When most golfers buy sunglasses, lens colour comes down to personal preference.
For golf, it's worth thinking about it a little differently.
Your lenses don't just need to make sunlight more comfortable. You're constantly trying to distinguish a white ball from blue sky, green grass and dark rough while also picking up slopes and contours across the course.
So, what colour lens works best?
Grey lenses
Grey is extremely common in everyday sunglasses because it reduces overall brightness while keeping colours relatively neutral.
That makes grey a great general-purpose tint.
For golf, however, simply making everything darker isn't necessarily the goal. Golfers benefit from being able to distinguish between similar colours and pick out small details across the course.
Brown and amber lenses
Brown, copper and amber tints are popular in many outdoor sports because they can increase the perceived separation between colours and objects.
That extra contrast can be useful on a golf course, particularly when looking across green turf or trying to follow a ball through changing backgrounds.
They're also one reason you'll see warm lens colours used frequently in golf-specific eyewear.
Rose and red-based lenses
Rose, reddish-brown and similar warm tints are another option for golfers who prioritise contrast.
Rather than simply reducing the amount of light reaching your eyes, the aim is to make important details easier to distinguish.
This is the thinking behind the distinctive maroon colour of DUBL's ShotSync™ lens.
We didn't choose maroon because it looked different.
During development, the aim was to create separation between the white ball and the dominant colours you encounter during a round — particularly green turf and blue sky — while still giving you a natural, comfortable view of the course.
What about very dark lenses?
Darker isn't automatically better.
If a lens removes too much light, shaded areas, greens and darker backgrounds can lose detail even if bright sunlight feels more comfortable.
Golf also involves constantly moving between very different environments: open fairways, shadows underneath trees, bright skies and relatively dark putting surfaces.
The best golf lens therefore needs to balance brightness control with visibility.
Lens colour isn't the only thing that matters
Tint is only one piece of the puzzle.
When choosing golf sunglasses, we'd also look at:
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UV protection
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Optical clarity
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Contrast
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Glare control
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Depth perception
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How securely the frame stays in place through the swing
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Whether the lens works when you're looking at the ball, the horizon and the sky
This last point became particularly important when we developed DUBL golf sunglasses with ShotSync™.
Instead of using one uniform tint from top to bottom, the lens changes through three zones based on where a golfer naturally looks during different parts of a shot.
So, which colour should you choose?
For everyday sunglasses, grey is hard to beat for neutrality.
For golf, we'd generally lean towards a warm contrast-enhancing tint such as brown, copper, amber or rose rather than choosing purely on darkness.
Ultimately, the best lens is the one that lets you comfortably see the ball and the course for an entire round.
That's more important than what colour the lens looks like from the outside.
