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 (ILLUSTRATION: John Cheresh) I have another big birthday coming up, except all of a sudden I have ditched the golf cart and resumed playing as a pedestrian because of walking’s multiple benefits — it’s healthier, it’s more affordable, it’s better for the course and it’s better for your game. New research proves walking really is a fit idea. Depending on the terrain, studies have found that walking 18 holes is up to 70 percent as intense as an aerobic workout, and that walking a four-hour round has health benefits comparable to a 45-minute fitness class. Studies also have revealed the energy used playing golf is significant when you walk. Play nine holes riding a golf cart and you’ll burn 411 calories, but walking a nine-hole round with a push cart increases that number to 718 calories. Double that figure if you play 18 holes. Your game also should improve. A study showed that those who walked and pushed a cart had an average nine-hole score of 40. Cart riders averaged 43. Here’s what I rediscovered — when you walk, you make better golf decisions. The course reveals itself to you as you take your journey, especially around the greens. When you walk, you think more about your next shot. Conversely, you get to walk off the bad ones. I’ve been walking mostly flat courses and building up my stamina. Recently, I set up a foursome at Woodland Hills Country Club to test my legs on a layout with more dramatic elevation changes. One other player and I walked with our new state-of-the-art TC3 Freestyle push carts from Pomona-based Trekker Caddy. The other two rode in a golf cart. The hills revealed I still have a way to go to be in walking shape — I started tiring around the 13th hole — but we never slowed the riders down. If you decide to give walking a try, you won’t be alone. “I’d say 40 percent of our membership now walks,” Hans Kersting, the PGA head professional at Woodland Hills, told me after the round. “And that number grows every year.” Economics is one of the reasons, but Kersting believes the real reason so many people are turning in their cart keys is “because walking and playing golf is exercise that doesn’t feel like exercise.” Coleman Moss, the other walker that day, plays twice a week and walks most of the time. After climbing some pretty steep inclines to reach certain tee boxes, my heart rate was in the 130s. But Moss, who’s 77, hardly broke a sweat. That’s nothing compared to what I found out as we were leaving the course. Walking to my car, Moss pointed to an older gentleman carrying his bag 50 yards in front of us. “That’s Ted Whitney. He plays three times a week,” Moss said. “He’s 90, and he carries his bag for every round. He shot an 81 today.” How’s that for the benefit of walking when you play? Eric Tracy is also known as The Mulligan Man. He consults and performs at charity golf tournaments. Reach him at eric@themulliganman.com. |
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