Eye dominance changes

[ctonr]

I'm right handed and have always been right eye dominant. Flow neck low offset putters look best to me and I've played versions of those in the last 5+ years with good results - Newport 2.5 and Phantom 5.5.  I noticed last year I struggled with line and aim and it's worse this year. Lining up the putt behind the ball versus what that looks like over the ball was very different.  The correct line looked to the right when over the ball.  I know that I compensate by aiming a little left and push it right.  I've tried line on the ball aiming but it's not comfortable but i should probably give it more time.  I'm losing confidence in putting which has normally been a strength. I believe my right eye dominance has increased.

 

Who's been through this and what did you try/do?  I've read posts and articles but much of the information is conflicting.  I know I need to get on a practice green and figure it out but I'd like to hear from others experience. 

[rufus mangler]

I'm crazy right eye dominant. The only thing that has helped me is picking a spots along the line. "Spot" putting, if you will.

 

Once I line up to the closest spot, it's usually feels very different from where I thought I was aiming.

 

Good luck.

[jls667]

As someone who is right handed, right eye dominant, I too feel most comfortable with low offset flow necks.

 

My honest opinion is get some practice in or a couple lessons. It could be your setup or something simple that incrementally got out of whack over time. 

 

I started off this season putting poorly but I took the old putting mirror out and worked my my stance which then I noticed I was standing too close to the ball. Since then I've been putting well again. 

 

The gear junkie in me hates the Indian not the arrow analogy but it's more often right than not.

[bluedot]

I think eye dominance, along with parallax, is a much bigger deal in putting than most people realize.  
 

Without going into book length detail about my eye problems, I have spent a LOT of time on this, including seeing a sports vision specialist and reading a book about sports vision.  One of the main takeaways, at least for me, is that eye dominance is on a spectrum from person to person just like acuity, peripheral vision, and other aspects of vision.  Professional athletes in all sports tend to have superior vision; frequently better than 20-20 acuity, sometimes more that 180* peripheral vision, AND a very low degree of eye dominance.  I suspect, though I have no proof of this, that great putters probably tend to fall into this category. 

It isn’t clear whether or not there are significant changes in eye dominance as we age, so I won’t comment on that.  But all the properties of vision deteriorate as we age; not just acuity, but night vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and so on.  I think it’s likely that vision changes play into putting, making it tougher to read greens, to get correctly aligned, and to make a confident stroke.  We start with a vision issue in putting anyway, which is parallax; eye issues only add to that.

 

IMO, the only way to overcome this is through very intentional work on a practice green.  Find a straight, flat 10’ or so putt, and work HARD at figuring out a stance, posture, head position, etc, that will help you roll the ball down that line.  If possible, put a chalk line down, so you can SEE the line; you might be surprised at how the chalk line looks when you’re beside the ball ready to putt, simply because of parallax.  Start with 4’ putts until you KNOW that you are lined up correctly and making a good stroke down the line, then gradually move back to 10’.  (Outside 10’ nothing changes, but longer putts are about speed; not many of them go in anyway.)  You can use alignment stickers as a track on either side of the line to help ingrain the feeling of the stroke staying on line, especially going through.

 

One more note:  Maybe the line on the ball will help you, and maybe it won’t.  I was never able to make it work; it was too distracting for me because it always looked tilted toward me and to the left.  I was told by a putting instructor who has worked on Tour that the majority of his clients are that way, and I suspect that may be an eye dominance issue.  If you give it a fair trial and it doesn’t work for you, then pay no attention to people who say that you can get used to it if you just try hard enough.  An alternative to the line for practice purposes is the two color Srixon ball or the TM ball with the wide stripe; those are great for seeing if you are actually putting a good roll on the ball, or if you’re stringing a glancing blow.

 

And good luck !
 

 

 

 

[jaffabell]

Out of interest, I am left eye dominant (so my left eye as I look forwards) - my right eye is totally blurred, imagine looking through a stained glass window.

 

Anyways is there a type of neck that is supposed to work better for left eye dominant? Also, how can it effect putting?

[bluedot]

7 hours ago, jaffabell said:

Out of interest, I am left eye dominant (so my left eye as I look forwards) - my right eye is totally blurred, imagine looking through a stained glass window.

 

Anyways is there a type of neck that is supposed to work better for left eye dominant? Also, how can it effect putting?

I feel for you; you’ve described my eyes exactly.  My right eye is pretty much ruined; serious field of vision loss, some AMD and glaucoma.  My biggest golf issue is a loss of depth perception; I chip mostly with hybrids or fairway wood, only use lofted irons when I’m in the rough.  The real struggle, though, is reading greens; I started using AimPoint about 5 years ago because I just couldn’t see subtle slopes anymore.

