The six-time PGA Tour winner has criticized AimPoint before. His 3M Open gesture turned a pace-of-play gripe into an on-course statement.
Lucas Glover protested the AimPoint putting technique by removing his shoes on the green Sunday during the final round of the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota, turning a routine birdie walk into a visible PGA Tour complaint. Glover removes shoes is not a normal golf sentence, but it was his point: he objects to AimPoint because he says players stomp and feel around near the hole, slow play, and crowd sensitive putting areas.
The scene, reported by Golfweek, gave a long-running rules-and-etiquette argument a memorable image: a six-time PGA Tour winner walking in socks to retrieve his ball. It also raised a practical question for the Tour as Glover’s influence grows: is AimPoint just another accepted method of reading greens, or has it become a pace-of-play problem worth addressing?
A protest in socks
Glover, 45, was paired with Max Greyserman in the final round when the protest unfolded on the 10th hole. After making a 10-foot birdie putt to move to 6 under for the tournament, he removed his FootJoy golf shoes and walked to the cup in his socks.
Golfweek described the move as a protest against the foot traffic around the hole that Glover associates with AimPoint users. He collected his ball, returned for his shoes, and left the green.
The gesture was small in physical terms and loud in symbolic ones. Golf is a sport that treats the green almost like a sacred surface; shoes coming off there made the complaint impossible to miss.
It did not, at least based on the available reporting, prompt an immediate official ruling or Tour discipline. Golfweek also noted that Glover made a triple bogey on the next hole, a detail that added a sharp competitive aftertaste to an already unusual sequence.
Why Glover dislikes AimPoint
AimPoint is a green-reading system that uses feel to help players determine the break of a putt. Instead of relying only on sight from behind the ball and around the line, players using the method assess slope through their feet before deciding how a putt should move.
Glover’s criticism is not new. In comments previously reported by Golfweek from SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio, he argued that AimPoint has not statistically helped players make more putts since its arrival on the PGA Tour. He also called the method rude because players can end up near the hole, feeling out the slope with their feet.
His strongest objection is pace. Glover has said the process takes too long, and that complaint fits into a broader frustration among players and fans who think Tour rounds already move too slowly.
The shoe removal at TPC Twin Cities looked like a literal version of that argument: if feet are going to become central to reading putts, Glover seemed to be saying, then he would make everyone look directly at the feet.
Why AimPoint divides golfers
The debate around AimPoint is not as simple as old-school versus new-school golf. Players are always looking for legal ways to read greens better, and a feel-based system can be attractive because tiny slopes are difficult to judge with the eyes alone.
Supporters of the method would likely argue that green reading is part of the skill of putting, and that if a technique is permitted, players should be free to use it. Golf already allows elaborate pre-shot routines, yardage books, caddie input and detailed preparation. AimPoint sits in that world of marginal gains.
Critics see something different. They see extra steps, extra time and extra foot traffic in a place where courtesy matters. The area near the cup is especially sensitive because every player in the group still has to finish the hole.
That tension explains why Glover’s protest traveled beyond one putt. It was not about whether one player likes another player’s routine. It was about whether a popular putting system fits the pace and etiquette expectations of PGA Tour golf.
The pace-of-play pressure
Pace of play has become one of professional golf’s most persistent complaints. Slow rounds can frustrate players, stretch television windows and test fans who already know the sport asks for patience.
Glover has positioned himself as one of the more blunt voices on that subject. His AimPoint criticism belongs to a larger set of ideas he has discussed for speeding up play on Tour, according to Golfweek’s earlier reporting.
The challenge for the PGA Tour is that slow play rarely has one cause. Pre-shot routines, rulings, difficult course setups, long walks, weather, green speeds and high stakes can all add time. Singling out AimPoint would be simple, but proving it is a major source of delay would require more than irritation.
That is where Glover’s statistical claim matters, even if the public debate still needs more evidence. If a method slows groups without a clear performance benefit, critics have a stronger case. If it helps players and adds only a manageable amount of time, banning or limiting it becomes harder to justify.
Glover’s voice is getting louder
The protest also matters because Glover is not just another veteran grumbling from the fringe. He is a six-time PGA Tour winner, including the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, and he has recently taken on a more formal leadership role.
Golfweek reported that Glover joined the Tour’s Player Advisory Council for the first time earlier this season and was named PAC chairman. Beginning next season, he is set to join the Tour’s board as a player director, replacing Adam Scott.
That gives his complaints a different weight. A player can pull off a one-day protest and disappear from the conversation. A player director can help shape what gets discussed when the Tour talks about competition, player experience and future rules.
The Tour is already facing broader changes to its schedule and competitive model beginning in 2028. AimPoint may be a small issue compared with those structural decisions, but pace of play touches every event and every broadcast. That makes it hard to dismiss as merely personal preference.
What remains unsettled
There is no indication from the available reporting that the PGA Tour is prepared to ban AimPoint. There is also no clear public sign that AimPoint users are backing away from the technique because of Glover’s protest.
That leaves the debate in a familiar golf space: somewhere between etiquette and enforceable policy. The Rules of Golf can define what is allowed, but the culture of the game often decides what is accepted.
Glover’s sock-foot walk did not settle whether AimPoint is good, bad or too slow. It did something more useful for a niche Tour argument: it made the complaint visible to people who may not know the mechanics of the method but understand the message instantly.
For now, the takeaway is clear. Lucas Glover is not merely annoyed by AimPoint; he is willing to turn his objection into theater on a PGA Tour green. Whether that theater becomes a policy discussion is the part still waiting to break.
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