Recently, the moguls of the golf industry descended on the nation’s capital to promote the game’s economic impact. They sat down with members of the U.S. and touted the fact that we generate a huge number of jobs and we’re just as big as the motion picture industry.
That’s good.
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For years, people have recognized that homes built on golf courses have a higher value than those that aren’t. In troubled real estate times, that means your investment in a house goes farther.
That’s better.
But recently, a couple of researchers with unpronounceable Nordic names have published a paper in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports that indicates people who play golf live an average of five years longer than comparable people who don’t.
Now we’re talking!
“A round of golf means being outside for 4 or 5 hours, walking at a fast pace for six to seven kilometers (3.7 to 4.4 miles), something which is known to be good for health,” the researcher told Bloomberg News in an e-mailed statement. “People play golf into old age, and there are also positive social and psychological aspects to the game that can be of help.”
The study was based on data from 300,000 Swedish golfers. Other factors, such as a generally healthy lifestyle, might help explain the lower death rate seen among golfers, the scientists said. It’s still likely playing the game has a significant impact in itself on health, they said.
And, being a better golfer means you’ll probably live any longer. “Maintaining a low handicap involves playing a lot, so this supports the idea that it is largely the game itself that is good for the health,” they said. The effect on the death rate was greater for golfers from so-called blue-collar professions than for those from white-collar professions, the researchers said.
So, you know have another reason to promote the benefits of the game. In fact, you have 1,825 reasons.
Pat Jones is president of Flagstick, LLC.
