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Have you ever looked at the hole while lining up a putt, looked down at the ball, then looked up at the hole again and to your suprise the hole seemed to move?  I know I have.

Putting can be frustrating at times.  Sometimes putting seems so easy that the ball tracks to the hols on line as if it is being pulled by a string.  Other times the ball breaks in the opposite direction from what you read!  Like I said, puttng can be frustrating.

I have recently learned that I am right eye dominant.  I also recently learned how eye dominance affects your putting.

Because I am right eye dominant,  I am predisposed to aiming to the right with my putter.  I then swivel my head and look across my body at my target, effectively throwing my left eye out of the way so that my right eye can take over.  This is something that I will have to be aware of for as long as I play golf.  The left eye dominant people that I work with usually have the opposite problem.  They aim left of their target and then use their left eye to focus on it as they look away from their bodies.  Please understand that these are general statements.  I have seen left eye dominant people aim right and vica-versa.  But to be honest, I have never paid much attention to any of this, even though it makes for interesting conversation.  I am more concerned with how to aim properly.

So What Does  All This Mean?

Golfers who are right-eye dominant tend to see the hole to the right of its true location. The reason is that they set up with their right eye too far inside the ball and the target line. Initially, they push their putts to the right. Then they adjust their stroke accordingly (outside to in) and then pull their putts to the left on a regular basis. (The opposite is true for those who are left-eye dominant if the left eye is out of position.)

You can read your putt’s break and hit a perfect stroke, but still end up missing it because your eyes deceived you. Learn which of your eyes is dominant to account for this optical illusion.

About 70 percent of the population is right-eye dominant, which puts the trailing eye (that’s the one farthest from the hole) in the driver’s seat when putting. If this eye is not positioned properly, your view of the hole becomes distorted, lessening your chances of holing out. Not sure which eye is your dominant one? Take the following test.

The Test To Determine Your Eye Dominance

1. Take a toilet-paper tube and fix it over the ball so that both eyes can see it in the center of the tube.

2. Close your left eye. If the ball remains in the center of the tube (top photo), you’re right-eye dominant. If the ball jumps out of the tube and out of your line of sight (bottom photo), you’re left-eye dominant.

To set up correctly, follow this routine

For more putting help with your straying eyes I recommend you check out The Pro’s Edge – Vision Training for Golf!

Good luck and happy putting!

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