Oftentimes I’m asked how much exerciese is golf. It’s obviously not as vigorous a workout as is running or weightlifting. The question is whether swinging a club counts at any level towards a healthy lifestyle.
Now if you are renting a motorized cart and drinking beers for most of the round, you’ll end up consuming more calories than you will expend. And since there is no hard contraction of muscles when you swing a club, there really is no fitness value to the event no matter how relaxing and fun it may be to hang with your bros.
Of course if you carry your clubs and walk the course there is more caloric expenditure so typically there is marginal fitness value to the outing. The issue is that you never raise your heart rate significantly so it’s not going to dramatically improve your carido vascular health. If your back is bad and you cannot carry your clubs, you may want to look into a pull or push cart. The push carts are now ergonmically designed to save your back.
And one final consideration when you are playing during hot weather – be sure to keep hydrated. You can find some golf coolers designed to attach to your golf bag or to take along in your golf cart.