Surgite Tosses Bifocals and Improves Ball Striking

Wed, 06/29/2016 - 13:30 -- Don Trahan

Another episode of "In Your Own Words". This ranks as one of the top "In Your Own Words" messages we have received to date! Today's topic is one covered many times here on the Swing Surgeon blog, the subject of multifocal glasses.

Jack Rowberry from Nova Scotia Canada writes us to share his compelling story and wanted to share with other Surgites! Jack was having a frustrating day at the practice area and on the driving range. He decided to try hitting the ball without his glasses. The ball was fuzzy in his vision, and he could not see where the ball went after impact. The result? Dramatically improved ball striking!  A friend of his walks over and is astounded at what had happened!

Your ability to perceive depth and location is paramount for your ball striking. Of all the ball striking sports, golf is the one which the ball is the farthest away from your body - on average. So your ability to judge where that ball is in space to impact it on-on-on-square-and-solid depends greatly on your eyesight. For proper perception, you should be using a single focal length lens in your glasses. To do this with bifocals would mean only to use one of the two portions of the lens which is impossible and keep your head in the correct position. If you can see well enough without the bifocals that is optimum but if you need some eyesight assistance then use a single focal lens - call them your playing glasses!

Comments

matternr@ndu.edu's picture

Submitted by matternr@ndu.edu on

Hi Surg,
I watched your video on bifocals and agree with almost all of what you said about them with respect to hitting better without them. I've been an optometrist for 36 years, with more than half that time spent serving in the US Air Force. I tinker with building my own clubs and I tinker with my glasses.
I'm in my mid-60's which is another way of saying I have pretty well maxed out my bifocal add power. It currently sits at +2.50 diopters. I am near sighted so I have to use a distance correction to follow the ball. I use no-line bifocals (which are also called Progressive Addition Lenses, PALS for short). The reading strength increases the lower I look through my lenses. If I need to read a book at about 16", I use the lower-most portion of the lenses. If I am working on my computer, I use the portion of the lenses just below the distance vision section.
As an experiment, I had a pair of sunglasses made without a bifocal and found the ball was fairly clear but still just a bit fuzzy. Better than looking through my full strength bifocal, but not as clear as it could be. It bothered me the most while putting.
I did the math and decided to have a set of lenses made with a very weak bifocal, something a person in their late thirties to early forties might need. That small correction made all the difference, it improved ball striking and really helped my putting.
This is a nuance to what you said in your video and may not be for everyone, but I always recommend it to my golfer friends and they like it.
Here are my recommendations:
Just as you said, choose glasses with larger lenses so they nearly touch your cheeks, small-lensed designer glasses look cool, but as you clearly noted, you end up looking under the lenses altogether.
Do not use lined bifocals or trifocals ever for golf.
If you are in your late 50s or older and have to wear glasses to see distant objects, consider getting "golf-specific" glasses with your normal distance prescription in the top portion of the lens and with a no-line bifocal (PAL) lens using an add power of no more than +0.75 diopters. The ball will be crystal clear, but don't expect to read fine print with them-they are your "golf glasses"

One last note about the changes we go through with our reading glasses and bifocals. We all remember the diagram or model of the eye from science classes. Inside the eye is the crystalline lens. What you might not know, is the lens in your eyes grows in size from the time you are born till about age 70. It grows in layers like an onion. The larger it grows, the less flexibility it has. This flexibility is what we need to use to see things up close. The more the lens grows, the less ability we have to focus on near objects. This growth usually catches up with us around age 40 (when we first are told of our need for bifocals or reading glasses) and continues to change as we mature. This would explain why our initial set of bifocals works well for a few years but then we find we need stronger ones. This makes perfect sense since our lenses continue to grow through our 40s, 50s, and 60s, the flexibility to see up close diminishes and we need more magnification to see close objects.
I hope this slight nuance is of use for your surgites.
Rusty Mattern, OD

Tedster's picture

Submitted by Tedster on

When my father was in his mid-40s, he started getting speeding tickets and running out of gas --- he could not really see the dashboard anymore.

With that in mind, I decided to be gracious about it and get bifocals.
I don't need anything for the world more than 5 feet away, but I cannot read without them. So I generally wear bifocals all the time except on the golf course so that I don't put them down and lose them. My prescription has not changed in over 10 years.

Thanks so much, Rusty!

Tedster's picture

Submitted by Tedster on

First about those glasses without a lens boundary: After figuring out a putt, I then address the ball with the putter and the distortion at the side of those lenses completely changes what I see of the green and confuses me ... so I just trust my setup and get on with it.

Maybe at the drug store I could get a set of reading glasses that compromises the distance so I can hit the ball but still be able to read the scorecard.

Yes, I would rather hit the ball and struggle with the scorecard.
I really like it when somebody else in the foursome is keeping the score.
Thanks, Surge!

Kevin McGarrahan's picture

Submitted by Kevin McGarrahan on

I always had a problem with bifocals and gave them up. Now, I carry 3 pairs of glasses: distance (over 10 feet); computer (focused at 28"); and reading (focused at 14"). It only takes a second to switch from my distance glasses to reading glasses to write on my scorecard. Obviously, neither set works well for over 14" and less than 10'. However, with the PPGS, I don't have to focus on the ball. I concentrate on my alignment, not the ball, which just gets in the way if I make the proper PPG swing.