The perfect spectacles for golfers

Blinding sunlight, breaks on the green, frequent changes between light and shadow, harsh contrast: the golf course poses many challenges that standard spectacles and sunglasses cannot meet. For perfect visibility and your dream handicap, you need the right spectacles with professionally fitted lenses. But just what kind of spectacles do golfers really need?

A typical situation on the golf course: blinding sunlight makes it difficult to follow the ball. Traditional sunglasses are simply not enough as they not only darken your vision, but also reduce contrast. A solution to this problem is now available: special spectacles specially designed to meet this challenge. Golfing spectacles should ideally feature large, wrap lenses and an appropriately curved frame. Only these lenses satisfy the needs of your eyes when you are playing golf and provide them will full UV protection.

There are a lot of spectacles on the market that have allegedly been "specially" designed for golfers. However, they have not been adapted to the needs of every individual wearer. You cannot benefit from your full visual potential on the golf course – and your handicap suffers as a result. Perfect vision can only be achieved if the lenses have been tailored to the personal vision needs of each and every golfer. Even if you need high prescription lenses, the appropriate lens designs from ZEISS eliminate blurring in the periphery of your lenses, and you enjoy outstanding, distortion-free vision. 90 percent of our movements are initially coordinated by our eyes. Problems such as muscle ache, neck strain and the dreaded "golfer's elbow" are often caused by poor vision. Professionally fitted lenses may make these irritating complaints a thing of the past.

The lighter the frame, the better. Modern materials for spectacle frames – titanium is a prime example – allow the production of extremely light spectacles. They are not only comfortable to wear, but also ensure a better all-round fit as lighter frames tend to slip less down your nose than heavier frames. Semi-rimless frames with large lenses are ideal as they maximise your field of view. Small lenses are not suitable as they allow you to look over the top of your lenses. Golfers have to move their eyes constantly and rapidly from the sky to the green. This also means constant head movements, leading to fatigue – and to the consequences this has on your performance.

Tip for the tint: Light to dark purple or yellow-orange tints have proven to be the best solution for enhancing contrast on green surfaces. These not only improve visual comfort, but also have a practical effect: depth perception is optimised and the contours of the green are clearer. You can better identify breaks on the green and therefore also better assess the ball trajectory. There are no nasty surprises, and fewer of those putts that fail to reach the hole. Everything is in view. This is only one of the reasons why experienced golfers value specially fitted golfing spectacles.

An integrated polarisation filter is indispensable for golfing spectacles. This lens coating effectively eliminates most of the distracting reflections and glare that can result when the sun is reflected off surfaces such as lawns, water or – of little relevance for golf – snow.

Antireflective coatings provide golfers with additional clarity: in combination with a polarisation filter, they ensure maximum transparency and unimpaired vision. They also make your golfing spectacles look better: they prevent the "window pane effect" and enhance the visibility of your eyes. Proven extras such as hard coatings to protect against scratching or antistatic, dirt-repellent coatings are also useful, and also have another major benefit: you don't need to clean your spectacles as often.

Important: As mentioned above, 100% UV protection is vital on the golf course due to the strong sunshine to which you are often exposed.

Unlike many other situations in everyday life, experts strongly advise against wearing progressive lenses for golf. Two distances which are important for golf are not sufficiently taken into account by progressive lenses: the distance to the ball before tee-off and during putting – in other words, when the ball is on the green and not in the air. In traditional progressive lenses these ranges are blurred or distorted. The result: mis-hits that might never have happened with the right lenses. Please consult your optician to obtain more details on individualised golfing spectacles.

Sunglasses with ZEISS ProGolf^® sun protection lenses are the best choice for all golfers, and not just the professionals. The decisive benefit over standard sunglass lenses: they not only darken your vision, but also ensure astounding contrast thanks to selective absorption. This provides you with first-class, comfortable vision even in constantly changing light and is ideal for identifying those unpredictable, subtle breaks in the green. And the benefits do not end there: standard features include 100% UV protection, a hard coating for increased scratch resistance and a high-quality antireflective coating – and all in an extra-light plastic lens with high resistance. All in one – one for all! Single-colour tints (with 40 percent absorption) or with graduated tints (from 75 to 25 percent absorption) for even better glare protection.

As with all good eyewear, a pair of golfing spectacles starts with the services of a professional: your optician. He or she will examine your eyes thoroughly, do the necessary measurements and conduct the analysis needed to obtain your personal vision profile. To make the results even more exact, a measurement should also be made while you are holding a golf club and with your typical body posture when putting and driving. The shape of your head, your natural posture and the length of the golf club: these are all factors that help your optician find the right lens for you. Taking your golf club with you to the optician? It may sound unusual, but this is the only way of ensuring that golfing spectacles are optimally adapted to the wearer and to the special viewing conditions experienced on the golf course.