answer, while amusing and fun for social media, is a complete non sequitur. Maybe long putters should be banned, and I welcome Morikawa taking up that cause. But Glover’s (aim)point was on pace of play, not any sort of legality question or an advantage like anchoring. He wants AimPoint banned as a pace problem. Morikawa did add some terse comments about how AimPoint can slow things down if “not done properly.” But he did not really address Glover’s argument and certainly didn’t with the quip on banning long putters. I’m also not sure how much hard evidence Glover had for his own argument on the radio program. He can be countered, probably, and Morikawa didn’t really do that despite the claims of a takedown and “bodybags” and “daggers” and owns.

It’s fun. I like fun. But maybe they should hash it out with real arguments. Maybe we do end up banning both! Shouting about how one owned the other with a non-responsive argument gets in the way of any real discourse.

This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.