Men's Health Week: Golf and fitness by the numbers
By PGA TOUR Staff
It is Men's Health Week at the Travelers Championship this week as the PGA TOUR participates in Men's Health Month nationally.
From Gary Player to Tiger Woods to most of today's younger crop of TOUR pros, fitness has become a huge part of professional golf. With fitness such a requirement in the game, we took a look at Hale Irwin, a player who has played a long time on both the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour.
Irwin, 63, is playing in his 40th year as a professional this year and has won 20 PGA TOUR titles and a record 45 Champions Tour crowns. He's played in nearly 1,000 official combined events over that span.
One reason for his longevity and ability to still compete at a high level at age 63 is that he has always remained fit. We did a little homework and came up with this bit of information. With the exception of Champions Tour pro-ams, we estimate that between practice rounds and PGA TOUR pro-am rounds, as well as unofficial and official events, Irwin has played just a shade under 5,000 rounds -- all of them on foot. At roughly 5 miles per round, that's 25,000 miles on foot.
The 25,000 miles is enough for Irwin to have walked around the earth at its equator. That's a distance of 24,901 miles.
Irwin will add to his mileage total this week as he is competing on the Champions Tour at the Bank of America Championship outside Boston. A victory, by the way, would make him the oldest player in Tour history to win.
You can't play this game at a high level without being in shape. Irwin is living proof of that.
Even if you aren't a professional golfer, you can still benefit from walking around the course. We took a look at some pertinent numbers for the casual golfer and came up with some interesting findings:
METHOD OF WALKING IN 2006
In how many rounds did the average golfer choose to walk? You'd be surprised -- golfers only walked in one-third of total rounds played. In 14 percent of the rounds played in 2006, golfers used a pull cart and in 16 percent of rounds that same year they carried their own golf bag.
| 501 | In millions, the number of golf rounds played by U.S. golfers in 2006. |
| 2.004 | The average amount of miles (in billions) walked on all golf courses in the U.S. per year. |
| 24.5 | On average, miles walked by a TOUR pro each week. |
GOLFERS WEIGH IN
Since the 1970s, the number of people who are obese has almost doubled (69 million to 128 million). After asking golfers their height and weight, the National Golf Foundation calculated 46 percent of golfers are overweight and 27 percent are obese. However, the core golfer tends to exercise more than the average non-golfing American. Of the core golfers polled in 2006, 34 percent did conditioning exercises, 48 percent did strengthening exercises and 72 percent did aerobic exercises.
THE 19TH HOLE
What do core golfers choose to eat and drink while they are at the golf course? Most of the responses showed that golfers weren't consuming the healthiest food while hitting the links.
Top-5 Foods/Drinks (Males)
1. Hot dog/soda
2. Sandwich/Beer
3. Burger/bottled water
4. Candy/sport drink
5. Chips/tap water
Top-5 Foods/Drinks (Female)
1. Hot dog/bottled water
2. Chips/soda
3. Sandwich/beer
4. Burger/tea
5. Candy or chips/tap water
| Walking at Travelers | ||||||||||||||||
| PGA TOUR pro Steve Marino, his caddie Matty, and PGATOUR.com blogger D.J. Gregory each kept up with their steps in the first round of the Travelers Championship: | ||||||||||||||||
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Source: National Golf Foundation
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