Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAllTheWay
He's not really that far off though:
http://golf.about.com/od/fitnessheal...lfphysical.htm
Walking 9 holes either carrying your clubs or using a push cart will burn around 720 calories. So 36 holes of golf will burn roughly 2900 calories. That's rpretty much the same amount someone running a 26 mile marathon would burn. Granted, the time frames are different, but that's the nature of each.
My question for you is what is your criteria for defining a sport? You say athleticism, I broke that down about 3 pages back in this thread using simply dictionary definitions and found that golf is technically defined as a sport through that high level of hand-eye coordination, or physical dexterity, you speak of (among other things).
Is a 100m dash, where a person only burns 5 calories, more of a sport than golf, where a person burns hundreds of more calories than that? |
That's probably 2-3 more calories than a dh would burn in a mlb game.
I would argue that golf at a competitive level does require a great amount of athletic conditioning. Specifically, you are not going to be able to hit 300 yard drives, high spin wedge shots, shots out of the rough etc. without very strong core muscles, leg muscles, wrist muscles,etc. Just because some of these guys look fat and out of shape doesn't mean they haven't developed the muscles required for a tour golf swing. You're not going to be able to hit 500 practice balls a day at the range, unless the required muscles very well conditioned. You're not going to be able to keep your accuracy through 40 swings/day for 4 days if you are not well conditioned.
Same as an mlb pitcher, they may look fat and out of shape, but I guarantee you that the muscles used to throw are a lot more developed in David Wells, than some other similarly built guy who just watches baseball on tv.