Most people think of golf as being a fun or relaxing way to spend four hours on a sunny Saturday afternoon.  Often overlooked are the tremendous health benefits of golfing.  This article will list five palpable health benefits that accompany the fun and relaxation of being a golfer. 

The most obvious health benefit of being a golfer is that you can choose to get a great cardiovascular workout by walking.  This of course is predicated on the idea that you not ride a motorized cart.  The average eighteen-hole golf course is between 6,500-7500 yards long.  That translates to roughly five kilometers.  Assumed in those distances is that you take a straight line through the centre of the fairway to the green, and anyone who has golfed knows that that is not a realistic expectation.  Depending on how much of a hacker you are, you could wind up walking closer to 7 or 8 kilometers by the time you’ve finished an eighteen-hole golf course. 

The second health benefit of golfing is that it forces you to stretch.  You should stretch before you play in order to avoid injury; but even as you play, each time you swing a club your body is flexing, rotating, and stretching.  The benefits of stretching are well-documented and can include such positives as increased circulation, increased flexibility, and even the alleviation of pain in areas that are normally tense. 

Professional golfers make the golf swing look effortless, but anyone who has actually attempted to swing a golf club with accuracy and power knows how difficult it is to do.  The third exercise benefit of golfing is that it gives you a great upper body workout.  Whipping the golf club around with enough speed to hit for distance requires a good deal of not only coordination but also strength.

A fourth health benefit of golfing is that it improves your balance.  Swinging a golf club from one side of your body to the other at speeds in excess of 120 kms/hr forces your body to make hundreds of adjustments in order to not fall over. 

The four health benefits listed so far have to do with your body, but golf also offers some health benefits for your mind.  Golf takes you away from the stress of your every-day life.  As you step into the tee box and smell the fresh cut grass, contemplating where you want your ball to wind up, you’ll feel the concerns of your day melting away.  Stress has been proven to shorten people’s lives and adversely affect their health.  Golf provides people with an escape and a refuge where they can get away from their concerns for a short while.  Golf also includes making calculations such as club selection, how to play a particular lie, whether you should go for it or “lay up,” the slope of the green, and many others.  These calculations put your analytical prowess to the test and force your mind to work in ways that it never would if you were simply sitting at home on the couch. 

If you’ve always been interested in trying golf but have never done so, these five reasons may just push you over the edge and get you to go purchase a new set of clubs.