 

Fortunately, I had started putting side saddle several years before my right eye started to deteriorate, in part because even then I was VERY left eye dominant, and parallax was a real problem for me.  Side saddle mitigates my eye troubles quite a bit, but I haven’t owned or even looked at a conventional putter over 10 years now.  Wish I could help.

[ctonr]

8 hours ago, jaffabell said:

Out of interest, I am left eye dominant (so my left eye as I look forwards) - my right eye is totally blurred, imagine looking through a stained glass window.

 

Anyways is there a type of neck that is supposed to work better for left eye dominant? Also, how can it effect putting?

 

I mentioned conflicting information in my post and this is one of those - what type of putter works best for a left vs right eye dominance.   I've seen recommendations for all putter types for both.  I will say use what looks best and gives you confidence. 

[ctonr]

9 hours ago, rufus mangler said:

I'm crazy right eye dominant. The only thing that has helped me is picking a spots along the line. "Spot" putting, if you will.

 

Once I line up to the closest spot, it's usually feels very different from where I thought I was aiming.

 

Good luck.

 

I need to go back to doing this consistently even if it looks wrong while standing over the ball.  When I line up the putt behind the ball using a spot in front of the ball I'm very confident I have the right line.  When I get over the ball and aim the putter over that spot I lose confidence and start fidgeting and compensating.  So frustrating. 

[ctonr]

8 hours ago, bluedot said:

I think eye dominance, along with parallax, is a much bigger deal in putting than most people realize.  
 

Without going into book length detail about my eye problems, I have spent a LOT of time on this, including seeing a sports vision specialist and reading a book about sports vision.  One of the main takeaways, at least for me, is that eye dominance is on a spectrum from person to person just like acuity, peripheral vision, and other aspects of vision.  Professional athletes in all sports tend to have superior vision; frequently better than 20-20 acuity, sometimes more that 180* peripheral vision, AND a very low degree of eye dominance.  I suspect, though I have no proof of this, that great putters probably tend to fall into this category. 

It isn’t clear whether or not there are significant changes in eye dominance as we age, so I won’t comment on that.  But all the properties of vision deteriorate as we age; not just acuity, but night vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and so on.  I think it’s likely that vision changes play into putting, making it tougher to read greens, to get correctly aligned, and to make a confident stroke.  We start with a vision issue in putting anyway, which is parallax; eye issues only add to that.

 

IMO, the only way to overcome this is through very intentional work on a practice green.  Find a straight, flat 10’ or so putt, and work HARD at figuring out a stance, posture, head position, etc, that will help you roll the ball down that line.  If possible, put a chalk line down, so you can SEE the line; you might be surprised at how the chalk line looks when you’re beside the ball ready to putt, simply because of parallax.  Start with 4’ putts until you KNOW that you are lined up correctly and making a good stroke down the line, then gradually move back to 10’.  (Outside 10’ nothing changes, but longer putts are about speed; not many of them go in anyway.)  You can use alignment stickers as a track on either side of the line to help ingrain the feeling of the stroke staying on line, especially going through.

 

One more note:  Maybe the line on the ball will help you, and maybe it won’t.  I was never able to make it work; it was too distracting for me because it always looked tilted toward me and to the left.  I was told by a putting instructor who has worked on Tour that the majority of his clients are that way, and I suspect that may be an eye dominance issue.  If you give it a fair trial and it doesn’t work for you, then pay no attention to people who say that you can get used to it if you just try hard enough.  An alternative to the line for practice purposes is the two color Srixon ball or the TM ball with the wide stripe; those are great for seeing if you are actually putting a good roll on the ball, or if you’re stringing a glancing blow.

 

And good luck !
 

 

 

 

Appreciate hearing your journey. I turned 55 this year.  My eyesight has been changing the past 2-3 years...I now have readers in every room in the house.  Makes sense that eye dominance can change too.

[ctonr]

9 hours ago, jls667 said:

As someone who is right handed, right eye dominant, I too feel most comfortable with low offset flow necks.

 

My honest opinion is get some practice in or a couple lessons. It could be your setup or something simple that incrementally got out of whack over time. 

 

I started off this season putting poorly but I took the old putting mirror out and worked my my stance which then I noticed I was standing too close to the ball. Since then I've been putting well again. 

 

The gear junkie in me hates the Indian not the arrow analogy but it's more often right than not.

 

I need to try a putting mirror.  What brand/model do you use?

