How to Strengthen Your Hands and Forearms for Golf

As golfers age over the age of 50, more attention needs to be paid to the risk of golf injury. A painful and fairly common injury for senior golfers can be to the elbow or wrist. A good way to avoid injury to the elbow or wrist is to work on strengthening your hands and forearms.

Obviously, your hands and forearms are important in control of your club throughout the swing. As you strengthen your hands and forearms, you’ll improve your game by being able to keep the club face square through tough lies like thick rough.

Exercising your hands and forearms is pretty easy and it’s something you can do throughout the day. You’ve probably seen those ‘stress balls’ – the little rubber balls or the tension-relieving ‘hand huggers’. Try to find one that is a little tougher rather than ‘spongey’.

Simply carry the stress ball around with you and squeeze it repeatedly. You can work on your strength while at your desk, taking a walk, driving your car, or watching TV. Work on both hands and give a little extra focus on your weaker hand and forearm (if you’re right-handed, work a bit on your left hand and forearm more so than your stronger right hand).

It won’t be long before you start to feel the build up of strength and it will translate to the course for you. While today’s hybrid clubs swing through the rough much easier than a 4 or 5 iron, you will find improvement in your ball flight from these tougher lies by building up this strength.

Go get a stress ball today and take some stress out of those tough lies from thick rough!

Benefits of Walking While Playing Golf

Well, no shocker here. Walking while playing golf is better for your health! However, there are more benefits than just to your health when you walk while playing golf. For older golfers, the thought of walking 18 holes can be a bit much if you regularly ride in a cart. Let’s explore some of the benefits of walking while playing golf to get you motivated to ditch the cart next time.

From a health perspective, some recent studies have validated what many of us already have known (yes, golf IS a sport and you DO get exercise by playing golf…even if you ride in a cart!). A group called ‘Golf Science International’ touts that walking for four hours while playing golf is equivalent to a 45-minute aerobic fitness class. Not bad. How about another study that showed a reduction in bad cholesterol from golfers who walked versus their peers who cruised in the cart? A fellow by the name of Edward Palank took the time to take on that study.

You’ve probably also heard about the ’10,000 steps per day challenge’, a health program that encourages people to count their steps and do what it takes to get 10k in per day. In my own anectodal (but quite unscientific) study with my regular golfing buddy, we found that walking your local muni will register around 8000 – 12000 steps.

A study released in late 2008 from Rose Center for Health and Sports Sciences in Denver validated that golf really is a sport. They strapped up a bunch of study participants and measured some key stats:

• Walking and carrying your clubs for 9 holes burns 721 calories. A surprising finding was that using a pull cart versus carrying your clubs was a very small difference in the number of calories burned – you still burn 718 calories when using a pull cart! Save your back, use a pull cart.
• Riding burns 411 – that’s still a pretty good number, which indicates that swinging the club is decent exercise in and of itself.

The study then got pretty interesting when it compared the average scores of golfers who walked and carried their clubs, those who walked and pulled their clubs, those who had caddies and those who took a golf cart. The results? Golfers scored best when pulling their clubs. Walking may very well give you time to think about your next shot and improve your game. Here’s how the average 9-hole scores broke down:

• Pull cart: 40
• Caddy: 42
• Golf cart: 43
• Carry clubs: 45

Interesting, huh? You can find more detail on the study at the PGATour.com site.

It’s unfortunate that there are many new courses that were not built with the walker in mind. In fact, it isn’t uncommon to find some resort courses only allow golf carts and not allow walking at all. Don’t be misled by that policy – it’s not because it actually takes longer to walk than to ride. In fact, studies show facts to the contrary. Instead, these policies are usually in place because the designer had to put significant distance between green to tee (sometimes for architectural desire to work with in the terrain…but many other times because they are routing a course through a resort or housing development). I’m sure you’ve played a few of these courses where it isn’t uncommon to have one-quarter to one-half mile between holes.

Next time you play 9 or 18 holes, you should consider walking if you don’t walk already. If it’s a bit too much of a shift for you, start by keeping your cart on the path only and walk to your ball from the path. Then perhaps shift to walking the front nine and riding the back nine before working your way up to walking the entire round. But definitely work your way up to at least walking a few of your rounds and not solely relying on the golf cart…you’ll enjoy the health benefits and the benefits of lower scores!

Gary Player and Fuzzy Zoeller Gracefully Exit Masters

Gary Player and Fuzzy Zoeller played their last round in The Masters today and fondly reflected upon their great memories of the Augusta classic. As previous Masters champions, the senior golfers receive a lifetime exemption to play in the first golf major of the year. Many past champions return each year, even though they are no longer competitive at the professional level. They return to honor the tradition and to enjoy the spoils that come with being a past champion. Other past champions participating in this year’s Masters include Ben Crenshaw, Tom Watson, Raymond Floyd, and Craig Stadler. Of course, there are a good number of past champions playing who are still quite competitive on the Champions Tour but don’t usually get the opportunity to play in one of golf’s major championships except under such an exemption they receive at the Masters.

For Gary Player, it was a classy ending to a remarkable Masters career. The 73-year-old South African competed in his 52nd Masters tournament – an unparalleled record by the most successful international golfer of all time. Winner of nine major championships, including three Masters titles, Player announced before this year’s tournament that this would be his last.

Following the round, Player told Mike Tirico of ESPN that he still plans on celbrating each spring by returning to Augusta and playing in the traditional Wednesday par 3 tournament and attend the Champions dinner. A class act, the “Black Knight” still stays very active and has designed over 250 golf courses worldwide. Player had a rough day in his final Masters round, shooting an 11-over-par 83. He knelt before the 18th green to thank the fans and was greeted with a standing ovation. He was also greeted by the cadre of South African golfers competing in The Masters. Defending Masters champion Trevor Immelman is from South African, as are two contenders near the top of today’s leaderboard – Tim Clark and Rory Sabbatini.

Fuzzy Zoeller won The Masters in sudden death in 1979 and is only one of three golfers to ever win The Masters in his first entry. The other two were Horton Smith and Gene Sarazan. Zoeller also won the 1984 U.S. Open at Winged Foot and added a Senior PGA Championship to his senior tour major resume.

His excellent record of 19 wins on the PGA Tour was overshadowed a bit by his racially insensitive comments made during the 1997 Masters in reference to Tiger Woods. Known as a jokester, Zoeller regrettably was thrust into the media spotlight over the incident. Fuzzy is also known to be quite accessible to fans, particularly children, often going out of his way to engage younger patrons at tournamens. Zoeller mentioned in an interview after his round that he will return each yaer to play in the par 3 tournament and honor the tradition of being a ‘showman’ for the fans.

Zoeller was brought to tears as he strolled towards the 18th green to a standing ovation. He embraced his daughter, who caddied for him at Augusta this year. Zoeller still plays a fairly active Champions Tour schedule and recently paired with Ben Crenshaw to win the Wendy’s Champion Skins Game.

Great Golf Vacation Ideas and Deals

We’ll be putting lots of great information on Golf Over 50 about top golf destinations and golf vacation ideas. We’ll also have the most current golf travel deals and discounts to help you get the most for your golfing dollar!

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