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Golf 101
Basic Golf Tips for Family Fitness
By Kelly Burgess
In an increasing number of cases, it's Mom that drives the family golf game. Jennifer Mario is a columnist for Travelgolf.com and mother to three aspiring golfers. She emphasizes to other women that golf courses are not the male bastions they once were.
"In the past decade or so golf courses fell on hard times because the number of courses increased but the number of golfers stayed the same," Mario says. "Course owners had to come to the realization that the only way to expand their revenue source was to aim at women and families."
Here's two simple ways to make golf a fitness activity:
- Don't rent a cart.
- Carry your own clubs.
"When you throw a pack on your back and walk around with it for four and a half hours you'll get a huge fitness benefit," says Michael Pederson, golf expert and founder of Perform Better Golf. "There are also a lot of indirect benefits from the stretching, bending and swinging that is the basis of the game."
Pederson says it's important to be fit for golf, not just to use golf as a fitness activity. "There's been such a change in the physical make-up of the professional golfer in recent years," he says. "You look at these very young players like Michelle Wie who bring such athleticism to the sport. It's definitely improved the game and that same approach will improve anyone's game."
Kids bring a whole new dimension to fitness in golf because of the natural wonders of a course combined with their natural curiosity. In between shots they can explore pond life in the water hazards or practice their long jump in the sand traps.
