How High-Contrast Amber Lenses Improve Visual Performance

People usually find amber lenses the same way. A buddy lets them try a pair on the range, they look down at the grass, and everything suddenly has an edge to it. The ball looks whiter. The fringe looks greener. You can see where the cut changes.

That's what high-contrast amber does. It filters out a lot of the blue light that makes things look hazy, so the colors that are left look sharper against each other. On a golf course that means more detail in the ground: the slope on a green, the grain, the line where the fairway turns into rough.

It's also why we put high-contrast amber on the bottom of our lens and not the top. When you look down at the ball or read a putt, you're looking through the amber. When you look up to follow a drive into a bright sky, you're looking through gray, which is the better color for cutting down glare. One pair handles both, so you aren't pushing your glasses up on your hat every time you get to the green. You'll find it in the GX5, our best seller, and the GX6, which has a taller lens.

Amber, gray or polarized for golf?

Gray is the most common sunglass lens. It darkens everything evenly and keeps colors true, which is comfortable on a bright day, but it doesn't add any contrast. Looking down at the ground, a gray lens can make things look a little flat.

High-contrast amber does the opposite. It's lighter than most gray lenses and makes detail easier to pick out, especially on the ground and in flat or late-day light. On its own, though, it isn't the best for staring into the sun.

Polarized lenses are great on the water, and they're the wrong choice for golf. They cut the sheen off the grass, and that sheen is what shows you which way a green breaks. We wrote more about why non-polarized lenses are better for golf.

So our answer is both colors and no polarization: gray on top, high-contrast amber on the bottom. Every PeakVision frame uses that same lens.

Where to find it

The GX5 is a light half-rim frame with adjustable nose pads, and it's the one most of our customers pick. The GX6 is the GX5 in aluminum-magnesium with a taller lens and spring hinges. If you like a wraparound with more coverage, the SL9 is our highest-rated frame. You can also see all our golf sunglasses, or read how the lens is made on our Technology page.

Every pair ships free in the US within a day, and you have 30 days to send them back if they don't work for you.