Shades of Glory

So there I am on the 12th hole at the Navy Golf Course in Cypress, CA. -- the track that nurtured a young Tiger Woods -- staring down an 85-foot putt with a big hump between myself and the hole. I flip down my sunglasses, take a couple of long looks and then strike the ball with an assuredness that in no way reflected reality. Five seconds later that selfsame sphere settled into the bottom of the cup, a hearty huzzah erupted from my playing partners and I was ready to retire from the game forevermore.

More than half the kudos for my death-defying birdie have to go to VedaloHD, the maker of the sunglasses above, a company universally acclaimed by those to whom acuity of vision is a must -- a list that includes aviation types, hunters and even us humble hackers. The science behind these lenses is well beyond my ken, but the latest edition is made of a nearly indestructible polymer used in the windshields of the Apache Longbow helicopter, several of which landed next to the Navy Course during my backswing. No wonder Tiger's such a cool cuke. He's battle-tested.

But as Billy Crystal used to say as Fernando Lamas: "It's better to look good than to feel good," and the VedaloHD line more than fulfills that mandate as well. There are lots of performance sunglasses on the market nowadays, many targeted at the golf world, but most of them make you look like David Duval, somewhere between dorky and dufus. VedaloHD's come in a dizzying array of styles, each one sleeker than the next. Tiger's cool as ice caddie, Steve Williams, is endorsing the HD's, as is surfing champ Chris Ward. The word is out....

Whether you're driving a Ferrari or a Titleist, the laser-sharpness of these lenses will keep you, respectively, on either the freeway or the fairway. But even if you miss the turn or the turf, you'll still look like Bond. James Bond.