Should You Use A Line to Help Aim Your Golf Ball?
Table of Contents
The Cost of Inaccuracy
The Cost of Inaccuracy – Putting
What Does One Degree Look Like? – Clock Face Visual
How To Aim and Align More Accurately – Golf Ball Alignment Markings
Does AIM Really Work?
Conclusion
FAQs
Introduction – The Cost of Inaccuracy
Although it's played over expansive terrain and though shots travel further than in any other sport, golf is really a game of precision. For example, consider a tee shot. Let's assume that you drive the ball 250 yards total on a solid strike. If you are aimed just one degree right or left of your intended line, the resulting shot will be about 13 feet off-line. This is assuming that you’ve hit a perfectly straight shot where the clubface is square to your swing path.
But consider this – if your clubface is open or closed relative to your swing path, it tilts the spin axis of the golf ball and your shot curves. Imagine that your swing path is perfectly aligned with the center of the fairway. Now imagine that the clubface is one degree open or closed relative to that path. The resulting shot would start a hair left or right of the center of the fairway and then curve further left or right. The resulting shot will be more than 10 yards off-line! On a tight hole (or if your initial aim is a bit off) this could mean the difference between an easy approach shot from the fairway or a much more difficult shot from thick rough.
The Cost of Inaccuracy – Putting
In putting, the results of inaccurate aim can be even more devastating. On a straight 10-foot putt, if the putter face is off by one degree, the ball will miss by about two inches (assuming a putting stroke that is square relative to the face). Given that the hole is 4.25 inches wide and the ball is 1.68 inches in diameter, this will put the center of ball right on the edge of the cup. If you roll the putt with perfect pace, there’s a chance that the ball will catch the edge and drop in. But if you roll the ball with just a little more speed, the ball will catch the edge and lip out.
Consider, however, that you rarely face a 10-foot putt that is perfectly straight. Assuming the hole is cut in a fair location on the green, the maximum slope you’ll find is about a 4% grade (more than that and the ball won’t stay put – it will roll downhill until the slope becomes gentle enough for gravity to halt its motion).
So, let’s say you’re facing a 10-foot putt with 3% slope. Substantial, but not the biggest break you’ll see. And your putt is level, neither uphill nor downhill. With proper pace, on a green that measures 10 on the Stimp Meter, your putt will break about 16 inches, one inch shy of four cups-width.
Choosing the correct line and aiming accurately to a point four cups out is understandably much more challenging than zeroing in on a straight 10-footer. So, consider two likely outcomes:
- (High-side miss) If you start this putt more than four cups out and also misaim the putter face further outside your chosen line, you’re essentially rolling the ball more uphill, into the slope. The ball will break a little less than 16 inches, as the ball is fighting gravity in this scenario and will come to rest sooner than an on-line putt. The ball will come to rest above the hole, leaving a short, but testy downhill putt.
- (Low-side miss) If you start this putt less than four cups out and also misaim the putter face further inside your chosen line, you’re essentially rolling the ball more downhill, with the slope. The ball will break a little more than 16 inches, as the ball is aided by gravity in this scenario, and it will roll for a longer period of time. In this case the ball will break across the face of the hole and keep rolling, potentially leaving an uphill come-backer, but one that is longer than you might like.
And as you can imagine, the effect is more pronounced the longer the length of putt; a 20-foot straight putt will miss by 4.18 inches, double that of a straight 10-footer. But a 20-foot putt on our level, 3% slope will break 38 inches! Any errors in start line and putter face aim will result in even uglier outcomes and increased risk of more 3-putts.
What Does One Degree Look Like? – Clock Face Visual
To put this in perspective, picture a clock face with hashmarks to identify each of the 60 seconds within every minute span:
The second hand of the clock completes a full revolution of 360 degrees every 60 seconds. Therefore, in one second, the second hand moves 6 degrees (360 degrees/60 seconds = 6 degrees per second).
In order to visualise how small one degree is we need even finer hashmark detail:
How To Aim and Align More Accurately – Golf Ball Alignment Markings
We mentioned that the Rules of Golf prohibit nearly all alignment aids during play. However, there is one remarkably helpful aid that you can use, and it’s one that is used by over 65% of tour players who play a Titleist golf ball – a golf ball alignment marking. Titleist Brand Ambassador Brad Faxon is credited with being the first tour player to hand-draw a line on his golf ball (click the video below to hear the story). Brad marked a straight line on his Titleist to help him aim the ball, orient his putter face and body lines correctly and get his ball started on the correct line. This practice helped Brad to become one of, if not the best putter on the planet.
Since Brad’s innovation, Titleist began to explore ways to enhance the sidestamps on our golf balls to provide a true performance benefit. In 2007, Titleist introduced Alignment Integrated Marking (A.I.M.) technology on Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls. The advance was widely embraced and players found that using the A.I.M. marking helped them to not only putt more accurately, but to also get their tee shots started on-target more often.
Fast-forward to today and AIM has evolved and grown. Titleist engineers have continued to consult with dedicated amateur golfers as well as tour players who use alignment aids on their golf ball. They formalised their research and tested a myriad of different marking options, eventually arriving at the wide range of visual design options available today.
Does AIM Really Work?
