Golf: A Good Walking Opportunity

Mark Twain once said “golf is a good walk ruined.”  While this statement makes it relatively safe to assume that the “Tom Sawyer” author was a miserable hacker on the links, it also alludes to something that seems to be a lost art of sorts when golfing.  That is, actually walking.

Indeed, it would seem that the golf cart is as every bit of an essential tool for enjoying the sport as is a sturdy bag filled with clubs and logo-embedded Top Flights.  It’s easy to see why this is the case, since it makes the playing the game more efficient and prevents you from lugging your clubs around for 18 holes.  However, in this era of emphasized wellness, where the demands of executive life may make it hard to sneak in a consistent fitness or exercise regime into a schedule, it would almost appear that the outings in which you rely on a cart while golfing may be costing you a golden opportunity to partake in an extra measure of healthy activity.

You may look at this last statement and meet it with a cynical eye.  After all, you might tend to look at the worlds of exercise and golfing in mutually exclusive terms.  But consider that the reason Twain’s historical quip is still relevant to us a century or so after it was uttered.  Namely, there can be lots of walking involved, and they are rather good walks.  When you add up the collective yardage of an 18-hole outing at, say, Pelican Hill or Tijeras Creek, you will find walking its grounds is a pretty solid hike; one that would be quite comparable to a good routine on a treadmill or an elliptical.  You may feel a little tired by the time you lining up your round’s final putt, but you will leave with a feeling of accomplishment that stretches beyond the joys of breaking 90.  Granted, it will add time to your visit to the course, but when is a little extra time playing golf ever considered a bad thing?

What’s more, skipping the golf cart will also go a long way to clear your mind of all the stresses and worries that you may accumulate throughout the day.  There really isn’t anything quite as serene, calming, or Zen-like than taking a stroll through a meticulously maintained hole from the tee boxes to the pin.  The sights to behold are as breathtaking as they are revitalizing:  The crisp, striped green shades of the fairway; the bright white gleam from the bunkers; the shimmering pools of water.  Add to this other dramatic landscape features that can are best viewed by walking – the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean or the colorful hillsides of the Santa Ana Mountains can be readily spied on the high-end venues – and you are left with a deeper sensual experience that is simply lessened through zipping around on four wheels. 

Of course, walking a golf course instead of employing a golf cart means that you will need to drag your clubs with you, most likely with a hand cart.  While at first this may serve as all the reason you need to skip out on walking, when you think about it, pulling or pushing a hand-held carrying device for 18 holes enhances the exercise element ever so slightly.  And since the high-end carts are designed to lessen the effort involved in wheeling your clubs around anyway, using one won’t exactly leave you with tired arm muscles at the end of the day.

So the next time you find yourself spending a morning on the golf course, it may do you good to lay off the golf cart, walk through its lush, green landscape, and revel in its glorious beauty.  Whether or not you find this wondrous march periodically ruined completely depends on your game.

By Rich Manning