Author: Deerfield GolfClub

It’s no secret that regular exercise is crucial for overall physical and mental health. If you’re looking for a fun activity that also provides total body benefits, head to your local golf course! Golfing on a regular basis offers many wellness perks beyond just improving your swing technique.

1. Full-Body Muscle Toning and Endurance

Walking the entire course during 18 holes of golf helps build muscular strength and endurance in your legs, core, and upper body. The average golf course spans nearly five to seven miles and includes varied terrain like hills, slopes, sand traps, and roughs. This challenges your muscles as you walk while carrying your golf bag and clubs. You’ll naturally tone your glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves, and abdominals without intensive training. The golf swing itself engages and strengthens your back, arms, shoulders, and chest muscles. Golf provides an all-around workout for better posture and injury prevention.

2. Stress Relief and Mental Boost

Being immersed in the peaceful, beautiful outdoor environment of the golf course does wonders for reducing everyday anxiety and clearing your mind. It gets you away from work and life stressors. There are also cognitive benefits. Golf challenges your focus, concentration, planning, and problem-solving skills as you determine club selection, examine the terrain, and aim your shots. Using strategy and skill keeps your brain actively engaged and sharp.

3. Improved Heart Health

Golfing provides a moderate cardiovascular workout as you walk four to six miles traversing the landscape. This elevated heart rate makes golf an aerobic activity that improves heart and lung capacity over time when done regularly. The outdoor exercise helps lower blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and the risk of heart disease. Being outside also means you’re breathing fresh air and soaking up vitamin D from sunlight.

4. Weight Loss Support

Between all the walking and swinging, an 18-hole round of golf burns a substantial amount of calories – around 1,500 for men and 800 to 900 for women, on average. According to Zippia, nearly 30% of professional golfers are women. Play consistently each week and watch those extra pounds and body fat melt away faster. Make sure to stay hydrated and fuel up properly with healthy snacks like nuts, fruits, or protein bars while playing. Nutrition is key.

With benefits like full-body toning, mental sharpness, stress relief, heart health improvements, and weight loss support, it’s easy to see why playing golf regularly is fantastic for your overall well-being. So, grab your clubs soon and hit the golf course for an enjoyable activity that also provides physical and mental fitness gains. The healthier, happier you will thank yourself later. If you’re ready to start playing golf, visit our country club and golf course today at Deerfield.

Golf news junkies would be forgiven if they missed one headline this summer: the annual PGA Expo in Las Vegas.

Golf fans were probably more likely to spend their summer on the links themselves, or watching tournaments on TV. But the PGA Expo is still a huge draw for many in the golf world; the expo allows companies to show off the latest in golf equipment and training techniques for helping amateurs learning to play golf. And Ed Several, one of the event’s organizers, says that golf is bigger than the casual fan might realize.

“Golf is not just a sport, it’s a lifestyle and it’s a business,” said Several. “When you can turn a passion into a business and make that a career, we encourage that.”

And according to experts like Several, Americans who play golf generate a total economic impact of $176.8 billion for the U.S. economy every year. Those numbers come from SRI International, a California research institute which found that golf equipment and services generate $68 billion annually. And when you combine that figure with the money generated by golf club events, tournaments, schools where people learn how to play golf, and other golf-related activity, you arrive at the massive sum of $176.8 billion.

How did golf become such a big business? As early as the year 1900 there were already more than 1,000 golf clubs operating in the country. Over time, more women started playing the sport (23% of pro golfers are women), swelling the sport’s ranks. Plus, golfers are allowed 14 clubs in their bag at any time, and most golfers spend quite a bit of money hitting that number.

In 2011, the World Golf Foundation reported that 25.7 million Americans play golf each year, spending an average $137 on golf equipment alone, to say nothing of membership dues and clothing. If you’ve ever spent much time playing yourself, no doubt you know a few golfers who spend more than $137 by several orders of magnitude.

So for the golfing professionals who gather at the annual PGA Expo, there’s more than just love of the game uniting them. The beloved American pastime is also big, big business.

Skill Testing & Why It Is Important

We’ve all seen it: someone with a very unorthodox swing or style, but can get up and down from anywhere. From the outside looking in, it would appear that one would need to change their “technique” because it does not reflect everyone else’s. For this exact reason, golf instructors and students alike need to understand how important skill testing really is.

How many people would look at Jack Nicklaus’ putting and say, “you’re too bent over, we need to get you more upright with a straighter back”? Or, refer to Jim Furyk’s pitching and say, “you’re too close to the ball and your lower body is moving too much!” The fact is, there is no ONE right way to play golf. The golf ball doesn’t understand what you look like; it only understands the moment one is making impact.

This is where skill testing comes into play. Skill testing measures your current ability to play golf and dictates what one needs to work on. Such as, if one has great technique, but has a hard time scoring, then perhaps there is more going on internally that would require Mental Toughness training and guidance. If one is not scoring because of missing a key skill, then skill training may be encouraged via lessons. The key is knowing that skill testing is never “cut and dry.” Because there are often many variables, it should be left up to the coach/instructor to determine the appropriate steps that are needed to improve the students’ game.

Personally, I have witnessed many unorthodox swings and styles produce very good scores when skill testing. I have also witnessed “good” technique produce very bad scores. Whether one is an instructor or student, always be sure to find someone who will test your skills first before making arbitrary changes to your individual game. Let the scores guide you on what you need to work on, and in what order. Know your game and make it better– skill testing can take the guessing out of this for you!

If you are interested in taking a lesson to improve your game, don’t hesitate to contact Ben Austin, PGA or Deerfield’s Head Golf Pro, Michael Tobiason! Click here for more details!