The Health Benefits of Hitting the Course

Sports and athletics are passions of American culture. They provide opportunities for engagement and learning that most people have participated in at some point in their lives. For young people, sports and athletics provide much needed physical and mental exertion and set the scene for lessons about teamwork, pride, self-confidence, and sportsmanship that will serve them well into adulthood.
The problem with many sports that we all enjoyed as kids though is that they become somewhat out of reach the older you get even though those same benefits are just as good for adults as they are for kids. While many adults do stay engaged in the high impact sports of their youth, there are few sports that exist that are accessible to people of all ages and golf is one of them. Not only is golf a sport that can be practiced and enjoyed across a person’s entire lifetime, it also provides many mental and physical health benefits that become increasingly important, especially as people age.
Physical Fitness
While many modern private golf clubs come suited with golf carts and coolers, there are still many public courses where things are done the old-fashioned way, by walking. Walking is a very simple and low impact way of getting exercise and is accessible to people of all ages. Golf courses provide ample and mixed terrain that force walkers to use different parts of their bodies to traverse. On top of that, an average round of golf, if walked completely, can add up to around four miles of movement.
Mental Fitness
On top of the physical health benefits, golf offers a multitude of opportunities for mental health that are beneficial to people of all ages. First, there is the relaxing effect of slowly and methodically walking from one hole to the next and just enjoying the sun and air around you. While golf courses are manufactured natural spaces, they still provide much needed access to the outdoors.
For people who live in urban areas, a visit to the golf course might be the closest thing to nature that can be achieved without getting out of town. The act of playing golf is also as much a mental exercise as it is a physical one. The mechanics of the swing and the thought process that must go into lining up one’s plan of attack when approaching a hole are mental exercises that require patience, focus, and attention to detail. In a modern world where we all spend too much time on our phones and in front of screens, this type of mental exercise is critical to keeping our minds sharp and engaged
The last benefit of golf as a sport is that there is really nothing better than following up a long day at the course with a long soak in a spa. Hot water is a great way to relax the muscles and joints and ward off any soreness or fatigue that might follow such a physical activity. It’s a shameless plug but we like to think that there is no better way to spend a day then beginning it on the course, and ending it in the tub.

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