Progressive Lenses?

There must be some folks out there who wear bifocals when they play golf. Has anyone tried progressive lenses instead of lined bifocals? How have they worked out? Or haven't they?

Thanks,

Kim

I played with progressive bifocals for about five years before I finally had LASIK surgery a little more than a year ago.

If you get used to progressives, and have them set the transition as low as they can possibly set it (lots of people don't know you can request this), you should be OK.  There's always a little 'fudging' in the in-between zone, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, depending on your overall eyesight.  By fudging, I mean you can look through the glasses at certain points and get a nice focus at 2 feet, 3 feet, 4 ft, etc. and then the typical 'far sighted' correction.  They were great for computer work for me because of this - I could 'work' them for the best focus.

Interesting.

I guess I'm having an issue with my head/face moving slightly to the right in the backswing, and then getting a bit disconcerted trying to come back and through, because the ball is no longer in focus. It's disorienting. Were you able to get used to that?

To a certain degree.  But frankly, there were reasons I went the LASIK route.  Golf was one of them.  Probably your only other options is to have a set of scripts - maybe sunglasses? - that are single vision and not use your progressives for golf.  That might be more trouble than it's worth though, as your eyes will be constantly changing back and forth.

If you are early into your progressive experience, most places give you 30 days or so to make changes and ultimately decide whether you'll adapt to them or not.  If you're in that window, I'd try getting the dividing area set lower.  The lower the reader-portion of the script is, the more area you'll have in your distance-portion.  That might help keep the ball in focus throughout the swing.

There's no question about it though - the nature of the beast with progressives is if you aren't looking mostly through the center of the lens, things tend to get a little 'swimmy' in focus.  I don't miss that at all, to tell the truth.

I wear progressive lenses.

It took me awhile before I figured out why I was having a difficult time hitting a golf ball but, the slight, or any, head movement made the ball appear to move a little bit and thus threw off other parts of the swing. Sort of like going down a flight of stairs the first couple times with progressives.

I now wear either my prescription (for distance only) Oakley sunglasses or an old pair of distance only glasses that I keep in my bag as back up should I forget the Oakley's. I just found it easier to do this than to try to adapt.

My brother, also a progressive wearer, experienced the same thing and now wears single prescription glasses when golfing.

I and a number of people I play with wear transition bifocals.  Only one of us plays golf in their bifocals.  I play wearing a pair of single vision sunglasses with my distance only prescription.

One other thought, Kim.  For whatever reason, I always felt my polarized-lens sunglasses (which were progressive bifocals BTW) always kept things in a little crisper vision than my regular progressive lens glasses.  Even on really cloudy days, I'd often wear my sunglasses instead of my clear glasses when golfing.

I too wear progressive lenses and have given up on wearing them when golfing.  I'm in the process of getting distance only contact lenses that I will wear instead of the glasses.

I realize this thread is a little old, but I thought I'd go ahead and comment as I'm an aging golfer myself and am trying to explore my options for better vision on the course.

I've seen some of my peers with bifocals, progressives or switching between lenses as they prepare for a shot, but I tried it and have found it extremely frustrating. I would love to hear more about the solutions other older golfers have found!

Walking down the stairs wearing bifocals is scary enough!

Thanks so much for the feedback! I certainly hear you that wearing bifocals and trying to look at the ball out of the bottom of your glasses causes incredible neck strain and disorientation.

I guess I’m just still having trouble changing focus from near to far objects. My normal glasses (distance correction only) don’t help with putting, for example, when I’m trying to look at the ball closer to me. The technical condition is called presbyopia, where the eye’s lenses become less flexible and can’t bend to easily change focus to view nearby objects.

Have you been able to accommodate for this when wearing just your normal glasses?

I wear progressive lenses and love them. After about two weeks, I never notice adjusting my head to see -- it happens automatically. (Only exception is when leaning back on the couch to watch TV I need to adjust so that I am looking more out of the top of the lens. Maybe I should not be so lazy even when watching TV.) I never notice them while playing golf. My prescription is mostly for near vision issues. I have three pairs and wear all three without issue playing golf (clear. sunglasses, and transition lenses). I had LAZIK surgery when it was new to the US (15 years ago?) and knew at that time that as I got older, I'd someday need reading glasses. Happened to know a great eye doctor (he is the eye doctor for the Bulls and White Sox so he understands sports vision) and he showed me what wearing progressive lenses could do for my already good distance vision. So, instead of reading glasses, I wear glasses all the time. That helps with computer work too. Is that kind of work reading glasses? Distance glasses? No glasses? For me it is all just my "regular" glasses.

The benefits of wearing progressive lenses while golfing are many. For example, I'm the only guy in my 4-some who can golf with my glasses on, see the ball a long way away, and read the scorecard. Guess who keeps score every week.

Give them a few weeks of constant wear and you'll never even notice them again.

Got progressive lenses recently, and I don't think I'll ever play golf with them.

I went to the range and it was immediate; I started toeing and even shanking the ball, probably even coming close to whiffing a few times. It's one thing to have a bad day and to understand that you're an average schmo and not Rory McIlroy, but this was obvious. At one point I set up like normal to the ball, then took off my glasses and looked down, and even with my blurry vision, I could see that in reality my club was at least a half inch (maybe closer to an inch) away from what it appeared to be with the glasses on.

Besides that, the distortion of the ball once it gets in the air is completely disconcerting. At 50, 100 yards or whatever, it doesn't look like a ball at all…it's a fluttering, blurry mess.

Meanwhile, I put my old single-focus glasses on and these problems mysteriously disappear. I'm going to use them for anything mildly athletic as long as the prescription is good enough for me to see.

I tried progressives and hate them even for day to day wear, however, they now have digital progressives which have a wider corrective field than the standard progressive lenses. Not every optical shop uses a lab that makes this type.

Recently I found an old pair of black Ray Ban Aviator frames I bought back in 1979 when they were cool, and finding out that they're cool again, and given that the frames were practically new (worn for contact lens use), I had my distance prescription put in with polarized purple single vision polycarbonate sunglass lenses. The interesting thing about purple is that it highlights white. I'm able to see my ball easier against whatever background. I have not had any problem seeing where my ball went and was able to help others spot their ball way down the course even on the light colored dry grass. Nike golf sunglasses use purple polarized lenses.