According to an informal survey published in Golf Digest, two-thirds of golfers are overweight, although only 54 percent of golfers believe they are. While top tour players are generally in good health, the majority of nonprofessional golfers are not.
More than 500 mostly male golfers filled out the survey. The results included such information as:
The Emotional Freedom Technique, the proven energy psychology tool used in my practice, can certainly improve your final golf score. But it will take more than that for you to shed those extra pounds.
Recently, I played my first round of golf at the tender age of 51. I was really very surprised to find out how crippled most of our culture really is. For those of you that don't golf, the courses like to group golfers in foursomes to make more efficient use of the course, so this provides an opportunity to meet new people.
This was an interesting experience for me as I typically don't meet many new people outside of the health arena. I was really surprised to see how health challenged many that we were golfing with were, and most were not in good health.
The data collected by Golf Digest on some 500 people tends to confirm my experience as the collective health of golfers they interviewed wasn't any better than that of typical Americans, which is really not very good at all.
However, there is quite a bit to be said for taking three to five hours out of your daily routine to break out and take a mental break. It just amazes me how time flies when you play golf. The mental relaxation factor is certainly a valuable benefit for many in our fast-paced culture.
The fact is, golfing isn't particularly intense exercise. It can involve a fair bit of walking, true, but very little aerobic activity. Walking for most of us just isn't enough to really get you in shape unless you were in really poor shape to begin with.
But walking for 18 rounds of golf would certainly be good for you, if you walked the course, but of course the majority of people actually use golf carts.
So if you are a golfer you will want to consider another activity as a form of exercise. Not only will it likely improve your health, but it will also help your golf game.
While exercise can be the ultimate drug for heart disease, it needs to be carefully done to attain all its benefits, and for most riding 18 rounds of golf in a motorized cart just won't do it.