Dextrality and eye position in putting performance

The relationship between eye and hand dominance and the relative positioning of the ball with respect to the subjects' eyes on putting performance was investigated. Twenty-four pure dextral (right-eyed and right-handed) and 24 cross-dextral (left-eyed and right-handed) novice golfers were randomly assigned to putt at a target 3.66 m away in two conditions, eyes focused directly over the ball and eyes positioned midway between their feet and the ball, i.e., eyes positioned 5 cm closer to their feet. The analysis indicated a significant interaction for dextrality and the relative position of the eyes during putting. Pure dextral golfers demonstrated less absolute error and less variable error in their putting performance when they focused their eyes midway between the ball and their feet than when they positioned their eyes directly over the ball. No differences in error scores were found for cross-dextrals across the two putting conditions.