Golfers and Glasses

[griecke]

I came to notice that not many or none of the golfers on tour wear glasses. Do they wear contacts or is it a fact the glasses hinder play? I wondered because I use trifocals and notice when I keep my head down sometimes the focal point changes. I know that proves I move my head but it doesn't take much for the lines to shake my vision. It's compounded by the fact that I don't have macula vision in my left eye so my only sight on the ball is with my right.

Comments please

Gary

[kpaulhus]

I cant stand having glasses on when I play. I wear contacts, but even sun glasses bother me.

[James_Black]

Padraig Harrington got laser eye surgery, I guess if your in the top 50 (which is where most people you watch golfing are) you can afford it.

The rest of them probably wear contacts.

[goblue107501]

I am the same way with glasses. I really wish I could wear them on the course, but I can't. The way my eyes are, I just can't look at the ball up close then focus my eyes to where it is in the air. I can see good enough to know where the ball is going, just can't see it down sometimes.

I would say most wear contacts or have had the laser surgery. I have seen a few that wear glasses though.

[shades9323]

I have been wearing my glasses this year. I got some new Oakley glasses that just fit great. I think I will be going back to contacts. If my head moves the ball crosses the frame and I lose eye contact for a second.

[saevel25]

I wear my glassess on the course, i gotten use to them. I will not wear sun glasses though, unless i get a pair like Duval's.

[WUTiger]

  griecke said:

... glasses hinder play? I wondered because I use trifocals and notice when I keep my head down sometimes the focal point changes. ...

I wear blended lenses with trifocal capability. Problem can be the focal length of your medium lens. One way I know I need a new glasses prescription is if I start bending my neck downward on set-up so I can see the ball in focus. Messes up my whole swing.

I played with contact lenses during the 1990s. I quit when I moved back to SW Oklahoma for a couple of years and had trouble with sand and grit blowing in the wind and catching on my contacts. I hit a beautiful bunker shot one day into a slight head wind, and the backblast sand particles trashed out both lenses. Never have gone back to contacts. Glasses can be a problem mainly if you have narrow frames - you'll be more likely to catch the edge of the frame in your vision on chip shots and long putts. With new glasses, it can take you a couple of rounds for your eyes to readjust. This mainly affects me in reading green slopes properly, especially putts breaking left or right. Lasic surgery is less expensive than it was in the early 2000s, so I may consider it. For certain vision problems, lasic may not work.

[right handed phil mickelson]

Been wearing my glasses on the course for the last 3 years.

Hasn't hindered me one bit.

[right handed phil mickelson]

I'm pretty sure they've done a study that showed that wearing glasses improved your vision.

Not totally sure that those were the findings but it's what I heard

[BonoVox]

I wear glasses. I just bought some new Nike ones with Transitions lens. I love them! They are the ultimate golf glasses lens IMHO. Especially since I play a lot of twilight rounds. It is nice that they adjust automatically as it gets darker.

As far as trifocals or bifocals, I would get dedicated glasses for golf for seeing at distance if it was me.

[Texas solo]

IIRC, Tom Kite wore glasses when he played. Is that right, or am I just showing my age for no reason?

[danieldrieberg]

me 2 therefore I had lasik surgury and happy.

[Kingfisher]

Tom Kite used to wear those big a$$ specs and I think Vijay Singh also used to wear specs on the course too? I know Els wears contact lenses.

A couple of other golfers who've definietly had eye surgery are Tiger and Poulter, but there's probably a good few more that we don't know about.

I never wore specs on the course, always went with contacts....until I had Lasik last year

Check out this link:

http://www.eyesurgeryusa.com/eye-sur...ye-syrgery.htm

"...Today the list of Lasik patients includes U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, Scott Hoch, Jesper Parnevik, Vijay Singh, Hal Sutton, Lee Westwood and Mike Weir; LPGA stars Juli Inkster, Se Ri Pak and Laura Davies; and senior players Tom Kite and Hale Irwin...."

[juanrjackson]

I had lasik but now I wear sunglasses because I do not like the sun in my eyes.

[Taggsy]

I wear glasses when playing. The only drawback I find is when putting. Occasionally when standing over the ball, the hole appears at the rim of the frame, which is very off putting because the hole seems to disappear. But then I'm not particularly short sighted, so I could just take them off to putt lol.
My Missus is a contact lens optician, but I can't stand them- it freaks me out having to touch my eyes lol.

I thought Phil Mickelson wore contact lenses?

[authentic_golfer]

  BonoVox said:

I wear glasses. I just bought some new Nike ones with Transitions lens. I love them! They are the ultimate golf glasses lens IMHO. Especially since I play a lot of twilight rounds. It is nice that they adjust automatically as it gets darker.

Thanks for the review, Bono. Have been thinking about going to the Transitions myself -- if they work for golf, I'm sold!

Have worn glasses on course for years. Tried contacts once but they didn't work out, and I'm too chicken to let anyone near my eyes with a laser beam. Tiger had lasic surgery as well, FYI. Sean

[Dad-2-3]

I've worn glasses since the 4th grade. I tried contacs at one point some years back, but didn't like the maintnance required. I would love to have lasik eye surgery. The glasses don't bother me on course though.

[Woters]

As far as I can gather from a bit of research on the net over 25% of tour pros wear contacts & 10% have had surgery at one point or another. I personally need to wear glasses as I hate the feeling of contacts, NEVER going to wear them lol. Been looking at getting tranistions lenses as well in my quiksilver frames for outdoor stuff like golf.