Dominant eye in golf

General Discussion
#1

My guess is this topic won’t get much traction, but here goes. I’m mostly right-handed and slightly left-eye dominant naturally. There might be a correlation of days when I struggle with ball-striking with days when I’m strongly left-eye dominant.
As a kid, I played non-dominant sports like soccer; football for non-yanks. Humorous aside, I struggled learning baseball because I couldn’t decide what hand to put the glove on! I have a reasonable left-handed golf swing and often putt lefty.
When I took up darts, I discovered the left-eye dominant thing. My brain saw the dart/hand coming across, almost sidearm. I worked with a gifted optometrist who fitted me with a set of contacts where the left contact was slightly ‘powered down’ so to speak, and with a bit of mental gymnastics could become (temporarily) right-eye dominant; I could see the hand/dart appear directly below my right eye traveling directly to the target. With this setup I was able to compete! Downside was I couldn’t see very well outside of 8 feet.
Fast forward, I’m thinking eye dominance is significant in the golf swing as well as putting. Ironically, my putting - either hand - is generally good (I putt to a start line so maybe not too surprising). But some days my ball striking is a real hot mess. My theory is, most days my brain/eyes adapt to the ‘trained’ right-eye dominance, bad days is when it reverts to ‘natural’. Need to track this.

Does anybody else suffer this affliction? Any thoughts, suggestions? Thanks!

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#2

Interesting. No, I golf right handed and am right eye dominate. In my formative baseball years (8-12) I was a switch hitter.

Since those early years, I batted left, but when I took up golf, golfed right. Of course, probably because ‘righties’ were the cheapest, most accessible clubs available.

As my swing trigger, I do cock my head away from target, a la Nicklaus, but that’s probably more habit than necessity.

There; several paragraphs to not say a damned worthwhile thing. And, not being a neurologist, there may be something to the possible “conflict” between your trained and natural eye dominance. :man_shrugging:t2:

#3

Almost the same here - I’m just more strongly left-eye dominant.

Honestly, I do not think it affects full swing all that much, but … putting… Definitely does.

#4

Read somewhere that, for RH players, a big turn can obscure right eye vision of the ball, thus inhibiting distance-to-ball perception. Might make some sense tho; when I’m ‘off’ I struggle with ground contact and heel-toe hits with driver.

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#5

Hunh. Interesting. Maybe I should be wearing my glasses then…? :thinking:

#6

It definitely can make a difference. I have a condition in which I effectively use only one eye at a time. When I stand over a putt, my alignment line changes orientation depending on which eye I use. I have to ensure I’m looking at the ball with my left eye; otherwise the line will appear to point left of my intended line.

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#7

I’m right handed and right eye dominant. I’ve read that can be a problem for putting as your right eye can’t see the hole and apparently that’s why some players putted from an open stance. I like pitching the ball and even hitting short irons from an open stance and maybe that’s why.

I’m nearsighted and wear a prescription glasses or sunglasses when golfing. I prefer my sunglasses as I find it easier to look under them when addressing the ball. My prescription isn’t that strong, but it does distort my up close view. A friend of mine is an optometrist and he said bifocals could help and the prescription actually could be adjusted to help focus when addressing the ball. I haven’t done anything about that as I need all the excuses I can get lol.

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#8

I’m naturally left-handed and left eye dominant, but learned to play golf right-handed. I think part of my natural compensation is to play the ball farther forward in my stance which makes me feel most comfortable.

I have found that the hardest part for me is putting and seeing the line clearly standing at address. As such, I picked up side saddle putting about 18mos ago (left-handed) and feel a lot more confident with my putting. Switching strokes like that takes a lot of patience (it took a good 3mos to get fully comfortable), but now that I’m over the hurdle, I feel like putting that way gives me a lot more confidence.

#9

I’m fully right handed and left eye dominant.

I don’t think I’ve seen any specific issues related to this. With full swing, I honestly don’t “see” the club hit the ball. In fact, I typically work in some eyes closed swings to help feel balance and naturally let the club strike the ground. Highly recommend.

As for putting, I use AimPoint for reading greens as of this year. I do close my right eye for reading the line with my fingers up then I step behind the ball and “see” an intermediate point between my ball and intended start line. Then, it’s a matter of trusting the line I predetermined and focusing on the speed. Eyes closed putting is another great exercise.

