Which eye(s) for judging distance?

BluesManDan

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So I stumbled on something curious the other day about judging distance. I seem to do better by just using my right eye.

Background: I've always been an extremely "aggressive" putter... by that I mean that if (when) I miss, it will go consistently past the hole... just a few feet on short putts, but the farther the putt is, the farther it goes by! Lag putts have generally always terrified me, because no matter what I do or how many times I would tell myself "don't hit it long!" --- I would still do it and knock that sucker way by. I'm righthanded, but have a dominant left eye (which I chalk up to the astigmatism in my right eye). I suppose that I should naturally be right-eyed, but my right eye is weaker because of the astigmatism. It's always been an issue for me when shooting firearms... right-handed and left-eyed doesn't work too well.

What I stumbled onto was this: when I get over the putt to finally judge distance and make a stroke, I close my left eye and just use my right eye for distance. My distance control suddenly comes under control. I don't do this when greenreading, but just for the final gazes at the hole before I make the stroke. I look at the ball, close my left eye, then lift my right eye gaze to the hole, get the mental picture of where the hole is, and then putt. It really tames my putting and has stopped the banging-it-way-by issue.

What happened? What I figure is this: I notice that when I'm over the ball, looking towards the hole with my head tilted as it is during putting, and I alternately close one eye and then the other, I can see the hole change position, and it looks about 10% closer with the right eye, and 10% farther away with the left. Try it. You won't notice any difference when your head is level, but tilt your head so one eye is higher than the other, and if you wink back and forth between eyes you should be able to see an object move up and down, which your brain would interpret as up=farther away, down=closer. I think that maybe my situation is some kind of dominant-eye-confusion. I should be right-eyed, but the astigmatism makes me use my left eye more, but my right eye should be my ACTUAL dominant eye. So when I judge distance, and SHOULD be using my right eye, my brain has been using my left, and so I hit it consistently long. Both eyes open, left eye dominates and I hit it long. Right eye only, I don't knock it by.

Anyone else ever done this or know anything about it?
 
Not me. I need both eyes because binocular vision is necessary for depth perception, which is essential for me to judge distance, whether on the green or for longer shots.
 
Well, if it works for you, good for you, and keep doing it.

But I'm with fourputt on this one, we need both eyes to judge distance.

As an architect, I read lines for a living, both on the computer and in actual construction sites. Reading putts is never easy unless someone gave me a topographic map of the greens.
 
If it works, it works, but I need both eyes.
 
I need both eyes to have depth perception!
 
Well, I usually use my right eye to look down my rangefinder.
 
Not me. I need both eyes because binocular vision is necessary for depth perception, which is essential for me to judge distance, whether on the green or for longer shots.

Several here have said you need both eyes for depth perception, but I think this is a misunderstanding of the way binocular vision works in regard to depth perception, at least as it relates to golf. Binocular vision is necessary in general life when sizes of objects are generally unknown, and the differences between the right eye and left eye perception work together to teach you how far away a given object is, using shadows and different lines of perspective. In general life, objects are of all sorts of different shapes and sizes and colors and shades. Binocular vision IS necessary. Not so on the golf course. The hole is always the same size, and the pin is always the same height. Binocular vision is not necessary for judging the distance of the hole or the pin.

I've always said the same thing as you all -- I have to use both eyes -- until I tried using just one. And I seem to do better with one.

That having been said, I've read that modern golf putting theory proposes keeping the head more upright when putting -- as opposed to old school putting theory which said the face should be horizontal with your face right over and pointed right at the ball. If you judge distance with your head vertical and eyes on the same horizontal plane, then yes, by all means use binocular vision. But with head tilted and eyes on different horizontal planes, monocular vision may work better. On my last gaze, my eyes are always on different planes...
 
this is a bit interesting and quite frankly something I never really thought of. Firstly, whatever works for anyone is always a goof thing :)

But still somewhat interesting that a difference in which eye we view from would offer one multiple feet of difference is (to be honest) hard to grasp as our eyes are only a couple inches apart. But again if its something that is helping someone then so be it.

I for one lack ability to view well in 3D. Where it comes into play is when viewing things at a considerable distance, Like for example perhaps cars in the far distance on the highway. I have (vs normal people) a harder time determining which distant vehicle is closer or farther than another. Not for vehicles close or at moderate distance but at a far distance. I think this is also why I often have a hard time telling if a pin (of course smaller than a vehicle) is front, center or rear and is why I need that info before hand or via some set system to tell me. If I view a green from 150 and have no info where the pin is I very often do not know if ots front or rear or mid. As for putting in the case of the OP I don't have this problem nor the issue the Op describes. But none the less its interesting to discuss.
 
Several here have said you need both eyes for depth perception, but I think this is a misunderstanding of the way binocular vision works in regard to depth perception, at least as it relates to golf. Binocular vision is necessary in general life when sizes of objects are generally unknown, and the differences between the right eye and left eye perception work together to teach you how far away a given object is, using shadows and different lines of perspective. In general life, objects are of all sorts of different shapes and sizes and colors and shades. Binocular vision IS necessary. Not so on the golf course. The hole is always the same size, and the pin is always the same height. Binocular vision is not necessary for judging the distance of the hole or the pin.

