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Hearing Aids for Golfers

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I’m 80 yrs old and carry a handicap index of 6, so I’ve had a lot of experience playing golf. I shoot better than my age every time I play. I’ve also had a lot of experience playing golf while wearing hearing aids, most of it bad. I live in GA where you get very hot and sweaty in the summer. Most hearing aids I’ve had can’t handle this and shut off after a hole or two, despite their claims about moisture resistance. So, here are my random hints on playing golf with hearing aids.

Get the least exposed compatible with your hearing loss. ’s will probably work ok. Most others won’t. My best experience has been with the ReSound style aids. With these MIH hearing aids the receiver is tucked up in the helix of the ear and is not exposed to moisture or wind. These are perfect for golfers, but a niche product not suitable for everybody. Their resistance to wind noise is great.
I have a couple of rechargeable aids that have also worked fine. They are sealed much better with no exposed battery compartment.

On all aids, make sure the impulse noise reduction is turned off. If left on (generally the default) your impact with the ball will be muffled or eliminated - terrible for golfers. This feature is called different things depending on brand. Widex calls it TruSound Softener. Signia calls it SoundSmoothing. Resound calls it Impulse Noise Reduction. Starkey calls it Transients. Have your fitter turn this feature off, or give you a memory for golf with it turned off.

You can also buy these little covers that fit over the the hearing aids, and they work well, but they’re a pain in the ***. I lose them or forget to bring them, so they aren’t a good solution for me.

Most of the golfers I play with don’t use their hearing aids, and I think their game suffers from this. Hearing is very important to understanding how you’re striking the ball.

Just some of my random thoughts on this topic. I apologize if this has been covered before.

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Well unfortunately not everyone hears the same with their hearing aids. But if nothing else now I have a new excuse why I stink at golf. I can’t hear the club hitting the ball. I knew it wasn’t just my lack of skills

As a fellow golfer I also need to hear the impact at strike. I generally have a set program instead of Autosense or Master, so that I don’t get switching or any sound dulling.

This is a really interesting point. As a musician, I always have one program that does nothing except for correct for my frequency loss. No NC, No compression, No EQ shifts, etc. For me, this means I don’t lose the transients when playing/listening and the sound doesn’t shift when the thinks I’m listening to music and scoops all of the mids out.

I would imagine you could do something similar and have a program for golf. Hope that can help you so you can at least hear while you play!

Just some feedback: I play golf in south Florida mostly in the summer (I generally take a break when the tourists take over during season). I haven’t once had a moisture shut down. I wear currently a Widex beyond 440 , and the standard program works fine, I can hear the ball strike well enough.

I do miss my at times though. It was the ultimate for wind noise and rain protection. Other than that, the RIC has been better for me in all ways.

That’s great to know. I’ve got a Widex Evoke 440 that I haven’t yet tried during hot days and I need to. Your fitter, or you, must have turned off the Widex TruSound Softener, or it isn’t as aggressive as some other brands. I have had several different RIC models from Starkey and ReSound and they all turn off after a hole or two. I haven’t tried the latest Quattro or One models. I hope they’re better.
I’m glad you’ve had good experience with your Widex’s.

I do instruct my fitters to go easy on sound processing. I want to hear most things, just some things with a bit of attenuation. The Beyond was the first digital fitting to really nail that for me.

Mostly though - this aid is incredible in moisture. I workout an hour daily, play golf 2-3 times a week, go to the beach… this aid has failed once, and that was just a broken wire

Any of you using Bernafons?

I’ve just fitted a pair of Alpha 9 to a local golfer and I was wondering how you found them for both wind noise and impact noise?

Sorry, I have no experience with Bernafons. The most recent aids that I’ve tried which survived the sweat and oils are the ReSound LiNX Quattro rechargeables (RE961-DRWC). These, of course, don’t have the battery compartment and are sealed quite well. In fact, these are my daily wearers now. Wind noise is another matter, though.

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