Three-way tie for lead, Max Homa’s blistering back nine and Justin Thomas’ new approach to putting highlight a busy Friday at the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship

A perennial top-10 player, Justin Thomas has stumbled to world No. 15 (by his lofty standards) this PGA Tour season, and a key factor to that has been his putting. Thomas entered this week 152nd in Strokes Gained: Putting, but after two days at Quail Hollow the 15-time winner on Tour finds himself T-4 at 7 under and just one shot off the lead.

If you’ve been watching closely this week, you may have noticed the 30-year-old’s new approach on the green: he’s now using the AimPoint putting method.

“Yeah, I learned it last week or I guess had a lesson with it. It just, I felt like it was something that maybe it’s the missing piece, maybe it’s not,” Thomas explained after his 4-under 67 in the second round. “I feel like I’ve been putting significantly better than the putting results have shown and a lot of it, at least I’ve noticed these last two days is it just takes a lot of the guessing out and simplifies it.”

“Obviously you get some specific putts that are left edge or left center or a cup or whatever, but out here at a place like this you have a lot of big breaking putts and putts that require some feel to where I’m able to get an “ish” read kind of in a certain area,” he continued. “Then I’m able to use my feel and my kind of touch that I feel like I have to match the speed to that. It’s really just, it’s actually sped everything up for me, it’s sped my process up and simplified it. I’ve really liked it the last two days.”

Thomas and his putting coach, John Graham, got together with Mark Sweeney, who invented the AimPoint method, last week and worked on the new approach for a few hours. AimPoint disciples Keegan Bradley and Max Homa have also helped Thomas learn the new system.

“Keegan said it best, it’s a very simple idea but like a complex system, if you will, or maybe opposite. It’s one of those things that once you get it, it’s a very generic, pretty simple like bang, go, do it,” said Thomas. “It’s just getting comfortable enough with what you’re feeling. And how everybody feels slope is different. How I feel it might be different than you or Keegan or Max or whatever. At the end of the day, if the ball’s going in the hole, who cares, right?”