Because, as we all know, golf is a good thing, you shouldn’t really have to justify going out and playing 18 holes in the same way you don’t have to explain why you helped an old lady across the road.
Good things are good things and should be encouraged. However, there may be circumstances in which it is necessary to come up with a credible excuse for going to golf when, for example, there is much housework to be done or a ghastly VAT return to be completed.
Because no reasonable person can surely challenge the vital importance of what is often referred to these days as ‘wellness’, the trump card to play in these circumstances is that you are principally doing it for health reasons.
And as obesity is widely recognised as the single greatest health hazard in the developed world, a sport that provides essential exercise surely must be encouraged. However, in case whoever it is you are trying to convince is, how should I put it, less supportive than you might reasonably expect, it’s as well to be armed with some statistics since statistics have a peculiarly authoritative air about them.
Calories burned in round of golf
The single most significant stat concerns how many calories are burned during a round of golf?
It’s a reasonable question but tough to answer because there are so many variables. The hillier the course, the more calories that are consumed. The weight of the bag and whether you carry it or stick it on a trolley are further complications.
It seems somewhat counter-intuitive but you will burn more calories if you use a trolley. On the other hand, you will burn a lot less if you hire a buggy.
Eighteen holes of golf is roughly a five-mile walk during which an average sized man pulling his clubs on a trolley will burn nearly 400 calories an hour or somewhere around 1500 for the round.
To put it in context, that should equate to about 30 minutes in the gym. But think how much more fun playing golf is compared with, say, lifting weights or riding a stationary bicycle.
A visit to the driving range might seem like a reasonable compromise but you would have to hit balls for approximately five hours to match the calories burned in a round of golf.