[Ben B]

On 6/1/2025 at 9:37 AM, ctonr said:

I'm right handed and have always been right eye dominant. Flow neck low offset putters look best to me and I've played versions of those in the last 5+ years with good results - Newport 2.5 and Phantom 5.5.  I noticed last year I struggled with line and aim and it's worse this year. Lining up the putt behind the ball versus what that looks like over the ball was very different.  The correct line looked to the right when over the ball.  I know that I compensate by aiming a little left and push it right.  I've tried line on the ball aiming but it's not comfortable but i should probably give it more time.  I'm losing confidence in putting which has normally been a strength. I believe my right eye dominance has increased.

 

Who's been through this and what did you try/do?  I've read posts and articles but much of the information is conflicting.  I know I need to get on a practice green and figure it out but I'd like to hear from others experience. 

I would forgo the line on the ball and pick a spot about 6 inches in front of the ball and line your putter up to that. I perfer to find either 2 spots to roll the ball in between or one spot to roll the ball just left or right of. This has helped my putting tremendously. 

[Dekudude]

Line the ball up so you know 100% it is aimed properly. Setup over the ball, and experiment with your body and head position. Move your head, move your body, etc. until the ball *looks* like its pointing where you know it actually is. 

[iteachgolf]

I suggest getting fit for a putter you can aim from someone who understands aim.  Every detail matters, even color. 

[dogsbe]

As humans we have stereoscopic vision.  I do believe we believe that we use one eye over the other (eye dominance). But the fact is that both eyes sends an image to the brain (visual cortex) which merges these two images together to create one image.  The huge advantage is that we can actually and visually judge distance. 

 

If we are viewing a putt from down the line, well one eye is actually closer to the target than the other.  The brain just merges the two images and has very limited capabilities to compensate for one eye closer to target than the other.  As a result, your image is distorted which will directly affect distance judgement and alignment.  

 

You can reasonably train your brain to look down the line, a putting mirror and assistant to square you up will help.  But I 100% believe that alignment needs to be done behind the ball.  

 

If you are behind the ball, you are sending equal images from the left and right eye to the brain.  While you are behind the ball, you can visualize the ball rolling in the hole.  This directly accesses the supercomputer, the unconscious mind, to make all the targeting solutions.  So at set up, you don't have to think about target line.  This removes one big variable to the equation to hole the ball.  You just need to set up to target line and determine pace.  (Pace is another topic).  

 

 

[jls667]

4 hours ago, ctonr said:

 

I need to try a putting mirror.  What brand/model do you use?

 

I actually got mine as a result of a putting lesson a year ago with a local pro. I don't know the brand but honestly they're all pretty much the same 

[bluedot]

14 hours ago, ctonr said:

 

I need to go back to doing this consistently even if it looks wrong while standing over the ball.  When I line up the putt behind the ball using a spot in front of the ball I'm very confident I have the right line.  When I get over the ball and aim the putter over that spot I lose confidence and start fidgeting and compensating.  So frustrating. 

This is a perfect description of the parallax effect.

[MCCA]

16 hours ago, ctonr said:

Appreciate hearing your journey. I turned 55 this year.  My eyesight has been changing the past 2-3 years...I now have readers in every room in the house.  Makes sense that eye dominance can change too.

I to feel your pain i'm also right eye dominant, my wife is a eye optician i feel like she's bringing me readers every week😃. I've like you always putted with a flow neck or crank hosel i'm now at the point i might try a center shaft.

[HandsomeMatt]

So I’m not alone !!! Almost verbatim with everyone else, flow neck , miss right etc . I’ve tried many different ways, it usually resorts to me opening my stance more and more during a round to compensate , getting more upright and crowding the ball and that typically doesn’t end well.
One thing I learned, I putt best with a longer putter that’s more flat , think Ricky Fowler , try to get a little further away from the ball and take a more wide angle  view , move my arms more as unit than my right arm driving so much .

I used an 8802 and Del Mar for a long time and the open stance was the key with those but on days where my “feel” was off it was a nightmare. I still catch myself trying to get my head behind the ball and see the line that way but I had to learn to trust my hands being further away and a maybe a little higher ,  once I was able to do that it freed me up so much more. 

[ctonr]

Appreciate the great feedback from everyone.  It's good to know I'm not the only one that's struggled with this.  I have some things I need to do consistently and some new things to try.  I'll come back here in a couple weeks with an update on how it's going.

[belligerentgene]

On 6/2/2025 at 4:05 PM, ctonr said:

 

I need to try a putting mirror.  What brand/model do you use?

