Contrary to common perception, golf is a physically and mentally demanding sport. It is a good form of exercise, good for the health and safe for the heart, especially for middle-aged men and women looking for a way to keep fit but who, for physical reasons, cannot engage in strenuous activity. Playing golf safely means knowing how to avoid the most common injuries to the back, shoulders, elbows, and wrists caused by overuse, poor swing fundamentals, and on-course swing errors. Each injury requires specific treatment, but there are ways to avoid injury and enjoy golf’s health benefits.
Golf is a Demanding Sport
Shortly after taking up golf in the early 1990s, I saw a cartoon of two
sweaty potbellied men sprawled on a bench after a round of golf. With a
cigarette dangling from his mouth and a hand clutching a beer, one mumbles to
the other: “Hey, ain’t it good to know we’re athletes?”
Golf is probably the most misunderstood of sports because most golfers –
overweight, middle-aged, seemingly unfit –didn’t fit the athletic stereotype.
Golf was seen as a leisurely activity akin to solitaire, chess, or couch potato
surfing.
Tiger Woods changed all that when he came into the professional golf scene
in 1996. His lean muscular look, consummate physical regimen, and competitive
spirit raised the standards of golf – and golfers – to a level never before
seen in the sport. Since then, people started seeing golf as a sport that
demands peak physical fitness and mental conditioning.
Of course, some professional golfers (one is even called the Walrus, with matching
size, moustache, and ambling gait) are overweight and notorious for enjoying
copious amounts of food and drink. But, surprisingly blessed with natural
agility, physical fitness, and mental discipline, they can play golf
competitively for three to four days in a row.
Golf’s detractors wrongly assumed that the game’s slow pace (it takes around
four hours to finish an 18-hole round) does not promote cardiovascular health,
and that golf, being a gentleman’s sport, is so sedentary that it can never
cause bodily injuries.
No, both are not true, and it’s time we put these two myths to rest.