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#10

Right hand, left eye. Putting is a chore sometimes. Almost every putt I stand over looks like I am aiming somewhere I am not. Full swing it doesn’t have an effect.

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#11

Both Tiger and Jack are right handed and left eye dominant. Biggest impact is in ball position which tends to be more forward for both putting and irons. Putter hosel design will have a difference (eg straight shaft typically is a good fit). In the full swing a longer swing is also a tendency for right handed left eye dominant. As Phil is really right handed I’m pretty sure he effecticely is left handed and right eye dominant.

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#12

Right handed and left eye dominant and have been thinking about this issue a lot over the past year. While I agree that eye dominance may affect putting, I think there’s also an effect on the full swing game in that your eye dominance may affect your perception of a square stance, making it more difficult to get to square.

During the pandemic, I really started to examine the variables that can influence what seems to be a good swing otherwise. If you think about it, if you think you’re in a square stance and aren’t, you’re not going to hit the shot you expect every time.

And then I took it back one step. I discovered and think it might be applicable to a lot of golfers that although we have pre-shot routines, we may not start them with the same constant–where our eyes are positioned when we begin the process. Do we start with our eyes square with the rest of our bodies or turned to the left or right–slightly or a lot? Those minor differences can lead us to see that we are square and believe that we are square when we are not.

Combined with eye dominance, I’ve come to believe that a lot of otherwise good golf swings get compromised because we subtly alter our stance on every shot. We know that only relatively minor adjustments from a square stance need be consciously made to hit a draw or a fade. What if an inconsistent start to our pre-shot routine traced to failing to pay attention to where we start with our eyes before setting everything else up was one of the causes of the inconsistency in our shots?

Something to think about. I can only say that since including a conscious effort to orient my eyes square to my body before doing any other element of my pre-shot, I have seen more consistent results. I’m not sure we can ever be totally consistent because I believe that there can be minor differences and inconsistencies that maybe only a robot golfer could eliminate.

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#13

Adam Young recently had a vey on-point article.

You have some good observations. Personally, I doubt if I ever set up the same (pick a measurable metric) from shot to shot, regardless of club involved. I merely want to reduce the rang of differences. Failing to do that. I chalk it up to quantum fluctuations. :man_shrugging:t2:

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#14

Exactly. I was working with our club pro a few weeks back and we were discussing set up as it relates to center strikes. I described my vision issue to him, and his eyes got wide; “golf’s hard enough when you can see properly!”

My degree is physics - I’ll be using this one! :nerd_face:

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#15

Thank you @lwildernorva! I had not thought of left-eye dominance as a good thing in golf! Guess I always (mistakenly) assumed golf was a ‘target’ sport like shooting where hand and eye dominance should be the same; I always struggled with a rifle because I had to lean my head across the stock to sight with left eye.
Maybe my initial assumption that my struggling ball-striking rounds were due to left-eye dominance was incorrect; maybe they were due to right-eye dominance? I shall definitely track this.
Unfortunately I managed to injure my knee so it might be a while before I get a chance to test.
Thank you Lee for insightful post. My immediate hurdle was to improve face strike location, but your thoughts on setup and alignment struck home!

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#16

I’ve written about this elsewhere, but I have this problem even though I’m right handed and (as best as I can determine) right eye dominant. I’ve tested this on my basement green, on an 8-9’ straight putt: use a laser to guarantee the line is correct. Lay a 4’ metal ruler on the correct line. Set a ball on the ruler, turn off the laser. Address the putt: the ruler will absolutely look like it’s aimed outside the left edge of the hole.

If I move over to the other side of the ball (as if I were putting left-handed) the ruler will look like it’s aligned correctly. But I can’t putt left-handed (I tried).

I should have a putter fitting coming up soon; I’ll be very interested to see what effect this has for a fitting.

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#17

Interesting. First I have heard of someone seeing left with a right eye dominance. I am not coordinated enough to even brush my teeth left handed left alone putt. I know this will probably send you down a rabbit hole :slight_smile: BUT have you had your eyes checked lately? It sounds like your left eye is taking over and I wonder if it is vision related more so than dominance.

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#18

Where is your eyeline? “Inside” the ball, online or “outside” the ball.

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#19

Just inside the line, I believe.

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#20

I’ve worn glasses since 5 years old. I got laser surgery at 20 that allowed me not to have glasses for about 9 years, until my eyes got worse again and I went back to glasses.

So short answer: my eyes are a mess.

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