Riding in carts has become the favored mode of transportation for many weekend golfers - but you should try those legs out again for several reasons.
As David Fay of the USGA has written, “We strongly believe that walking is the most enjoyable way to play golf and that the use of carts is detrimental to the game. This negative trend needs to be stopped now before it becomes accepted that riding in a cart is the way to play golf.”
Walking a golf course is good for your health, good for the course’s health and good for the game’s health.
Everyone knows that walking is the most fundamental of all exercise programs. So it makes sense that walking a golf course would be considered good for you.
It hasn’t always been considered that, however. Some have argued that golf is not good exercise because of the start-and-stop nature of walking golf.
Don’t believe it. Walking a golf course is a great part of any exercise program, as has long been proved by numerous scientific studies ... not to mention anecdotal evidence and good ol’ common sense.
As for those scientific studies: Among others, researchers in Sweden found that walking golf equated to 40-percent to 70-percent of the intensity of a maximum aerobic workout (assuming 18 holes played). In another, cardiologist Dr. Edward A. Palank’s study showed that walking golfers reduced their levels of bad cholesterol while keeping their good cholesterol steady; the control group of riding golfers failed to show those good results.
