The First Inch of Your Putting Stroke

Article by Herb Rubenstein, PGA, and Dr. Craig Farnsworth

Introduction

Monocular – one-eyed – golfers have a number of challenges that are unique. Many think we are at a significant disadvantage compared to golfers that are able to use both eyes. This is not true for many one-eyed golfers. This article addresses some of the things one-eyed golfers can do to overcome some of the inherent challenges we face in life and golf seeing only at of one eye.

In the next decade, “sight impaired golfers” will increase dramatically as a significant part of the population that plays golf gets older. Golf ball companies are responding with different colored golf balls, although one of the authors had to harangue Titleist for nearly a decade to produce its first yellow ProV1.

There are ten ways one-eyed or sight impaired golfers can improve their chances of playing better golf. Many items on this list apply to people who see a little out of their “bad” eye, as I do. Overall, if one can see well out of one eye, there is no reason why that person cannot become a great golfer like Tommy Armour did given his eyesight limitations.

The Ten Keys

1. Monocular golfers can have depth or distance perception problems. They need to do more than the average golfer to assess/estimate the distance and the slope (break) from the ball to the cup or pin, for putting or shorter chip or pitch shots. They can walk off the distance of the putt or shot or shoot it with a “laser gun” or distance and slope/measuring “app,” use AimPoint by using their feet to “feel the slope,” including uphill/downhill orientation, and can look at the putt from the low side half-way in between the hole and the ball and estimate by counting the number of seconds it will take for the ball when putted at the right speed to get to the hole. For some, they can draw a long straight line on their golf ball to help them line it up correctly. One of the authors of this article was one of, if not, the earliest innovators and teachers of this technique used by so many pros and amateurs today.

2. One of the biggest challenges, if not the biggest, occurs when the ball is in the bunker since the white or even colored ball on the sand is difficult for the good eye only to sense the distance of the ball from your hands and body. Since it is a two stroke penalty to touch the sand or “ground” your club before your shot to help you figure out the ball position’s relationship to your club and feet, we first recommend you only do a minimal digging of your feet into the sand. This way, your feet can help you assess the distance from eyes to the ball. Another suggestion is to consider using yellow or multi-colored golf balls (like Tom Watson), especially is if you have trouble seeing your drives (as one of the authors of this article does.) Third, you have to develop a repeatable “entry point” into the sand and “bottoming out point” in the sand so that you could hit a good sand shot even if you closed your eyes after address the way Sergio Garcia did putting when he won the won the 2017 Masters and more recently winning the Sanderson Farms Championship in October 2020 with a final round 63 and coming back from five shots in the final round.

3. As stated earlier regarding the use of your feet, use them more than your eyes to help you determine the uphill, downhill and sidehill lies as your eyes will fool you and minimize or lesson the amount of the slope in almost every situation including on the green, in the fairway or rough, in the bunker, and break in putting. It is essential to evelop some type of measure or formula you can implement and as stated earlier we recommend the AimPoint green reading system – for help in the break and the speed to hit putts. If anything, you can always assume a little more break and the putt or lie being a little more uphill, downhill or sidehill than your eyes tell you, but that is not good enough to make twenty-five footers or even ten footers with any regularity.

4. If your back eye (right eye for right-handed golfers) is your good eye, while putting, tuck your chin so your forehead is flat in relation to the ground. Look toward the hole by rotating your head clockwise to the left so you are looking through the bridge of your nose at the target. This keeps your head and eyes parallel to the target line.

5. While lining up putts from behind the ball in a squatting position, it is recommended that your good eye be directly behind the ball instead of your nose. This is essential and often overlooked since a person usually learns to have, almost by instinct, the bridge of their nose exactly behind the ball since they learned how to line up a putt from behind the ball when their sight was good.

6. To emphasize a point made earlier, we recommend using a tool to mark your ball with a long straight line on the ball, with a perpendicular line at the end of that line – EYELINEGOLF. Line up the long straight line for every shot where you can touch the ball, (tee shots and putts) exactly where you want to aim the ball. Additionally, use the back line to square your clubface to the line. When one of the authors of this article does this, it looks like the ball is aiming left of the hole. Brad Faxon said at the PGA Merchanise Show in 2020 that when he started using the line on his golf balls, even to him, it looked like the line was pointed to the left of the hole. But, he was such a brilliant athlete and golfer, he just took that into consideration and putted the ball along the line on the golf ball and became the number one putter year after year on the PGA tour. So, if the line on the ball looks like it is “offline” after you are sure you lined it up correctly, go with the line on the ball and do not try to “correct” what is already perfect because it does not look right. Take your time in doing everything you can to have that line when you put the ball on the green perfectly lined up with your starting point on the putt that you want. Don’t take as much time as Bryson DeChambeau does when he keeps moving the line an infinitesimal amount several times when placing his ball on the ground for a putt, but do pay good care that the line on the ball looks right as you are bent over behind the ball as you put in on the green. Taking a very careful look at the line of the putt when you do that is very important to getting as much information about the line and uphill/downhill nature of the putt as possible.

7. Position your good eye directly above or slightly behind the ball at address for putting.

8. For breaking putts, if possible, use clues in the background to assist you in aiming, like a tree, in the background, as your directional target. For speed guidance, pick a spot on the green short of the hole for downhill putts and past the hole for uphill putts.

9. Feel free to inform your playing partners that you are visually-challenged, so that they may assist you if you are unable to pick up your shots line after hitting.

10. When on the U.S. Olympics’ Vision & Safety Sub-committee, we made it mandatory for all athletes to wear qualified (U.S. Safety standards) eye protection in ball sports and mandatory for all one-eyed athletes in all sports. The chance of eye injury is always greater for the one-eyed athlete for obvious reasons.

Conclusion

So, if you are one-eyed, please consult your eye doctor for the recommended thickness and type of lens that is safety approved! You should wear them all the time for golfing, for UV protection and most importantly, for protection against trauma to your only good eye. It could be but a fraction of a second, and all is lost! As well, having a slightly lighter tint, where you can see your eyes through the lens when looking in a mirror – tint has nothing to do with UV protection – is also helpful for better appreciation of depth.

Make notes of the suggestions here and apply the ones that can help make your round more enjoyable. Most of all, have fun!