Are your glasses ruining your golf swing? Here’s how to know
New glasses can have a dramatic effect on your golf swing.
Ryan Barath
From the socks on your feet to the hat on your head, every equipment choice plays a role in helping you look, feel and perform your best on the golf course.
That goes for your glasses, too.
The wrong glasses can instantly create bad habits that are hard to break, and we are here to help you understand why.
Sunglasses
If you’re lucky enough to not need any sort of prescription glasses, sunglasses can be very helpful on the golf course when it comes to reading greens and being able to follow the ball in the air on hazy days. Sunglasses also protect your eyes from harmful UV rays to help keep them happy and healthy, along with keeping out dust on windy days.
Verdict: Wearing sunglasses has no direct negative impact on your game.
Prescription glasses
Much like sunglasses, wearing prescription glasses or sunglasses with prescription lenses can be beneficial to your game. They can help you better follow the ball in the air, along with spotting it on the ground when you hit one in the rough.
The only thing you want to be careful of is not having lenses that create any distortion, which can cause posture issues when setting up over the ball. That’s when issues can creep in.
Verdict: Single focal prescription glasses have no direct negative impact on your game.
Bifocals
This is where things can get messy.
Bifocal glasses (as the name suggests) have two different magnifications and two focal points: one to help you see objects in the distance, and another that helps with near-range vision, i.e., reading a book or computer screen at arm’s length. Trouble is, this type of variable lens creates distortion at the bottom of the lens past a certain distance, and when it comes to your golf swing and setting up to the ball, peering through the bottom of your lenses can force your eyes and posture into suboptimal positions for swinging a golf club. As you further lower your head into your chest to bring the ball into focus, this posture shift can make it difficult to execute a repeatable swing.
So, if you’re a golfer who has recently started wearing bifocals and noticed a negative affect on your game, your struggles might not have anything to do with your swing and everything to do with your new specs — and I’m not talking clubs!
Want to overhaul your bag for 2024? Find a fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.
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