In the fall of 2024, Titleist R&D developed a measuring device and invited over 200 dedicated golfers to participate in a series of tests to determine if AIM alignment features provided an improvement in alignment precision. Using the device, each golfer was asked to line up a selected sidestamp to the center of a golf hole from distances of four feet, eight feet, twelve feet and sixteen feet. After each attempt, the Titleist device was used to collect data and measure how accurately the player aligned the sidestamp to the center of the cup. The player then repeated the process to compare each ball in the AIM product line to a stock Pro V1 sidestamp.
The entire test was focused on how well golfers aligned their golf balls before rolling a putt. This approach was taken to eliminate errors caused by green surfaces, player strokes, putt speed, and other variables. The findings were undeniable. The results of the test showed that players were consistently up to 35% more precise in aligning their putts when they used an AIM product (Pro V1 AIM Performance, Pro V1 AIM Enhanced, AVX AIM 360° and Tour Soft AIM 360°).
These tests were conducted again recently, when several Titleist creator partners visited the Manchester Lane Test Facility in Acushnet, MA. Mike Madson, Senior Vice President of Golf Ball R&D joined Piers Ward and Andy Proudman of Me and My Golf, Peter Finch and Micah Morris to shed additional light on the findings.
“How do you actually improve performance from an alignment perspective?” Mike asked the group.
“There were two factors that we were looking to measure. The first is accuracy. So, if you generally aim ten degrees off to one side of the cup or the other and I give you an alignment aid that gets you to zero degrees, that's improved accuracy. That would be a good thing, right? For the most part though, people align it fairly well to the cup, on average. Regardless of the particular alignment design.”
Mike then drew the group’s attention to a visual model that he had created on the putting green using a cup and colored string. Mike explained that the angles formed by the string represented dispersion patterns and illustrated the second factor they tested, variability.
“When any golfer has a straight putt,” Mike explained. “They're going to try to align the ball to the dead center of the cup, zero, as best they can. But they're never going to get it to zero every time. They’re going to misaim some to the left and they're going to misaim some to the right. The wedge formed by these green lines represents the variability cone when players aligned a stock sidestamp. Testing showed that this is about plus or minus five degrees.
“When we had players align any of our AIM products, the variability changed to the size of the pink cone. That shrunk the variability down to about plus or minus three degrees. That’s a 35% improvement.
“So, what does that actually mean to the golfer? Given the variability aligning with the stock sidestamp, if you strike the putt exactly as you have it aligned, you’re going to make about seven out of ten putts from four feet. With the variability of any of the AIM products, if you strike the putt exactly as you have it aligned, you’ll make nine out ten putts from four feet. That's pretty significant. If that helps you make a couple extra putts during a round, that to us is a real performance improvement. We can save you a couple strokes purely by helping you align it better to the hole.”
Conclusion
Will a golf ball alignment marking help your game? The short answer is, possibly. But not necessarily. Titleist testing has shown that advanced alignment features can help the majority of players aim and align better. But there are certainly other players for whom an alignment marking can be distracting and who aim and align better without a visual reference on the golf ball.
An alignment marking (whether it’s hand-drawn or applied during the manufacturing process) is simply an option, an additional tool in the toolbox that may help you play better. At the very least, we suggest giving it a try. An AIM marking might just help you to eliminate one wayward tee shot or sink one more putt during your next round.
Click here to learn more and to find the right Titleist AIM golf ball for your game.
FAQs
Is it legal to use a line on a golf ball for alignment?
Yes, it is legal. The USGA and R&A (the governing bodies of golf) have stated that using an alignment marking on the golf ball is permitted under the rules of golf. One important note: you are allowed to use the alignment marking on your golf ball to line up shots on the teeing ground and after you have marked your ball on the putting green. However, you are not allowed to touch and reorient your ball through the green, once you have teed off and put the ball in play.
Should I use a line on my golf ball?
It depends on your preferences and what works best for your game. Testing conducted by Titleist Golf Ball R&D showed that using a Titleist golf ball model with AIM technology improved golfers’ ability to align accurately to their target (the cup) by 35% compared to aligning the ball using the sidestamp on a stock model. Titleist recommends that all golfers experiment with alignment markings, whether they hand-draw their own line or if they choose a Titleist golf ball model with AIM technology.
Why do some players choose not to use an alignment marking?
A majority of golfers find that using an alignment marking helps them aim their golf ball more accurately by providing a visual reference. However, other players can find an alignment marking distracting and/or they find it difficult to accurately orient the alignment mark with their intended line. Titleist testing has shown that AIM alignment designs reduce variability in aim by 35%, so we feel strongly that you should at least experiment with alignment markings. But in the final analysis, you need to feel confident when you stand over the golf ball, whether it’s on the tee, in the fairway or on the green.
Do any tour players use a line on their golf ball to help with aim and alignment?
Yes, over 65% of tour players who play a Titleist golf ball use some form of alignment marking.
Is there a specific way to draw or use a line on the golf ball?
Some golfers use a template or a device to draw a straight line, while others freehand it. Others rely on golf ball models that include alignment designs, such as Titleist AIM products. The alignment markings on products like Pro V1 AIM Performance, Pro V1 AIM Enhanced, AVX AIM 360° and Tour Soft AIM 360° have been rigorously tested and refined and have proven to offer golfers a true performance benefit.
Are there alternatives to using a line on the ball?
Yes, some golfers prefer to focus on other alignment techniques, such as using an intermediate target on the ground or visualizing the ball's flight or roll on the green. Proper aim and alignment are skills that all golfers can develop. An alignment marking on your golf ball is simply another tool that can help you shoot lower scores.