Have you heard this one before? “Walking for exercise is good. But the walking a golfer does just doesn’t count, because it’s stop-and-go.”
Wrong, plain wrong. According to the highly-respected former Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Koop, “Studies have shown the strong health benefits walking can also have in protecting golfers against heart disease.”
New studies focusing on golf are proving, more and more, how beneficial our walking really is. Researchers in Sweden, for example, studied the physical demands on middle-aged golfers walking their courses (which are often flatter than many American courses). They discovered that golfers’ exercise intensity ranges from 40% to 70% of maximum aerobic power, despite short walking intervals typical of the game. According to Golf Science International, researcher Gi Magnusson calculates that four hours of playing golf–walking–is comparable to a 45-minute fitness class! And the best part is, he concludes, “Golf is unique in the way it motivates middle-age and elderly individuals to walk a fairly long distance on a regular basis.”
Another careful study looked at Hawaiian men, long term. Data on 2678 of them aged 71 to 93 showed that risk of heart disease decreases 15% for each half mile walked daily. The men who walk 1.5 miles or more each day have less than half the rate of heart ailments compared to those walking less than a quarter mile. What’s most dramatic about that big study is this: It doesn’t matter what speed you walk, as long as the distance is covered.
Using a pull cart or carrying your golf bag doesn’t improve your health, though. What helps you is your walking, not your lugging. That’s why motorcaddies are recommended by so many cardiologists, back specialists, and doctors who counsel patients with pulmonary conditions. Many golfers who start–young enough–playing with motorcaddies actually never end up having to ride.
One of the most interesting examples of walking’s benefits can be inferred by the experience of golfers who have used electric caddies the past 30 years. Numerous individuals who started using them back in the 1970s–when they were in their sixties–are still walking to play golf in their 80s. There’s even a happy group who are now Nonagenarians–still playing golf with motorcaddies in their nineties.
Some years ago, cardiologist Edward A. Palank evaluated effects of walking the golf course in a famous study that’s still often cited in the medical community. He was looking at “bad” cholesterol versus “good” cholesterol. Dr. Palank had one group of middle-age golfers walk three times a week for four months, while making no changes in their diets or starting any other exercise. A similar control group didn’t play walking golf. The walking golfers decreased their “bad” cholesterol, while their good cholesterol stayed about the same. Dr. Palank thus showed, for the first time, “The key is in improving the ratio of good cholesterol to bad, which walking the course succeeded in doing.”
These and other scientific studies are being promoted to golfers this year by the American Heart Association in their LINKS TO LIFE golf campaign. Joining in support is our USGA, as well as the National Association of Golf Tournament Directors. So be sure you ask, when you play a tournament this year, if you can walk instead of ride. Even if a cart fee’s included in your entry fee. Best yet is suggesting your riding partner walk with you too! You’re doing him or her a favor.
So when you hear people saying golf can’t be worthy exercise, just tell them nicely that scientific studies are proving they’re incorrect. In his Golf Digest article about the LINKS TO LIFE campaign, writer Scott Smith says it best, in our opinion. “The bottom line for golfers. . .start hoofing it. Any form of walking is good for your ticker, even if that means you’re just chasing after your 150-yard banana ball all day long.”