AIMING in Golf – Is EYE DOMINANCE Causing You to Miss?

AIMING in Golf – Is EYE DOMINANCE Causing You to Miss?

Aiming in golf isn’t as easy as you might think. Aiming too much right as a right-handed golfer is the most common fault I see and I think it’s because of the most common eye dominance..

Actually, over the years, almost 90% of my students have come in with this tendency.

How Eye Dominance Influence Aiming in Golf

If you’re right-eye dominant (your trail eye as a righty), you’ll often perceive that you’re aiming too far left — even when you’re not. This perception leads to poor alignment, compensation habits, and ultimately, even your best shots can miss the green.

If you are lead eye dominant you actually have a massive advantage over most of us. You perceive your golf shot exactly like it is from your stance perspective. Jack Nicklaus (most majors in the history of golf) was lead eye dominant and actually aimed slightly to the left. He also happened to be the best clutch putter in golf history.

Which one are You? Assessing Eye Dominance

Choose a target 50 yards away. Put a arm in front of you and make your index finger align with the target.

Now close you left (lead eye for righty player) eye. Did the your index finger move or stay roughly the same?

Now close your right eye (trail eye for righty player). If the object moves to the right here (like it does for me and most others) then you are a trail eye dominant.

In other words. When you look with your non dominant eye the perception of your surroundings shift. In my case, when I look with my non dominant eye, I see the target more to the right.

Translated to aiming in golf = If your lead eye is non dominant you will perceive the world wrongly = you will aim to the right to accomodate the lead non dominant eye’s perception.

How to improve your Aiming in Golf – Intermediate Target with Trust

The trick is to bypass your “fault” and to use the oldest trick in the book. An intermediate target.

Choose it 30-50 cm in front of the ball and make this your sole focus for aiming. Trust it even though it will feel weird.

Your mind will make everything in it’s power to make you aim to the right.

Make the intermediate target your best friend in golf.

Interested in old school golf swing stuff?

Check out the Forgotten Master Moves homepage here.

The FMM Project – the swing style that I teach – has it’s overview page here.