Take Aim With the Titleist AIM 360

If you’re like every other golfer on the planet, you’ve no doubt heard your PGA pro/coach/playing partner/inner voice tell you a thousand times that if you’re not aligned correctly, it doesn’t matter how well you swing the club or strike the ball.

It does matter, because the better you strike the ball, the farther from your target it’s going to finish once it’s come to a complete stop. Which is to say that if you are misaligned, it may be just as well to top the ball or hit it fat – send it 50 yards but stay in the fairway rather than 250 yards and get it wet or put it through someone’s bedroom window.

Alignment is a very, very … very big deal, and drivers, putters and golf balls that feature alignment markings are profoundly helpful. While they might not guarantee 100% your club is aligned correctly (nor do they ensure your body is perfectly aligned, but that’s for an instruction article elsewhere in the magazine) they certainly do help get you get closer to the ideal than you otherwise might, and that will almost definitely help you shoot a lower score.

There will be golfers of a certain vintage who have a hard time believing manufacturers are devoting big money to the development of alignment markings, and even more money to marketing those alignment markings, but here we are.
With the introduction of AIM 360, Titleist now has three types of alignment lines:

– ‘Performance Alignment’ (an alignment line 65% longer and noticeably thicker than the standard Pro V1 side stamp – available on Pro V1, Pro V1x and Pro V1x Left Dash)
– ‘Enhanced Alignment’ (a similarly long but thinner line between two parallel-running lines)
– ‘AIM 360’ (similar to Enhanced Alignment with the lines running round the entire ball…well, not quite, but nearly).

Relatively subdued compared with its competitors’ golf ball markings, Titleist’s lines, first introduced in 2007, have always sought to do the job quietly and efficiently. And, if the company’s testing is to be believed, AIM 360 certainly is doing a job, achieving 35% better alignment than with the standard Pro V1 side stamp. No matter how old, or old-school you are, we think you might be missing out if you don’t take advantage of something that won’t cost you a thing (yes, AIM 360, like its two predecessors, is free) but which has the potential to line you up three to four times more effectively than what you use now.

For now, AIM 360 is available just on the AVX (a premium ball very similar to the Pro V1 but which spins less and flies on a more penetrating trajectory), and Tour Soft (an all-round performer with a very soft feel and lower-than-premium price tag), and it will be interesting to see how long it takes to adorn the pro V1, assuming it ever does.

AVX – $50/dozen (White or Yellow)
Tour Soft – $40/dozen (White, Yellow or Green)
No extra cost for AIM 360
Available now. Go to the Titleist website for custom options (text, logos, marks)
titleist.com