For years I didn’t understand the value of my eyes as putting aids. Recently, I’ve really worked hard on aiming with my dominant eye and using quiet eye when putting.
Your Dominant Eye
The first step in using your eyes as putting aids is figuring out which of your eyes is dominant. Make a triangle with your hands (see image below) and focus on an object. It doesn’t have to be a great distance away.
The drill is to close one eye at a time. When I close my right eye, I see the back of my left hand. When I close my left eye, I see the same as when I use both eyes. In other words, I am right eye dominant. Just like people are right or left handed. They have a dominant eye.
How does knowing which of your eyes is dominant affect your putting? Misalignment is one of the top issues causing poor shots. When I stand behind a putt or full swing, I close my left eye and aim with my right eye.
When I stand over the putt, I rotate my head slightly when looking at the hole so that I see the line with my dominant eye.
Eyes and ball position
There is a little more to your putting setup than just figuring out which eye is dominant. I struggled with ball position and where to put my head in my setup.
I finally figured out that if I put the ball in the middle of my stance with my left eye over the ball, I push the putt right.
After literally thousands of putts, I found out I’m much more consistent putting with the ball positioned off my left heel and having both my eyes just behind the ball. Having my head back and inside a little helps me see the line more consistently.
Now, my miss is slightly left if I get a little handsy. Measuring putting stats over time makes a big difference in understanding your stroke. My backstroke and forward stroke rotation are close to the same consistently.
Quiet Eye
My definition of quiet eye is taking away all thoughts except the focus with my eyes on the back of the ball.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve squirmed over a putt. My mind not focused on one thing. My eyes all over the place.
The clinical version of quiet eye was developed by Professor Joan Vickers who is credited as the originator of quiet eye theory. In an article on 3 point shooting in basketball she wrote, “The quiet eye (QE) is defined as the final fixation or tracking gaze that is located on a specific location or object in the task environment within 3° of visual angle (or less) for a minimum of 100 milliseconds (ms).”
In other words, gaze at the ball for a bit before and slightly after you hit the putt. Focus on the back of ball.
In practice, I put black dot with a Sharpie on the ball. Set the ball down with the dot facing away from the hole. I make sure things are lined up and I’m relaxed physically and mentally. Then I putt and look up after the ball is gone.
Some pros have such a dot on their ball all the time. In regular play, I don’t put lines or dots on my ball. I do use the line the manufacturer puts on the ball. I use the line to aim the ball at the aim point and then focus on the back of that line using quiet eye.
The result is straighter putts hit more directly on the sweet spot of the putter face.