Why women should take up golf to
improve their health
THE FACTS
A nice round number of steps A golf course is right on trend for exercise. Play a round and you will automatically achieve the recommended 10,000 steps a day.** Burning 500 calories is par for the course Women can expect to return from a round of golf at least 500 calories to the good. Golf might not seem strenuous enough to help you lose weight, but 500-­‐plus is about the same calorie burn as you’d get from an hour of Zumba or even downhill skiing. If you carry your clubs rather than pulling them on a trolley you’ll burn even more calories. Golf helps keep you evergreen Typically, women take up golf a bit later in life than men and the good news is that playing golf just gets better and better for your health. The physical benefits of playing golf actually increase as you age. Older players are more balanced and so less likely to fall. Golf stops you flagging too! Golfers keep going for longer. Balance and muscle endurance are improved by swinging the club and walking the course. More greens, fewer blues Golf’s physical and mental aspects can help reduce the risk of anxiety and depression. It could even fight dementia. Playing golf releases mood-­‐enhancing endorphins that combine with the joy of being in the great outdoors to help you relax and reduce stress. Golf can make you live longer The evidence points to golfers living longer than non-­‐golfers, enjoying improvements in cholesterol levels, body composition and wellness. Golf could help women prevent and treat more than 40 major chronic diseases such as breast cancer, heart attacks, stroke and diabetes.*** 1 The evidence These findings from a study by researchers at the University of Edinburgh published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine are part of the golf and health project led by the World Golf Federation. Scientists analysed findings from 5,000 studies looking at associations between golf and well-­‐being. Ends *KPMG’s recent ‘Golf Participation Report for Europe’. Currently, only just over one in ten UK golfers are female (14%) compared to one in four in Europe (25%), which makes the proportion of female golfers in the UK the lowest of the top ten markets in Europe. **Mayo Clin Proc. 2006 Aug;81(8):1041-­‐3. The contribution of golf to daily physical activity recommendations: how many steps does it take to complete a round of golf? Kobriger SL1, Smith J, Hollman JH, Smith AM. To quantify the number of steps adults take during an 18-­‐hole round of golf, we recruited 42 healthy volunteers (12 men and 30 women aged 30-­‐80 years) with established United States Golf Association handicaps to complete an 18-­‐hole round of golf on each of 3 municipal golf courses. Subjects walked each course while wearing a pedometer to record step data. Analysis revealed that each golfer took a mean +/-­‐ SD 11,948 +/-­‐ 1781 steps per 18-­‐hole round of golf. Regardless of handicap level, sex, or course played, most subjects exceeded 10,000 steps during a typical round of golf. Consequently, in most cases, walking 18 holes of golf will meet the recommendation to accumulate 10,000 steps per day as part of a general physical activity plan ***Additional data: [PRESS RELEASE, 30 May 2008] Golf can be a good investment for the health, according to a new study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet. The death rate for golfers is 40 per cent lower than for other people of the same sex, age and socioeconomic status, which correspond to a 5 year increase in life expectancy. Golfers with a low handicap are the safest. The study, which is published in Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, is based on data from 300,000 Swedish golfers and shows that golf has beneficial health effects. 2