Sponsor News

Retief has signed up to become an Ambassador with the World’s No 1 laser eye surgery provider, Optical Express. Retief has benefitted from the procedure in the last couple of years as have many other golfers and sports people.

Retief said, “Golf is all about the eyes. You have to be able to see the shot, the fairway, the lie, the green, the hole, the weather, the wind - everything. Glasses and contacts are not always feasible playing golf on certain courses and in certain weather conditions. When my stats, particularly my putting, suffered back in 2007 I knew I had to do something – and it came back to the basics of the game.”

Golf and Optical Express
Visual acuity is a central part of a professional golfer’s game. It is vital to have precise vision in order to be able to see the ball and the course but this breaks down into a number of different constituent parts.

First there’s visual concentration – this is the ability to screen out distractions such as spectators, other participants, extraneous hazards which are not part of the hole or course. Our eyes naturally react to anything that happens in our field of vision and so training the eye and the brain to concentrate and assess only information that is relevant is vital to success.

Eye tracking is another part of concentration and allows you to follow the ball effectively studying the prevailing conditions such as wind speed or direction, the speed of the green or the location of a ball in the rough at 300 yards. Eye tracking also helps you maintain better balance, less head movement and quicker reactions.

Visual memory is an integral part of the top golfer’s game. The requirement to process and retain a complex, fast moving and precise picture of the swing is essential to success. Golfer’s that can visualise their swing and the course, including traps and water features will outperform those that can’t. Golfers are fortunate that most of their sport happens in front of them, unlike rugby or horse-racing. Peripheral vision is not such a vital ingredient in a successful golf game, but building up a picture of what is important visually is a key skill to reacting quickly to changes in the weather, the crowd or a rival’s performance. All are important when playing competitively.

Visual reaction time and depth perception are the last two constituent parts of a golfer’s visual acuity. Visual reaction time is how long it takes the brain to react to what the eye sees and is absolutely key to the golfer’s ability to strike the ball cleanly and with the correct amount of spin, draw or fade. Depth perception is again central to all forms of stroke and when effectively combined with eye-hand co-ordination is at the very heart of the successful golfer’s swing. It’s also necessary to be able to judge distance correctly, factoring in relevant information such as wind direction or when playing in heavy rain. Good golf is all about dynamic visual acuity and maintaining healthy eyes. More and more golfers and sportsmen and women in general have been opting for laser eye surgery - from professionals looking to enhance their performance even further, to keen amateurs and weekend golfers who want to restore their natural sight or remove the need for glasses which can hamper performance.

Golfers such as Retief have to battle their rivals, the weather, the course and a whole host of physical factors – being able to see the hole clearly and gauge the conditions shouldn’t be one of their limiting factors. And more and more people, seeing how performance can be enhanced and restored by professionals, are seeking out the edge in their own personal sporting endeavours.

About Optical Express
The Optical Express Group was founded in 1991 and is a global leader of selected healthcare services that encompass optical stores, laser clinics. The Group currently operates in the UK, Ireland, Croatia, France, Germany, The Netherlands and The US. Optical Express performs more refractive procedures in Europe than any other provider and over 98% of patients treated would recommend them to their friends and family. The NASA approved laser technology they have is used in every clinic.

Visit www.opticalexpress.com for further information about the Optical Express Group and the services it offers.