I saw this blog from John and his question hits home with a lot of golfers.

John Spurr says:
Don, I have been talking with a teaching golf pro about glasses. He noticed that I was wearing progressive bifocals and said flat out that they would have to go. He suggests having a pair of glasses made from the prescription for seeing far (the upper part of the bifocal) and that would greatly improve my ability to swing and connect with the ball. What do you think?

The Surge says:
I will start with two stories that will inevitably give you my answer.

When I was at Harbour Town, one of my closest Sea Pines member/students was Gary G.  He played golf with glasses that had a big bifocal in the bottom of his lens.  From the first lesson and the time I played with him, at address he had his head tilted way down and his chin practically on his chest.  I asked him to raise his head. He said he couldn’t because he would not be able to see the ball clearly because of his bifocals.  I suggested that he get a “playing pair” with no bifocal on his “distance prescription” so he could keep his head and posture up and erect.  “But I won’t be able to see the scorecard to keep score” he bellowed back.  I bellowed back more loudly, “Do you want to shoot a good score or keep a good scorecard with a poor score?”  I then added he should get the playing glasses and bring his reading glasses and put them on to keep his better score.

Gary G heard me well but dragged his feet getting rid of his bifocals or trifocals, whatever they were.  Every time I saw him hitting balls on the range, or I played with him, I kept reminding him that playing glasses with no bifocal would really help him improve his ball striking, as seeing the ball better makes it easier to hit it.  Then one day Gary G walked up to me on the range and stood face to face with me and asked me if I saw anything different.  I replied, “Still ugly as ever.  But you have a new good looking pair of playing glasses with no bifocal.”  He took them off and gave them to me and told me to put them on and look closely.  Gary G got ingenious and had his optometrist put his bifocals on top of the lens where they would not be in the way looking down at the ball on the ground and still work well for writing scores.

The second story is about another Harbour Town Student, a dentist from Wisconsin who came to Sea Pines every year around Christmas and stayed through January.  Doc would always take a lesson or two or three.  Doc wore glasses with bi or trifocals.  And from the first lesson, with head down and chin on chest, I was persistent that he needed playing glasses with no reading aids in them.  Like Gary G, he didn’t react and change as quickly as I hoped.  In fact, Doc must have taken 3 or 4 years before giving the playing glasses a playing test.

Doc, like Gary G used a unique way to let me know he changed his playing glasses.  I was in my office sitting at my desk late one December day and there was a knock on my door.  In came Doc. He pulled the chair in front of my desk real close and sat down, leaning his shoulders and head toward and over the front of the desk at the same time asking, “See anything different?”  I said with a happy face, “No bifocals.”  Doc then dropped a bomb on me by saying, “You told me no bifocals would help me hit the ball better.  But you never mentioned how much better I would putt without them.”  Doc went on to relate how much his ball striking improved, but he felt his putting was helped even more.

My optometrist is a 3 handicap golfer and, like me, he is adamant that playing golf wearing bi or trifocals is not good.  He also agrees that progressive lenses are even worse.  Being a golfer, he knows, and mentions the sight problems golfers experience wearing bi and trifocals to play golf.  He makes it a point to ask his patients if they need bi or trifocals if they play golf and, for that matter, play any sport, especially hitting or catching a moving ball.  If they do play, he professionally recommends they get a playing pair of glasses, explaining that without them they will have trouble seeing and focusing on the ball.

The setup determines the motion is paramount for developing and maintaining a good and consistent swinging and ball striking.  Bi and trifocals make getting into a good setup just about impossible with the head having to tilt down so much to look over them to see the ball.  So X the focals and stand tall to see the ball.  It will improve your ball striking, putting and score!

The Surge!

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