Kaenon Hard Kore Golf Sunglasses Review

Golf is a simple game. A ball, a club, and a hole are all that are needed to play it. Despite that simplicity, today’s golfer makes use of a plethora of tools, devices, and aids to play better and find more joy in the game. Specialized clubs, and advances in ball composition allow us to play longer and straighter shots. Supple and tacky gloves both protect our hands and offer better grip in humid and rainy weather. We fill our highly engineered bags with low friction tees, futuristic divot tools, all manner of ball markers, electrolyte replenishing sports drinks, and gust-busting oversized umbrellas.

While any number of these extras can add comfort and enjoyment to the game, there are a handful of items that can actually help maintain your good health, and allow you to play the game of golf longer, and enjoy your life off the course more comfortably as well. If you regularly walk the course through your rounds, proper footwear, and a well made push cart can save wear and tear on your shoulders, back, hips, and knees. Some good insect repellent can save you from unnecessary itching and scratching. Perhaps as important as anything, however, is to protect yourself from that seemingly ever present sun. Scientific consensus is that the UV rays sent out by our life giving star can cause irreversible damage to both our skin and our eyes. You should be protecting your skin with all varieties of sunscreens available on the market today, as well as a good hat with a brim, even covering the ears if you can stomach the look. For this post, let’s focus on your eyes.

Though I assume that most of us are aware that the sun can hurt our eyes, I still see a great number of golfers ignoring the protection that sunglasses can provide, and until very recently, you could count me among them. American Academy of Opthamology advice about sunglasses includes wearing them anytime you are outside, but particularly during the summer months due to heightened exposure to UVA and UVB rays, and when taking medications that can cause photosensitivity, among others. Advice on what to look for in a pair of sunglasses includes blocking at least 99% of all UV light (UVB is considered more dangerous than UVA to skin and eyes), impact resistance, polarization, and wraparound style. I have known these facts for years, yet when it came time to wear sunglasses during my rounds, I shunned them for the most part. I found that when I had them on I had a very hard time seeing the ball, even right there in front of me. The result was that if I wore sunglasses at all, I would wear them in between shots, removing them during my swing, when searching for a lost ball, and most importantly, always while reading putts. I have worn several brands, but most often Oakley and Sundog, never finding a lens that was right enough to wear through the round. That search ended about a month ago when I played wearing my first pair of Kaenon Hard Kore sunglasses.

Founded in 2001 by Steve and Darren Rosenberg, Kaenon is still a small player in an enormous market. Committed to making the finest quality eyewear available anywhere in the world, Kaenon continues to fight a strong battle against worldwide conglomerate Luxottica, which owns brands ranging from Oakley, Ray-Ban, and Revo to Sunglass Hut, Lens Crafters, and Pearle Vision. While buying a higher end Luxottica brand might not get you much more for your dollar than one of their lower end brands, with Kaenon, you will always get exactly what you are paying for.

ALL Kaenon sunglasses feature their proprietary SR-91 lenses which combine superior sharpness and clarity, lightweight durability, unmatched impact resistance, and anti-glare properties, creating a quality of vision that must be seen to be believed. The impact resistance of Kaenon's SR-91 lenses is rumored to be bulletproof, but we have high visibility evidence that they are golf ball proof. Read this story about how a pair of Kaenons likely saved the eye of professional skier Bode Miller's wife, Morgan, when a ball struck by her husband struck he in the face. Many polarized sunglasses that offer impact resistance are made from polycarbonate, a substance that scratches easily, but SR-91 resists scratches and similar damage. With the grains of dirt and sand that golfers tend to collect on their fingers, and even occasionally shoot into their own eyes, this is a very important and relevant quality. All I needed to convince me, however, that Kaenon made the best pair of sunglasses I have ever worn was one single hole of golf. Believe me, I was highly skeptical when I put them on, but immediately, I experienced the clarity of vision, and the ease with which I could follow the flight of my shots (even the ones that flew through the air). OK, I thought, “these are nice, but let’s see what this green looks like.” I can report that despite my doubts, reading the greens is just as easy with the Kaenon sunglasses on as it is off…maybe easier. Since that first hole, I have had the Kaenon Hard Kore on throughout every round I have played, except when it is actually too dark for any sunglasses to be worn.

I am told that for anglers and adventure sports enthusiasts, the benefits are just as great, if not even better. Testimonials from world class athletes who swear by Kaenon abound. Professional golfers who have already adopted Kaenon as their sunglasses of choice include: Brian Gay, Carl Pettersson, Kevin Stadler, Pat Perez, Paul Azinger, Robert Gamez, Rod Pampling, Carin Koch, Christina Kim, Pernilla Lindberg, and Sofie Gustafson, with more sure to follow. Kaenon sunglasses come in a wide variety of styles, so you can be fashion forward while protecting your eyes as well.

I hope that you care about your eyes and your golf game enough to give a pair of Kaenon sunglasses a try, and ask that you do so by ordering them through my online golf shop at BeaverGolf.com. We currently offer four styles from Kaenon, the Hard Kore that I was provided by Kaenon for this review, and as an approved retailer, but also the Jetty, Burnet, and Beacon. Yes, they might cost a bit more than you might normally spend on a pair of sunglasses. Perhaps you tend to break or lose your sunglasses, so tighten your wallet a bit at the sunglasses rack, but I would strongly encourage you, to spend a bit more, and take care of these, they really are incredible sunglasses. If you are interested in any other styles of colors that we do not yet offer on our store, please feel welcome to contact us via e-mail at beavergolf1@gmail.com, via phone at (888) 650-2870, or via Facebook, @BeaverGolf on Twitter, or as Beaver Golf on G+, and we can work out a special order for you.

Fairways and Greens!