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Pace of play has been a hot topic of conversation in the world of professional golf, and the green reading strategy known as AimPoint has been frequently cited as one factor that’s causing rounds to drag on. Lim Kim is one of the many golfers who’ve adopted the technique, and plenty of people noticed she took the time to deploy it on a putt that was firmly a gimme.
There’s a ton of money on the line at professional golf tournaments, and when you consider a single stroke can be the difference between hundreds of thousands of dollars, it’s pretty easy to understand why competitors want to take their time to make sure they’re adequately prepared before every single shot.
With that said, many golfers are painfully deliberate to the point where it ends up impacting the pace of play on the course, and that issue has become increasingly hard to ignore as more and more players (and fans) have started to voice their displeasure with the current state of affairs.
Earlier this month, the LPGA announced it will soon start cracking down on slow play by hitting players with penalty strokes if they fail to hit a shot in a timely manner. Lim Kim may not have violated those impending rules during the Honda LPGA Thailand, but she still caught some heat for a pretty unnecessary move before a putt she had no business missing.
There’s no shortage of techniques you can harness to try to read the green before a putt, and some of the world’s best golfers have decided to adopt the one known as AimPoint.
AimPoint was developed by golf pro Mark Sweeney and involves standing near the path of your ball to try to determine the slope of the green; based on your assessment, you hold up your hand to your face and hold up a few fingers corresponding to the perceived grade (e.g.. two for 2%) in order to determine, well, the point you should aim at.
The PGA and LPGA boast plenty of AimPoint adherents, and Kim is among the golfers on a list that also includes Adam Scott, Lydia Ko, and Justin Rose. The method also has plenty of detractors, and Lucas Glover recently said it should be banned while asserting it’s a major contributor to slow play.
AimPoint was once again thrust into the spotlight over the weekend courtesy of Kim, who was seen using it ahead of an approximately one-foot putt during Saturday’s round at the Siam Country Club Old Course before the moment in question was shared by Dottie Pepper in a post where she made it very clear she found it gratuitous.
Kim unsurprisingly made the putt, and while it may have only taken her a few seconds to read it with the help of AimPoint, Pepper’s sentiments were echoed by the likes of retired LPGA golfer Marina Alex and golf influencer Paige Spiranic, with the latter echoing Glover’s aforementioned AimPoint sentiments.
If you’re curious, Kim finished in sixth place at -17 (12 strokes behind winner Angel Yin, who broke the LPGA 72-hole tournament record of 262 strokes with 260) and took home $58,457.