I've always said the same thing as you all -- I have to use both eyes -- until I tried using just one. And I seem to do better with one.

That having been said, I've read that modern golf putting theory proposes keeping the head more upright when putting -- as opposed to old school putting theory which said the face should be horizontal with your face right over and pointed right at the ball. If you judge distance with your head vertical and eyes on the same horizontal plane, then yes, by all means use binocular vision. But with head tilted and eyes on different horizontal planes, monocular vision may work better. On my last gaze, my eyes are always on different planes...

It may be something you can train yourself to, but it certainly isn't the way nature intended. Humans, in common with virtually all predators, have binocular vision because natural selection deemed it beneficial for a successful hunter. Being able to judge distances accurately for a spring, strike, or in the case of man, for a throw was all too often the difference between eating and going hungry.

On the golf course, I'm a predator, and the hole is my prey. Being able to see from both eyes and use my depth perception to gauge distance, and therefore the power needed to send the ball the right distance, is very little different from my far off ancestor throwing a stick or a spear accurately enough to bring down his prey. When I'm looking at the hole and getting my final feel for the distance, my eyes may be angled in relation to the ground, but they are on the same plane perpendicular to the line to the hole.
 
I always use both eyes.
 
It may be something you can train yourself to, but it certainly isn't the way nature intended. Humans, in common with virtually all predators, have binocular vision because natural selection deemed it beneficial for a successful hunter. Being able to judge distances accurately for a spring, strike, or in the case of man, for a throw was all too often the difference between eating and going hungry.

On the golf course, I'm a predator, and the hole is my prey. Being able to see from both eyes and use my depth perception to gauge distance, and therefore the power needed to send the ball the right distance, is very little different from my far off ancestor throwing a stick or a spear accurately enough to bring down his prey. When I'm looking at the hole and getting my final feel for the distance, my eyes may be angled in relation to the ground, but they are on the same plane perpendicular to the line to the hole.

I love the science part of this. Its always interesting:)
You are correct that its our Binocular vision which allows us to better gauge distance to objects. Though there is much debate in the science community that early humans were actually more preyed upon than they were predators and may not even started eating prey till much later but that an interesting topic I suppose for a different forum , place , and time...lol
Anyway it shouldn't be the case (because of what you mention) that anyone would then have to close one eye to better see the cup distance as it would go against one of the biggest advantages of having binocular vision in the first place. And it is known those who have lost vision in one eye have a harder time judging distances due to missing the binocular vision. Just a bit strange the op is finding his problem seems to go against the science of it. however, perhaps there is an eye problem here in this case that requires a doctors input.
 
So completely unrelated to golf but I had a friend lose his aviation medical after he lost an eye. With one eye you have no depth perception and unable to accurately judge distances. In other words, he'd have a hell of a time landing an airplane.
I would think depth perception would be crucial to judging the distance of a putt on a subconscious level.


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I'm lucky in that I putt from the same side as my dominant eye but I kinda get what you are getting at BMD. My little bro was a righty but was left eye dominant and had a real hard time shooting with much accuracy. Gun, bow, didn't matter, he struggled. I messed around with what you said a little, looking at the max carpet putt available in my house (just over 50 feet) and I can see where this method might help you. If I point at my 50 foot hole with eyes horizontal and then block my dominant eye I'm now pointing about 8 feet right per the message my non-dominant eye is sending my brain. If I do the same with my eyes diagonal in a putting stance my non dominant eye tells me I'm pointing about 2 feet right and 5 feet short. It seems to work for you, and all the better should provide you some confidence that you found a fix, so go make some birdies.
 
I'm lucky in that I putt from the same side as my dominant eye but I kinda get what you are getting at BMD. My little bro was a righty but was left eye dominant and had a real hard time shooting with much accuracy. Gun, bow, didn't matter, he struggled. I messed around with what you said a little, looking at the max carpet putt available in my house (just over 50 feet) and I can see where this method might help you. If I point at my 50 foot hole with eyes horizontal and then block my dominant eye I'm now pointing about 8 feet right per the message my non-dominant eye is sending my brain. If I do the same with my eyes diagonal in a putting stance my non dominant eye tells me I'm pointing about 2 feet right and 5 feet short. It seems to work for you, and all the better should provide you some confidence that you found a fix, so go make some birdies.

This is a different thing altogether. You are talking about alignment on a distant object, something I never really have to be concerned with at address. I make my read, stand behind the ball and pick a spot on my line about 2 feet in front of the ball, and that's what I line up to for all putts. I don't even try to line up on the hole 50 feet away from me.

I do however look at the hole once more after I take my stance to lock in my feel for the distance, and for that binocular vision is almost essential.
 
I played today... putted okay, though the greens were still a little bouncy from aeration. Only had one 3 putt: a 60 footer that was really uphill and a big breaker... I just barely got on the green and the pin was all the way at the back/top of the green. Didn't get it up the hill on the first putt. Oh well.

The way I'm using the right eye only thing is if it's a downhill putt or for some other reason I want to make sure I don't hit it too far, I use my right eye only; it really tames my distance. If it's uphill or I need to be aggressive I use both eyes. Again, this is ONLY in regard to the final gaze for feel/distance control right before I make the stroke, and not for greenreading or setup/alignment. I've done it for 3 rounds now, and have done pretty well with it. Weird.
 
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