Golf: It's Good for You!
By Peta Lomberg
During her first game of golf this year, Sandra recalls walking up the second fairway, the scent of apple blossoms surrounding her like an aromatic cloak while white petals drifted like wedding confetti on the wind. She remembers thinking “This is as perfect as life gets”.
When Jennifer remembers a moment at the golf course, she recalls a doe and three fawns leisurely chewing leaves from the edge of the eleventh fairway. She remembers thinking how wonderful it was to see untamed nature browsing so serenely , so close to the city.
Golf means different things to everyone who plays it: exercise, competition, friendship, networking. A chance to escape traffic jams and corporate meetings. A chance to reconnect with nature. The challenge of you versus the deviousness of the course designer. The most basic elements of wind, sun, gravity, water. The life force of grass, trees, flowers and bush.
Delightfully, this idyllic environment is also healthy. Google “the health benefits of golf” and you’ll be amazed! Four hours of hiking over hill and dale lowers harmful cholesterol and makes weight loss easier. A round of golf burns about 300 calories in a 150-pound individual who’s carrying her clubs. What else? Golf strengthens bones, increases life expectancy, boosts vitamin D production, improves flexibility and supercharges endorphin production, nature’s feel-good chemical. Who knew?
As a former Olympic athlete (field hockey), who took up golf six years ago, at the age of 42, Sandra knew. “Golf is like yoga. It’s a fitness sport. It’s not a power sport. It’s a game of skills and tempo. It’s a game I can grow old with.”
Mind you, once an Olympic athlete, always an Olympic athlete. “I still compete,” says Sandra. “But now, I compete against myself.” Well, that’s not exactly true. Sandra is VP for Human Resources at the CNIB and as such she gets invited to many fund-raising golf tournaments. You just know her competitive gene turns on when she’s standing on the first tee.
But you don’t have to be a former Olympian to benefit from golf’s intrinsic healthiness. In fact, you can have titanium knee joints like Jennifer. Both her knee joints had to be replaced because of painful arthritis. Fortunately, the surgery eliminated the pain and now Jennifer, who has golfed for the past 41 years, is able to walk and ride the course.
Unlike Sandra, who sees golf as an integral part of her exercise regime, Jennifer rarely thinks about the health benefits of golf. “I just like being outdoors,” says the former insurance executive, who retired 16 years ago. “And I like to be with friends.”
Whatever your reasons are for getting out on the green, you are bound to reap the benefits of this healthy and beneficial sport.
Article courtesy of Ladies Golf Club of Toronto.
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