Tim Tucker – a veteran PGA Tour caddie, who most notably worked with Bryson DeChambeau from 2016 until 2021 – has turned his green reading expertise into a new True Aim Marker, which is a ball marker designed to simplify the green reading and alignment process in order to make more putts.

Tucker’s True Aim ball marker designs started as prototypes for testing on the PGA Tour, and now that Tucker has proven they to work effectively, he’s teamed up with Bettinardi Golf – and its parent company X-CEL Technologies – to manufacture a retail version for the public to purchase.

Bettinardi is currently CNC milling the True Aim ball markers out of its Tinley Park, Illinois, headquarters, and the ball markers have officially become available on the True Aim website.

Before we get into how and why the True Aim markers work, let’s first get into how they came about.

When DeChambeau and his team reached out to Tucker to fill a newly opened caddie position in 2016, Tucker was fresh off a five-month PGA Tour caddie gig with Tyler Aldridge, and DeChambeau was without a caddie himself. As Tucker told GolfWRX.com in a recent interview, he believes he got the call due to his already-proven green reading abilities.

The history between Tucker and DeChambeau dates back to when Tucker taught a young 15-year-old DeChambeau his green reading techniques at River Bend Golf Club (now called Dragonfly Golf Club), in Madera, California. Years later, the duo met back up – this time professionally – in 2016 when Tucker began caddying for DeChambeau on the PGA Tour. The duo eventually won multiple Tour events together, including the 2020 U.S. Open, before they split in July 2021.

Tucker was a military man out of high school, and after working for the state department in Washington D.C. for three years upon his return, Tucker entered the golf business as a PGA apprentice. His journey took him to him Bandon Dunes to work as a caddie; during that time, Tucker was fully committed to learning everything he could about putter fitting and green reading. He was a sponge for knowledge, reading books and picking the brains of the industry’s smartest putting experts such as putter maker David Edel, top-100 golf instructor Mike Adams, and Aimpoint inventor Mark Sweeney.

At the time, Tucker was amassing invaluable knowledge of how to help golfers make more putts. In the mid-2000s, as an established green reading authority, Tucker was tasked by DeChambeau’s golf coach Mike Schy to come teach green reading techniques at his golf school. It was there that DeChambeau and Tucker first hit it off.

DeChambeau, the ever-fascinated and willing-to-learn student that he is, came to all six school sessions over the three days that Tucker was teaching.

As Tucker revealed to GolfWRX.com in a recent interview, there’s five things a golfers needs to know before reading a putt:

1. The stimp speed of the green, or, “friction value”
2. Where on the green is the “straight putt” to the hole?
3. What angle in relation to the “straight putt” is the golf ball?
4. How far are is the golf ball from the hole?
5. What is the percentage of slope that the ball will roll across?

If it seems difficult to process all of that information for a single putt… that’s because it is.

“Green reading is amazingly complicated,” Tucker told GolfWRX. “There’s five things you need to know to read a putt, and it’s very difficult.”

Also, according to DeChambeau, amateurs struggle to commit to the correct target line even when given the proper amount of break to play.

“The biggest thing is that we tell amateurs to aim at a certain spot, and they never aim at that spot,” DeChambeau told GolfWRX. “They can’t aim there. They just are too afraid it’s not going to go in the hole. So they always pull it to the hole, rather than hitting it on the line that designates it’s going to go in the hole if you have the right speed.”

In order to help amateur golfers simplify the green reading process, and commit to playing the proper amount of break, Tucker developed a serviceable ball marker design that functions as an alignment aid.

Here’s how it works:

When approaching your golf ball on the green, place the marker down behind the golf ball, and aim the center line of the marker at the golf hole, without adjusting for slope. Tucker suggests drawing a line on your golf ball, using both center lines to aim directly at the hole, and using your putter shaft as a visual aid to ensure the line is pointed at the center of the hole.

When you’ve decided that the line is pointed at the hole, then you can pick up your golf ball to clean it, await for your playing partners to putt, and begin the process of reading the slope of the green.

Tucker’s new patent pending True Aim ball marker – manufactured by Bettinardi Golf – has nine lines on the top; there’s a center line, then four lines on the left and four lines on the right. Each line is designed to sit at a certain precise angle, but Tucker is keeping those angles a secret, because it’s proprietary information that’s crucial to its functionality.

While assessing the slope of your putt, and whether it breaks to the right or the left, simply grade the slope on a 0-4 scale.

0 means the putt is straight, so match the line on your golf ball with the center line of the ball marker, because it’s already pointed at the hole.

1 is a mostly flat putt, with a slight amount of break, so match the line of your golf ball with one of the white lines closest to center. If the ball is going to break to the right, then use the line to the right of the center line, so the line on your golf ball projects out to the left of the hole. If it breaks to the left, then use the line to the left of center.

2 is an average amount of slope, so use the red lines.

3 is a steep slope, so use the white lines toward the outer portion.

4 is severe, so use the small black lines on the outer most portion.

The ball markers have been tested and approved by several PGA Tour players, including DeChambeau and Adam Svensson (Tucker has also caddied for Svensson on the PGA Tour).

DeChambeau says: “I’ve definitely used it. It goes back to the principles of Vector putting from a long time ago. Whatever percentage of slope you believe to be on, it allows you to aim it down that line. If you start it on that line with the right speed, it’s going to go in the hole. It’s a great tool for amateurs out there, and even professionals, too, that are looking to line the ball up a little bit better and give you a perfect line for whatever percentage of slope you need… It’s a pretty ingenious device that will help a lot of golfers out.”

Svensson says: “True Aim is an extraordinary tool that has helped me understand how to read greens better and start the ball on line more consistently, day after day. Confidence is a huge part of putting and True Aim has allowed me to free up and sink more putts. I highly recommend this product and will be in my bag every time I tee it up!”

The simplified aiming concept started as an idea at the 2022 Valspar Championship while caddying for Svennson. While Tucker first experimented with engraving the lines onto a putter head, he realized that a ball marker would be more effective and consistent. That’s when he began making prototypes of the ball markers through Jayme Coggins, who owns Coggins Machine & Design, a company that makes boutique putters and golf accessories.

Needing more inventory after garnering positive feedback, and with plans to provide the ball markers to the public, Tucker needed a supplier to manufacture the markers on a larger scale.

That’s when Tucker successfully pitched the concept to Robert and Sam Bettinardi. The father-and-son Bettinardi duo runs Bettinardi Golf, a high-end putter company in Tinley Park, Illinois that specializes in CNC milled golf products. Tucker still owns 100 percent of True Aim Marker, LLC and its intellectual property, but Bettinardi manufactures the designs through its parent company, X-CEL Technologies, which is a manufacturing company that’s also owned by Robert Bettinardi and headquartered in Tinley Park, Illinois.

Tucker was drawn to Bettinardi and the company’s product fulfillment for two main reasons:

“One, they’re Made in the United States, and me being a veteran, I love that,” Tucker said. “And two, the high quality that they have. Bettinardi is known for having the finest milled putters, and I want my marker being the finest milled marker on the market. And I think that it is.”

With a price point of $100, Tucker’s new True Aim ball markers, which are milled from 303 stainless steel, are now available on the newly launched website. Tucker says that orders are received and shipped on the same day, and they will come inside of custom True Aim Marker packaging.

For feedback and additional photos of the product, head over to our GolfWRX forums.