You may have seen a story which was picked up quite widely across mainstream media a couple of weeks ago. A man called Harvey Spevak, a senior executive at a high-end gym company called Equinox in the United States, had a few words to say about golf to the Wall Street Journal. “You’re hitting a little white ball around a golf course, using a golf cart and drinking at the 9th hole. It’s fun, it’s recreation, but I don’t think it’s exercise.”
To quote the Green Day song, the guy is clearly an “American idiot”. It’s only on the other side of the Atlantic that the idea might exist that riding a golf cart was integral to the playing of the game. Ditto having drinks before you attempt the back nine. (I did wonder, though, that maybe his grasp of golf is so shaky that he meant to say “the 19th hole”.)
Mark Twain is widely regarded as the wit who came up with the line that golf is “a good walk spoiled”. But there is a raft of research to suggest that in fact golf brings more health-related benefits than merely walking, including as regards lowering blood pressure and levels of cholesterol. In The Times, a spokesperson for England Golf also pointed out that “it’s a chance to switch off and relax, reducing stress” – although they have obviously never played the 9th at Highgate. Offering a grounded medical perspective, NHS England describes one example of ‘proper exercise’ as being 150 minutes each week of ‘moderate activity’.
Golf, as one might expect, qualifies as a moderate activity. And while this may not be an entirely good thing, the odds are that it will take you longer than 150 minutes to complete a round. There is also this. Assuming the scorecard of the course you’re playing says it measures 6,000 yards, that is approximately three and a half miles. Even the straightest-hitter in history – perhaps Moe Norman? – would be walking further than that in the course of playing 18 holes, and that’s not allowing for walking from one green to the next tee. So six miles all in is a more realistic assumption. That’s your 10,000 steps a day handily exceeded. And you’re carrying your clubs as well? Anyone who doesn’t regard that as exercise is definitely playing with less than a full set.
Finally, venturing slightly off-piste, I read an interview with Andy Murray in The London Standard last week. He was asked what was his biggest extravagance. He replied: “I’m investing heavily in golf. It’s filled a bit of a gap since I finished playing tennis. I have a weekly lesson, spend hours at the driving range and I installed a golf simulator at home.” I would invest quite heavily on a bet that Andy regards what he is doing does count as exercise.
You can follow Robert Green on Twitter @robrtgreen and enjoy his other blog f-factors.com as well as his golf archive on robertgreen-golf.com