Ive been using the one from eyeline golf for a while - works great if I practice with it consistently

[shaolingolfer]

On 6/2/2025 at 6:36 AM, jaffabell said:

Out of interest, I am left eye dominant (so my left eye as I look forwards) - my right eye is totally blurred, imagine looking through a stained glass window.

 

Anyways is there a type of neck that is supposed to work better for left eye dominant? Also, how can it effect putting?

 

I will say for left eye dominant, try center shaft or something like LAB

[ProStryker]

I’m heavily left eye dominant. ( which I theorize is better for golf, easier to slightly turn head to look down putting line, target line on shots, etc, vs a full turn of the head with right eye dominant.). Anyways, being left eye dominant, I feel most comfortable putting with the ball way up in my stance, with the ball under my left eye. It draws me to more face balanced or center shafted putters feeling more comfy

Edited June 4 by ProStryker

[ProStryker]

I just bought one of these to work on my start line. Works awesome.

https://whygolf.com/products/putting-thing?variant=47553914011808

[A.Princey]

Not to be too blunt, but use an alignment mark on your ball and set your line before you putt. Putt along the ball line, problem solved. And for those who say "it looks off standing over the ball...", get over it and trust it.

[bluedot]

23 minutes ago, A.Princey said:

Not to be too blunt, but use an alignment mark on your ball and set your line before you putt. Putt along the ball line, problem solved. And for those who say "it looks off standing over the ball...", get over it and trust it.

Do you think it’s just barely possible that if the line looks misaligned that it MIGHT promote a poor stroke, rather than helping?  Is it barely possible that the perception of the line varies widely from player to player because of different vision, including eye dominance?
 

You have only my word for this, but I tried and tried and TRIED to learn to use the line; I  play 20-25 senior tournaments a year, from the association championship level on down, and I’d do pretty much anything to make more putts and shoot better scores.

 

But the line ALWAYS looked tilted toward me and aimed way left of my intended line, even on a chalk line or a putting mat, and I pulled EVERY putt when I “trusted” what I was seeing.  I’ve written this before, but I was told by a putting instructor that’s worked on Tour that 60% (his estimate) of golfers can’t use the line.  
 

If you can use the line successfully, maybe you should look at that as a blessing, not a virtue.  You might pump the brakes a bit on telling others to just “get over it”.

[iteachgolf]

1 hour ago, A.Princey said:

Not to be too blunt, but use an alignment mark on your ball and set your line before you putt. Putt along the ball line, problem solved. And for those who say "it looks off standing over the ball...", get over it and trust it.

Line on a ball only helps about 30% of population. More likely to do harm or not help than make more putts. 
 

This has been tested with big sample sizes by multiple independent parties and always gets similar results 

 

 

[bluedot]

8 hours ago, iteachgolf said:

Line on a ball only helps about 30% of population. More likely to do harm or not help than make more putts. 
 

This has been tested with big sample sizes by multiple independent parties and always gets similar results 

 

 

Thank you!

[A.Princey]

I guess green reading comes into play, which many people cannot do well. I imagine sometimes guessing the line while standing over the ball works just as well as trying to pick the line from behind the ball. It all sounds like the problems of the 6” variety. 
 

The other hurdle here is most folks barely have enough motivation to bend over and pick their ball off the ground once on the green(fetch, ketch, scooper, grabber….) let alone bend down to align the ball for every putt. I suspect it’s a subconscious unwillingness to change, and commit to a new method as well.

Edited June 8 by A.Princey

[A.Princey]

9 hours ago, iteachgolf said:

Line on a ball only helps about 30% of population. More likely to do harm or not help than make more putts. 
 

This has been tested with big sample sizes by multiple independent parties and always gets similar results 

 

 

Source? Not that I don’t believe you, but one also needs to use this method for more than a few rounds to draw any meaningful conclusions. One cannot go to a practice green one time and try the alignment method for 30min and come to any statistical outcome. You need to brute force adopt a new practice, possibly without immediate success, for several months to truly understand its potential for future improvement. Change takes time, especially for a mental hurdle such as this, as it apparently seems for some. 

Edited June 8 by A.Princey

[iteachgolf]

10 minutes ago, A.Princey said:

Source? Not that I don’t believe you, but one also needs to use this method for more than a few rounds to draw any meaningful conclusions. One cannot go to a practice green one time and try the alignment method for 30min and come to any statistical outcome. You need to brute force adopt a new practice, possibly without immediate success, for several months to truly understand its potential for future improvement. Change takes time, especially for a mental hurdle such as this, as it apparently seems for some. 

literally tested on a straight 10’ putt. And tested with SAM by Bruce Rearick, David Orr, Phil Kenyon and I’ve done extensive testing as well. Sample size is in the many thousands of golfers