Fairway to heaven ... how golf can make you happier and healthier

SPECIAL REPORT

BY JUDITH DUFFY

THE oft-quoted saying is that golf is a good walk spoiled. Now, a major new Scottish study is set to reveal the health benefits of the game for the first time, including how it can help players to live longer. While the benefits of some sports such as running and football have been much analysed, the effects of taking a saunter on the fairways have been little studied.

Dr Andrew Murray, a Scottish sports medicine doctor who is best known for tackling ultra-running challenges, is part of a group of researchers involved in a five-year project looking at the health benefits of the sport.

He will discuss the initial findings at the World Scientific Congress of Golf, which is taking place in St Andrews, over four days from tomorrow.

The congress involves more than 150 delegates from 15 countries and will explore topics ranging from the role of the caddie to pricing of green fees, and from the impact of lower back pain to psychological techniques to improve performance. A keynote speech will also explore the development of a golf robot, named Eldric, which is mainly used for equipment testing, but which managed to land a hole-in-one on a US course earlier this year.

It comes in the wake of The Open championship being held at Troon, with the winner of the Claret Jug decided today.

Murray said the health benefits of teeing off were generally not fully recognised. He said: “Golf has a unique contribution in Scotland and further afield. It is a sport that can be played from the age of four to 104, and played by all ages and both genders.

“For me it is a game I really enjoy playing with friends and family, so it also offers that social connection. We can classify golf as a moderate aerobic physical activity – the research we have conducted supports that.”

Murray pointed to a recent study carried out in Sweden, which found that golfers live on average five years longer than non-golfers, regardless of gender, age and socioeconomic status.

He added: “People think that is partly to do with physical activity, but there is also getting out in the fresh air and the social connections and perhaps the benefits you get from that.

“Golf is something that can be started and played right across a lifetime and I think that is so important.

“I think golf has been substantially undersold – people think you have to do things like go running ultra-marathons to get health benefits.

“But if you find something you enjoy and do it regularly, that will offer you those benefits.

“Golf is a great example of something people of all ages can do, they can do with friends and that is the part of the beauty of it.”

Murray said the five-year research project, which is being supported by the World Golf Foundation, will also assess injuries and illnesses that afflict golfers and how to reduce their risk.

He is also involved in research investigating if golf is a sport that can offer health benefits to spectators.

“With most sports, the majority of people watching are sitting stationary in a seat, with accoutrements they have bought to eat and drink,” he said. Dr Andrew Murray, above left, says that golf is classified as a moderate aerobic physical activity

“But with golf, people tend to wander the four miles of the course following their favourite players and potentially doing useful physical activity.”

He said that while golf was often perceived as a sport involving expensive club fees, there are affordable options in Scotland, from public courses to local driving ranges.

Murray added he is just as keen on golf as tackling extreme challenges such as ultra-marathons – and sometimes combined both.

“When I took part in both the Outer Mongolia Genghis Khan Ice Marathon and a run across the Namib Desert, I took the golf clubs and had a bit of a game,” he said.

“In Outer Mongolia, instead of the Old Course in St Andrews it was the cold course, as it was minus 40°C, which was quite an experience.”

He added: “And in Namibia it was a sea of sand – so pretty much the world’s biggest bunker.”