Golfers Live Longer - It's Official
Golf extends life, according to European medical research.
Playing golf can add five years to a person's life, the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden study of 300,000 golfers revealed.
Despite the lack of physical activity involved in a round of golf, players usually walk more than six kilometres during a single 18-hole round, News Limited reported.
The study found that golfers have a lower death rate regardless of sex, age and social group, the papers said.
And the effect is greater for blue-collar workers than for white collar employees, it said.
Professor Anders Ahlbom, who led the study, said while not all golfers had a healthy lifestyle, it is believed playing the game has a significant impact on health.
"Maintaining a low handicap involves playing a lot, so it supports the idea that it is largely the game that is good for the health," he said.
Old Tom Morris yesterday.
We’ve been telling people for years that golf increases cardiovascular capacity, improves lung capacity and blood flow. Even the simple act of swinging your club or bending down to place your ball on its tee or pick up your ball helps keep your joints supple and muscle groups in trim.
If you add all this to the fact you can get ECG-accurate watches to measure your heart rate golf looks like one of the safest sports in the world.
Although anyone who has been on the cusp of a career defining round only to balls it up with an 11 on a par three knows any talk of golf being good for your heart and stress levels.
6/3/2008 9:54:26 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00) 
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