Health Benefits of Golf
Golf indeed can do wonders to your health. Golf is promoted by the United States Golf Association as a healthy sport. Rather than taking a ride in the golf course on golf carts, walking will be better for your health.
No doubt that moving from one hole to another is easily done by taking a ride in the golf carts. However, taking a walk on the greens can do a good deal in keeping your body totally fit. Your heart pumps and the blood circulate all over your body. Moreover, walking is enjoyable.
David Fay of the United States Golf Association thinks that golf carts should be avoided as much as possible. Walking from one hole to the next is the right way to playing golf and most enjoyable too.
One of the most popular and recommended all time exercise is walking. Walking is something that fits all and is easy to carry out. Walking is good for your all around health.
There are those who think that walking is not exactly the healthy thing to do in the golf course. This is attributed to the nature of walking required in golf where the player has to repeatedly walk and stop. But quite contrary to such beliefs, a number of studies conducted on golf players point out otherwise. The positive contribution of walking is significant enough in the experience of golf players.
Researchers in Sweden have recorded that walking the golf course playing eighteen holes is equivalent to intense aerobic workouts to the extent of 40 to 70 percent of such workouts.
Edward Palank, a cardiologist by profession, conducted a study that found that bad cholesterol levels in those who walked the golf course were considerably low. They were obviously in better health. It was also found that their good cholesterol levels remained stable. Obviously those golfers who preferred golf carts to walking did not fare well. Their results showed a remarkably lower health status.
It is enough to play four hours of golf to get the results from participating in a fitness class of forty five minutes. This is the conclusion of Golf Science International.
The Northern Ohio Golf Association, yet another association, declared that you get the equivalent benefits of walking 3 to 4 miles when you walk the golf course, over tees, grass and around the hills.
If you are still not convinced, then the surest and easiest way to check the facts out is by actually experiencing the walk in the golf course. You can try out these activities while walking.
When playing golf, you can walk the length of alternating holes. This way you will end up walking nine holes in total by the time you have finished your round of golf.
But if you are simply not feeling up to walking, it still does not matter. You can walk a set of nines. You can ride the rest.
In case your golf partner insists on using the golf cart and wants you to accompany him or her, do not despair. You can ride on the path of the cart and still walk down towards your ball down to the fairway. Your partner can then transport the golf cart up.
If you are still not convinced that walking the golf course is better, there are yet other ways of looking at it. May be your legs are not up to walking and your health is not up to the mark. But then do consider the kind of damage that golf carts can do the fairways.
Golf carts indeed damage the fairways. The damages can especially be noted around the greens and the sand traps. These damages can be avoided. The carts are supposed to avoid these areas. But then it all depends on who is driving the golf cart.
Walking is good for the greens. The technological advancement has actually made grass capable of growing in all kinds of areas; even in areas where grass is not believed to grow. This has transformed golf courses unlike earlier times. The grass looks incredible. Yet, even these golf courses are liable to be subject to considerable wear and tear.
Considerable damage that is avoidable occurs when golf carts traverses along the fine-looking greens. These reasons should prompt you or make you see reason as to why it is better to walk through or over, along and across the greens.