It is sort of ironic that I had started that poll regarding yellow golf balls and their real or perceived benefits as far as visibility is concerned. I ran into a different kind of vision problem on the fairways today that frankly bothered me much more and in some ways scared me to death.
If you happened to be in Southern New Hampshire today maybe you experienced this as well. The sun in the late afternoon today was as bright and as penetrating as I have ever seen it, ever anywhere.
The sky was blue for the most part with a few wispy clouds about. The clouds did not help at all and may have made things worse as it appeared to me that they just served to defuse the sun in some instances which was not an advantage. The sun was low but not anywhere near the horizon as yet as it was about 5:45 when I got out there. At any rate I had not experienced anything like this on a golf course before. For example, this was the only time on a golf course that I could not pick up the ball at all. I would lift my head from the shot and the ball was just gone! Usually I can come back at a golf ball with the sun at my back as opposed to looking into the sun and find it easily. Not today. The sun just exploded off of everything.
The sun was so bright that it seemed to turn blades of grass into tiny mirrors. I had no depth perception at all. For the period of time when I was able to maintain my concentration and hit the ball well, I overcooked just about everything flying greens everywhere. Ultimately however I became so disoriented that I could not gauge the distance from the end of my nose to the ball sitting at my feet! I was completely overwhelmed. Since it was a Friday night there were a number of dads out with their sons and I was just petrified by the idea that I might hit a golf ball and not even be able to see it good enough to warn somebody.
As for yellow vs white today, I could not pick out my white golf balls anywhere. I know I have mentioned that we have had so much rain this year that the fairways, really everything on the course is really lush. Today everything looked washed out. I could not see golf balls in fairways or on greens. I finally found golf balls because their shape was too uniform for mother nature. However I could not pick up the whiteness of the ball against the green grass at all. The ball actually stood out a bit more if you landed it in the sand as the sand did not create that little mirror effect that I mentioned relative to blades of grass.
Once I got to the point where my concentration was completely gone I could not have hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle. I once just jammed the club right into the ground and really hurt my wrist I was so out of whack as well as blind. Everybody was wearing sunglasses of some sort with varying degrees of success. Folks in my age bracket did not put up much of an effort to play. The few there were retired to the putting green or just played a few holes and packed it in for the most part.
I went home and immediately took out some training tools and clubs as the sun was finally down. I had my swing back within about 30 minutes but that still did not save me from being petrified that I simply could not see out there on the course.
I was wearing Oakley sunglasses but I had the lenses in them that would help read greens. I started to do some research before I decided to come in here and ask for some assistance. From my brief look at the topic it would appear that the rose color that is meant to help read greens is not optimal for bright sunlight and colors like Iridium or something with yellow tint is preferred in bright sunlight. I have a set or polarized Iridium lenses for my Oakleys. I have some Maui Jims as well in a few different styles. Buying another pair of glasses would be fine as I just do not want to be caught like this again. This was scary.
I would not have believed that the sun would have forced me off the course in a million years but I just had to leave. It was no fun as eventually I felt like I could not escape and I just did not like the feeling of not having any control of my shot and no ability to see where the ball was going.
I would be willing to listen to any recommendations for lenses or sunglasses or anything that will help in instances like what we had out there today. This was surely a rare day at least I hope so. That said I don't even want to get close to having a day like this again as eventually when you add in concern for other players and your own discomfort it was a day of torture.
If you happened to be in Southern New Hampshire today maybe you experienced this as well. The sun in the late afternoon today was as bright and as penetrating as I have ever seen it, ever anywhere.
The sky was blue for the most part with a few wispy clouds about. The clouds did not help at all and may have made things worse as it appeared to me that they just served to defuse the sun in some instances which was not an advantage. The sun was low but not anywhere near the horizon as yet as it was about 5:45 when I got out there. At any rate I had not experienced anything like this on a golf course before. For example, this was the only time on a golf course that I could not pick up the ball at all. I would lift my head from the shot and the ball was just gone! Usually I can come back at a golf ball with the sun at my back as opposed to looking into the sun and find it easily. Not today. The sun just exploded off of everything.
The sun was so bright that it seemed to turn blades of grass into tiny mirrors. I had no depth perception at all. For the period of time when I was able to maintain my concentration and hit the ball well, I overcooked just about everything flying greens everywhere. Ultimately however I became so disoriented that I could not gauge the distance from the end of my nose to the ball sitting at my feet! I was completely overwhelmed. Since it was a Friday night there were a number of dads out with their sons and I was just petrified by the idea that I might hit a golf ball and not even be able to see it good enough to warn somebody.
As for yellow vs white today, I could not pick out my white golf balls anywhere. I know I have mentioned that we have had so much rain this year that the fairways, really everything on the course is really lush. Today everything looked washed out. I could not see golf balls in fairways or on greens. I finally found golf balls because their shape was too uniform for mother nature. However I could not pick up the whiteness of the ball against the green grass at all. The ball actually stood out a bit more if you landed it in the sand as the sand did not create that little mirror effect that I mentioned relative to blades of grass.
Once I got to the point where my concentration was completely gone I could not have hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle. I once just jammed the club right into the ground and really hurt my wrist I was so out of whack as well as blind. Everybody was wearing sunglasses of some sort with varying degrees of success. Folks in my age bracket did not put up much of an effort to play. The few there were retired to the putting green or just played a few holes and packed it in for the most part.
I went home and immediately took out some training tools and clubs as the sun was finally down. I had my swing back within about 30 minutes but that still did not save me from being petrified that I simply could not see out there on the course.
I was wearing Oakley sunglasses but I had the lenses in them that would help read greens. I started to do some research before I decided to come in here and ask for some assistance. From my brief look at the topic it would appear that the rose color that is meant to help read greens is not optimal for bright sunlight and colors like Iridium or something with yellow tint is preferred in bright sunlight. I have a set or polarized Iridium lenses for my Oakleys. I have some Maui Jims as well in a few different styles. Buying another pair of glasses would be fine as I just do not want to be caught like this again. This was scary.
I would not have believed that the sun would have forced me off the course in a million years but I just had to leave. It was no fun as eventually I felt like I could not escape and I just did not like the feeling of not having any control of my shot and no ability to see where the ball was going.
I would be willing to listen to any recommendations for lenses or sunglasses or anything that will help in instances like what we had out there today. This was surely a rare day at least I hope so. That said I don't even want to get close to having a day like this again as eventually when you add in concern for other players and your own discomfort it was a day of torture.
