Everyone Got the Lucas Glover Shoe Thing Wrong
Everyone called it an AimPoint protest. Glover says it wasn't, and the person who set him off wasn't his playing partner. What actually happened.
During Sunday's final round of the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities, Lucas Glover holed a birdie putt from about ten feet on the 10th, walked away from the hole, took off both shoes, walked back in his socks to lift his ball out of the cup, picked the shoes up and left the green.
The internet decided instantly that it was a protest against AimPoint. It wasn't, according to Glover. Replying on Instagram to a post by the account Flushing It Golf, he said it had "nothing to do with AimPoint, actually" and that he was "just goofing off" after the group behind him had accused him of leaving spike marks.
The PGA Tour said the same thing, hours earlier and from a different direction: he'd been asked to be mindful of his spike marks and was, in their words, "trying to be lighthearted."
Why everybody assumed AimPoint
Because it was, frankly, a reasonable guess.
Glover is one of the loudest AimPoint critics in professional golf. He's argued on SiriusXM that standing near the hole and reading break through your feet is discourteous and that the method should be banned for slowing play. In February he published a nine-point pace-of-play plan that included exactly that, and Golfmagic reported in June that some players took it up with him directly.
And he was playing with Max Greyserman. Who uses AimPoint.
So a known critic, paired with a user, appears to make a theatrical point about feet on greens. Golf Channel's commentary went there live. So did the viral clips. So, in their opening paragraphs, did most of the outlets that later reported his denial.
Golf Digest actually caught the tell without following it: the first read on the broadcast was that Glover was taking a long way round to avoid walking through Greyserman's line. Which is a completely different thing. The interpretation changed twice within about a minute of footage, which should have been a warning that nobody watching actually knew.
What he says happened instead
Someone in the group behind complained that he was chewing up the greens. He wears metal spikes.
So he took the spikes off before walking to the cup. That's a joke about the complaint he'd just received, not a statement about the method his playing partner uses.
Two details worth sitting with. First, the target was behind him, not beside him — which means a lot of coverage pointed at Greyserman for no reason. Second, Glover never spoke to the media after his round. The Tour statement and an Instagram reply are the entire record, and by the time either existed, the wrong version had already travelled.
I'd stop slightly short of certainty here. The two irritations sit right next to each other — feet on greens, marks on greens — and a man can be annoyed about one while holding strong views on the other. But he was asked directly and he answered directly, so the honest position is that this wasn't the AimPoint protest it was sold as.
One thing I should flag: I haven't seen the Instagram post myself. I'm relying on Golf Monthly and Golfmagic, who each quote it, independently and consistently. That's decent evidence. It isn't the same as the primary document.
The bit almost nobody mentioned
Glover was elected chairman of the PGA Tour's Player Advisory Council earlier this year and, per EssentiallySports, is set to replace Adam Scott as a Player Director on the Tour board next season.
Which makes the whole thing more interesting than a funny clip. The most vocal AimPoint opponent on Tour is about to be in a room where policy actually gets set. The shoes came off for a different reason on Sunday, but the underlying argument now has a seat at the table.
What nobody has actually established
Whether AimPoint damages greens. Whether it measurably slows play.
I went looking, and none of the coverage of this incident offers a shred of evidence on either question. It's all assertion — Glover's, his critics', everyone's. Those are answerable questions with shot-clock data and green-wear studies, and as far as this reporting goes, nobody's answered them.
FAQ
Who won the 2026 3M Open?
Jackson Koivun, 21, at 25-under 259.
Why did Lucas Glover take his shoes off?
He said he was goofing off after the group behind him accused him of leaving spike marks. He wears metal spikes.
Was it an AimPoint protest?
He says no, explicitly. The PGA Tour's account matches his.
Who complained about him?
Per Glover, the group behind. Not his playing partner, despite what most coverage implied.
What is AimPoint?
A feel-based green-reading method. The player stands on the line and rates the slope on a scale of roughly 0 to 6 using their feet, then uses that to pick a start line.
Who was he playing with?
Max Greyserman, who does use AimPoint.
Did it work out for him?
Not immediately. He triple-bogeyed the 11th. He finished the tournament at five under.
Was he penalised?
No source reports any penalty or fine.
Does Glover have any actual power over this?
More than most players. He chairs the Player Advisory Council and is reportedly taking a Player Director seat on the Tour board next season.
GOLFRAW's Take
The funniest part of this is that Glover's actual complaint is the more relatable one. Every public course in America has a sign about metal spikes and half the people reading this have been told off for scuffing a green. He got told off for it too, on television, in front of a camera crew, in the middle of a professional golf tournament — and his response was to take the shoes off and go get his ball in his socks. That's a good bit. It's a much better bit than a protest would have been. Shame the internet spent a day telling everyone it was about something else.