A baseball lover may want to know what it’s like to hit off a 90-mph fastball, and it can be achieved at a batting cage, usually with a machine firing baseballs. Shooting a 3 like Steph Curry can be done at the local high school gym. Of course, it’s not Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in front of you and with 19,000 screaming fans in the stands.
Golf, however, offers challenges that are more similar, and depending on the course and condition, can be very similar conditions that the world’s best have to confront. Let’s take the second shot at Pebble Beach’s famous par-4 eighth. It’s an expensive round, yes, but it is available to the public--and once on the course we can face the same challenges and decisions that PGA Tour pros face.
When it comes to No. 8 that we play on any given day, it may not be with hundreds watching on the gallery ropes during a U.S. Open. It probably isn’t going to be televised or publicized and yet it might be criticized. All of which doesn’t matter. It’s still the same shot – a long approach over the most beautiful coastline in California to a green that looks about as big as a dining room table. Tiger, Jack, Arnie and hundreds of thousands of other golfers have had that shot. And we can experience it, too.
It’s the same venue demanding the same execution. There’s the same stark reality that anything short is failure, and anything that leads to a par is worthy of a long, long celebration.
That’s the first part of my personal love of the game.
The rest comes the next time I play. It could happen in the men’s club tournament, or it could happen walking a quick nine in the Sunday gloaming, just me and my clubs. Golf always gives you challenges to assess: How to judge the tailwind on a downhill par-3; what kind of swing is needed from under a tree to get the ball near the green? When the shot comes off as needed, it’s like a harpoon of good feelings enters my heart and anchors into my soul.
It could be the straight drive off No. 1, or an approach that hangs in the air as it descends on the pin – each shot offers a challenge, and it’s up to us to meet it. Put another way, after sinking a 4-foot putt, it’s always good to remind ourselves that no one – not even Tiger – could achieve a better result.
That’s why I play.
There are times in the early morning when a whiff of freshly mown grass and a chill in the air sends me back 30 years. No round in particular, just memories of dew-covered fairways and the promise of a long, uninterrupted walk with childhood friends.
There were no smart watches to count steps back then, but we knew by our sore, often blistered feet that those marathon summer days were the best kind of tired.
As the years go by, there’s a new appreciation for all the good a nine- or 18-hole walk provides.
LPGA star Charley Hull plays this game beautifully for a living, feeling the charge that comes from a Solheim Cup or major championship surge. But she recently admitted that some of her favorite times on the golf course even now are back home in England, bantering with her mates, carrying her own bag.
“Sometimes not the best of weather, but reminds you of feeling like a junior, do you know what I mean?” she wondered. “I find it so much fun.”
The National Golf Foundation reports that, historically in the U.S., two-thirds of rounds played are in golf carts. That means there’s an awful lot of people missing out.
They’re still experiencing health benefits, of course. A study in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports found a 40 percent reduction in mortality rates among 300,000 members of the Swedish Golf Federation. Basically, the study found, golfers live an average of five years longer.
Another study found that walking 18 holes burns nearly twice the number of calories (1,500) as riding in a cart.
But what’s the best way to walk?
Growing up at my local muni, I can’t recall a single player under the age of 60 using a push cart. Never crossed our minds to do anything but carry, though the double-strap was a game-changer.
Nearly 20 years ago Petr Korda, concerned about the long-term effects carrying a bag might have on his daughter’s spine, petitioned the AJGA for a medical exemption for Jessica to use a push cart. Jessica Korda became the first player to win an AJGA Invitational using one in the summer of 2008.
“We still have that push cart,” said Petr.
AJGA staff had taken note of the contrast between the two teams at the 2007 Ping Junior Solheim Cup in Sweden. Team Europe quite literally stood taller using push carts while the U.S. team carried.
In 2008, the junior tour allowed players aged 12-15 to use push carts for its Junior All-Star Series. It was later made available to everyone.
Today, push carts dominate the amateur game. On the AJGA last year, 2,898 tournament players used pushcarts while 1,759 carried their bags. The smaller the player, the more important it is to put the golf bag on wheels.
The stigma around young men using a push cart began to shift in 2014 after Stanford’s Cameron Wilson was televised winning the NCAA Championship using one.
In 2020, the R&A published a “Golf and Health” report hoping to get a stronger message out about the game’s benefits. Golfers walk an average of 4 to 5 miles each round, the report notes, and burn up to 2,000 calories. Those who play regularly can prevent and treat over 40 major diseases, according to a scoping review by the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Even watching other people play golf can give fans the recommended number of steps needed each day. At the 2016 Paul Lawrie Match Play at Archerfield Links, around 300 spectators averaged 11,589 steps per day in East Lothian, Scotland.
There’s an undeniable rhythm to the game that only comes with walking. And, as the years pass, an increasing sense of accomplishment arises at having done the body good.
Over 30? Just remember to stretch before getting to the first tee. Learned that one the hard way.
