Unlike with other sports, golfers mostly take up the game in earnest at an age where their eyes aren’t what they used to be. This often means having to walk around in circles looking for lost balls, or take a penalty stroke and walk back to where they started to try again.

Golf balls aren’t all that expensive, but they’re also really meant to last for more than one round. Having to borrow a couple because you’ve actually exhausted your supply is embarrassing, too…

How They Work

The way the human eye transforms light into images is truly fascinating. Simply taking a photograph of something you can see clearly is sometimes incredibly difficult.

The reason for this is that everything from shades to colors to perspective is filtered through the physical limitations of the eye before even making it to the brain, where this information is processed further.

To give one example, the color magenta doesn’t actually exist. We can perceive it, but there’s no wavelength of light that corresponds to it.

In somewhat the same way, a small object can easily get lost in the background, even if it’s of a different color.

These glasses are specifically shaded to strip out superfluous light from green plants, making your white ball easier to spot. They work best if the grass is verdant; unfortunately they won’t help much if the course is dried out.

Are They Worth It?

Note that, despite being tinted, these glasses aren’t in any sense intended to shade or protect your eyes. You’ll generally want to keep them in your pocket or bag unless actively hunting for balls; the included carry pouch comes in handy here.

It’s also worth knowing that many people suffer from mild forms of color blindness without ever realizing it. In other words, these color-filtering glasses work fantastically well for some people and hardly at all for others, and the difference may simply come down to their retinas.

Still, as these specs cost only about as much as a bag of 50 balls, this is a risk worth taking.