Wearing glasses while playing golf

[Iowa Hawkeye]

I couldn't see a darn thing without my glasses. I don't get contacts for 2 reasons:
1. I have a weird thing about things in my eyes. At eye appts. they have to force my eye open to put in their drops.

2. I have a strange prescription, making custom contacts very expensive and not worth the cost.

[n8ron]

During alergy season I wear glasses. I do prefer to wear my contacts though. I can't tell you exactly why, but I feel more comfortable playing without the glasses on my face somehow.

[TheNatural]

well i may shed lite on this subject...played 70 rounds to date without ever wearing the specs.

I played a tournament monday and began the day with the specs on at the range. Hit 20 balls with the Driver near perfect and 5 off the toe.

1st hole landed a par 3 17 ft from cup and played so-so until the 7th hole (i topped a drive then bladed a EASY pitch,...and got pissed with my play I took them off.

After that I fared the same, topped a drive(eyes were still blurryLOL) then played so-so but did string together 5 scramble strokes for my group in 3rd and 4th holes following spec removal. 2 bombs from Driver and 2 pitches to the green. After that it was hit and miss, but my drives were better without the specs in general...IMO

I am near sighted and lose sight of my ball after 300 yards in flight. Ok maybe 230 yards, I cant see that far.

"1 round, a sound judgement make, does not"

[umpiremark]

I've been wearing glasses since the 5th grade (I'm 53 now) and opted for LASIK surgery two years ago. Oddly, the surgery did wonders for my far vision but royally screwed up my near vision. I wear readers to read, type, etc. I've played golf for many years and had to wear my glasses (obvioulsy). I had prescription sunglasses made - always out of my old pair when I got a new pair. The two summers after LASIK with just regular sunglasses was great, but I couldn't see the card, my gps, etc. up close.

Okay, enough about me ... this thread is about playing with glasses ... Having to use them to see, I've played with the glasses and after surgery I've played without them. Except for the previously mentioned sweaty glasses sliding down the nose and that annoying drop of sweat right in the center of one lense on your downswing, there's no advantages with or without glasses. Except to see, of course. On the courses I play they don't allow seeing eye dogs, so my glasses were required!! HAHAHA

With or without LASIK, I always tried to wear sun glasses though.

[bunkerputt]

I play nearly every round with Maui Jim Kahunas. It's much easier to find the ball in the air. Otherwise I tend to need a spotter if it's really bright out. The only time it's ever affected my game was in reading putts. I got up to one putt that I could swear up and down was breaking left, and it broke hard right. Everyone I was playing with could see the break, and they were all really bad golfers. I took off my glasses and the break suddenly "switched" to the right. It was the combined effect of the sun off the grain and the polarization of the glasses that caused the mis-read. I would imagine playing with unpolarized glasses wouldn't make any difference on putting, but polarization seems to... particularly in Texas where nearly everything is bermuda. I think that's probably why Zach Johnson takes his glasses of when he reads greens.

[chipper2]

I wore glasses for over 50 years till I had cataracks off. I could never follow the ball with glasses and still cannot. Now I somethimes get luck and see the ball bounce or roll on the ground. I do now wear sun glasses when it is bright out.

[piper_clap]

I wear glasses. They're rimless and I don't take them off

I too wear my glasses at all times. This last year, I forgot to get a new contacts prescription, so I'm on a pair of disposables that are almost a year old. I'll wear them for hockey occassionally, but I have an old pair of Hanson Brothers glasses that I wear most of the time.

[MiniMoe]

a friend of mine has to wear special sun glasses, but can't see well enough to play golf. His solution is to wear two pair of glasses. Like a poor man's bifocals. It's pretty funny to see him, but he can't play any other way.

[JetFan1983]

I wear glasses around the apartment and rock my contacts when I go out. Yes, I'm vain, sorry. Although, I have been told I look good with glasses on as well hehe.

In terms of playing golf with my glasses on, I've done it a few times, but it's pretty annoying. In the winter it's fine because I wear a winter cap while playing so that helps them stay secure on my head. During the summer, I'll never wear them though as they could fly off my head during the swing.

I used to always rock these really expensive Nike golf sunglasses while playing and I loved them because they were custom fit to my head and never budged while playing. However, I retired them because I get ridiculous tan lines around my eyes and I look like a jackass all week.

It's not all gravy though unforuantely. I suffer from some pretty annoying allergies between mid-May and early June, so the irritation from my contacts can be brutal at times. I need to keep a bottle of visine in my bag just in case.

[Parker0065]

it's getting hard for me to track the ball if i am not wearing glasses, but i just feel weird when i play with glasses on. I am just wondering if anybody else out there wear their glasses while playing golf?

I've had glasses since my early 20's and never thought much about switching to contacts. When my wife and I started dating she suggested I try contacts. I was a little reluctant at first but man did it make a difference in reading greens. I have read that reading greens can be difficult at times wearing glasses with how the sun effects looking through glasses at certain angles(sorry I don't know the physics of it)! Anyways, by switching from glasses to contacts had a positive effect on my game and in particular my putting and reading greens. If your having problems tracking the ball on full shots you should be wearing glasses or contacts and I would say go with contacts if you can! I also have a stigmatism so my contacts are expensive but I stll say you should try them, the prices have went down the last few years and the ones I have now are so soft and comfortable I don't even know they're in!

[rjfan91]

I had eye surgery last year and my eyes are still a little sensitive to the sunlight. I have tried several sets of sunglasses and found some basic Maui Jims to be best. On each lens, they have reflective areas below and above the eye line, but at eye level it is basically just shaded. I don't have as many problems tracking the ball or seeing it during a swing.

I wear a hat, so the fitting at the eyebrow isn't a big deal to me.

http://www.mauijim.com/webapp/wcs/st...3_17603_N__1__

[DavidFehertysBike]

I think you should go with the kareem style..

[NM Golf]

I live in Albuquerque, NM and we average over 300 days of sunshine a year. In the summer sometimes the sun is so bright it looks like it is only a couple miles away. So to answer your question I most certainly wear sunglasses to play golf. I pretty much wear sunglasses anytime I step outside. I am an Oakley junkie, I have a special pair of Oakley's that have a golf lens. They stay in their case in my golf bag and only get used for golf.

[bunkerputt]

Has anyone found that polarized glasses affect green-reading?

[whip_it_out]

If your glasses fit well, you'll get used to them. I hated it at first too, but I don't mind it at all now.

[TheNatural]

I played with glasses sunday and couldnt read a green very well...it stinks but cant play with them anymore.
It was my first 18 holes with glasses...RX glasses.

[retexan599]

Both my clear and sunglasses are trifocals. What I have trained myself to do is to view the ball through the narrow center trifocal lens at setup. And then I try to keep the ball in the trifocal lens as I make my back and down swing. This helps me to keep my head still and works most of the time. Sunglasses are pretty much a must in Houston.

[Smw]

I wear contacts and under armour zone xl polarized sunglasses. I lift the glasses to putt.