Better nutrition leads to better golf performance

Mom was right. The recipe for a great golf game may well be eating a healthy breakfast, with mom’s admonition backed with sport science. After a long Saskatchewan winter, and what’s felt like an even longer time of coping with COVID-19, prairie golfers are more than ready to hit the links. But there remains the need to stay safe, and especially, healthy, on the course, says Heather Hynes, a sport nutritionist with the Sport Medicine & Science Council of Saskatchewan (SMSCS). “Golf gives people in Saskatchewan something to do that’s outside and that’s active and safe considering the distance you can be apart from one another, and taking your own equipment with you, which is fabulous,” said Hynes. The SMSCS was formed in 2000 through the amalgamation of the Sport Medicine Council of Saskatchewan, and the Saskatchewan Sport Science Program and offers sports medicine and science services to athletes, coaches and officials. It has continued to offer sessions for its clients through telephone or other media throughout the COVID-19 restrictions. In addition to getting physically ready, like stretching and walking, especially if a person has been sedentary all winter, Hynes said that eating a good breakfast is one of the best ways to ensure an enjoyable golf game. “Nutrition has a large role to play in performance and overall well-being and how you feel, so with your golf game, it’s making sure that your body has a good amount of energy before you hit the course,” she said. The best way to do that is with a healthy, balanced breakfast. “I think the biggest detraction [to healthy nutrition] that I’ve found is those people heading out to their morning game and they’re not big breakfast eaters, so they don’t have anything and they try to push through on empty. I would say that that is definitely going to affect your golf game,” Hynes said. That becomes even more important for people playing a full 18 holes. “It’s a long time, so I think it is really important to be aware—first and foremost, the symptoms if your body is becoming dehydrated (such as fatigue, headache or elevated heart rate). I think it is really important for people to be aware of how much water they should be taking with them, especially if they don’t have access to other fluids on the course,” she said. And, with most concessions still closed, she suggests packing a lunch kit, including water and healthy snacks. “We want to be fueling our bodies every three, three and a half hours and if we know that we are leaving home and driving to the course and playing 18 that’s an extended period of time, so we don’t want to just push through that without having anything to eat.” Hynes suggests that a banana, granola bar, yogurt tube or cheese string can help fill the gap on the course. At the other end of the spectrum, eating too much, or eating a heavy meal, before going out for any sport, isn’t good either. Neither are eating heavily processed food or snacks with a lot of sugar. Hynes acknowledges there are numerous supplements for high performance athletes that are available. She prefers the “food first” approach whenever possible. “The ingredients that we get from food are definitely going to enhance our performance if we’re looking at carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats and water, and that can’t be matched in a supplement form,” she said. The SMSCS website has an interactive nutrition tool at www.smscs.ca/resources-articles/nutrition-check. “We know that, if we’re paying attention to how we’re eating, when we’re eating and what we’re eating, then we can really meet all of our nutritional goals with those kinds of ingredients,” Hynes said. There may even be a silver lining in the COVID-19 cloud, Haynes says, as it has forced us to slow down and go back to the basics of healthy nutrition. “It’s a simple message and so easy to forget when we get busy or if we get into the routine of not paying attention to those details. I’ve had the opportunity with our high performance athletes to go back to the basics and really think about how we’re fuelling the body with healthy ingredients.”