By: Carl Schimenti, Urban Environmental Scientist
As an avid golfer, I anxiously await the start of golf season in New York. Handicap posting officially begins April 15th, but the true start of golf season – for me at least – is marked by greens adorned with a single pin, the sight of tee markers as I drive in, and the smell of the first mow on greens. There is some science behind that smell, which is attributed to green leaf volatiles and is meant to be a defense activation mechanism after herbivory (Scala et al., 2013). Ironically it only increases my (evolutionary?) urge to take a dollar-sized divot; the ultimate defoliation. Fellow golfers, rejoice!
This feeling of the golf season starting is one I look forward to all winter. It gives me energy, creates excitement, and frankly, makes me giggle like a second grader. This feeling is difficult to put a price on, but it’s worth SOMETHING. Certainly, more than a single greens fee. That sort of noticeable but abstract value could be classified as an Ecosystem Service provided by the golf course. Ecosystem services refer to the benefits we derive from ecosystems, in this case, a golf course. While other ecosystem services are more tangible, e.g. the carbon sequestration of a wetland or the erosion control of turfgrass, the value I’m referring to is a Cultural Service, or a non-material benefit I’ve derived. I can feel the emotional and mental boost as I embark on another year’s worth of my favorite recreational activity.
For most golfers, It won’t take long for the high of returning to the golf course to fade. They will undoubtably be sobered, as the game of golf douses their high with a metaphorical bucket of cold water: the first double bogey. As explained expertly in a famous Robin Williams skit, golf is an impossible game which threatens to turn that positive cultural service into DIS-service by creating stress, anxiety, and anger. As the famous author Mark Twain said: “golf is a good walk spoiled”. Despite these challenges and frustrations, a golfer should still recognize the variety of benefits they accrue during a round that go beyond the scorecard.
Let’s start with the physical health benefits of golf. Golfers can take between 6,300 and 16,500 steps per round, burning between 500 and 2400 calories in the process (Gabrellieri, 2011; Murray et al., 2016). As a moderate intensity activity, golf is associated with improved cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic health (Murray et al., 2016). Perhaps the most eye-popping statistic is that golfers live an average of 5 years longer than non-golfers, although that is almost certainly confounded by other variables such as income or ethnicity (Lee et al., 2004). Golfers will forget that regardless of their score, they are reaping these physical health benefits that benefit both in the short-term and long-term. Considering the energy requirements, the R&A even goes so far as to say doctors should refer their patients to play golf (The R&A, 2016). Eat your vegetables, drink some water, and go play golf, it’s good for you!
In addition to physical health benefits, playing golf with others promotes social cohesion. Older folks are significantly more likely to experience social isolation, which puts them at risk for a variety of negative health conditions such as dementia, depression, anxiety, heart disease, and stroke (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2020). Playing golf with others presents an opportunity to increase their social interaction and create meaningful social bonds with other golfers. Golf also offers participants of all age’s opportunities for intergenerational interaction and improved confidence in social settings (Murray et al., 2016). My personal experience validates these findings. Growing up as a high schooler playing skins games against plumbers, lawyers, doctors, and bartenders was a crash course in interacting with people from various walks of life. I learned how to converse with people two or three times my age and build confidence in an environment outside of the high school bubble. On paper, these people had little in common, yet somehow golf was the thing that brought them together as a unifying interest.
The last cultural service I’ll address is one of mental and emotional health. My anecdotal experience with golf is one that centers on mental wellbeing. Whether it’s the opening of the course in the Spring, or just a normal weekend round, I can feel my mood improve when I’m at the course. However, it appears the research investigating mental wellbeing from golf does not totally agree with my experience. While some studies show there can be positive improvements in mood, stress or anxiety, there is also data showing that anxiety can increase due to focusing on performance (Murray et al., 2016). Further confounding evidence is seen in surveying efforts from Anderson et al. that showed no differences in cognitive function before and after golf rounds (Anderson et al., 2015). Perhaps I’m an outlier, but it would be nice if I weren’t!
Golf, as a recreational activity, should reliably improve our mental wellbeing. I say that because research of urban green spaces soundly places wellbeing benefits as a leading justification for those areas (Jabbar et al., 2022). The physical characteristics of a golf course are similar to any other green space: trees, grass, plants, and flowers, yet the addition of a golf club in someone’s hands magically makes those mental wellbeing benefits disappear. It might just come back to the quote from Mark Twain. Golf is all-consuming to the point that you forget that you are strolling around in a beautiful grassland. Golfers are so busy staring at that tiny ball that they forget to look at the vistas, the topography, the plants, and the animals. Sometimes literally, they are stuck in the sand.
It’s possible that golfers could benefit from some advice that broadens their attention away from their score. One phrase that may help is: “look up and out”. The act of pausing to look up from the horizon and out across the course can help golfers truly appreciate the setting they are in. They might even take a deep breath. These are practices routinely employed during mindfulness training (see: Paul MacCormack). Perhaps, you promote this activity by creating a sign to remind golfers of this at scenic spots on the property. Anything that actively reminds golfers that they’re in nature is something that can benefit their mental wellbeing, and by extension improve the cultural services your course provides.
These cultural services are just one of a variety of ecosystem services that golf courses can provide. Our research program at Cornell will continue to explore these ecosystem services so we can discover how to best optimize them on golf courses, thus improving value to our golfers and the environment. This is how we can ensure that golf remains not only a source of enjoyment, but a conduit for cultural enrichment and environmental stewardship.
This article was first published in the 2024 Spring edition of GCSANY: Reading the Green
Reference List:
Anderson, P., Chalat, R., Gehle, E., Martin, K., Makowske, I. (2015). Greener Golf: An Ecological, Behavioral, and Communal Study of the University of Michigan Golf Courses [Unpublished Manuscript]. Graham Institute for Sustainability & School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan.
Gabrellieri, J. M. (2011). THE PHYSIOLOGICAL DEMANDS OF WALKING DURING GOLF (1491616) [Master’s thesis, University of Rhode Island]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing
Jabbar, M., Yusoff, M. M., & Shafie, A. (2022). Assessing the role of urban green spaces for human well-being: A systematic review. Geojournal, 87(5), 4405–4423.
Lee, I., Sesso, H. D., Oguma, Y., Paffenbarger Jr., R. S. (2004). The “Weekend Warrior” and Risk of Mortality. American Journal of Epidemiology, 160(7), 636-641.
Murray, A. D., Daines, L., Archibald, D., Hawkes, R. A., Schiphorst, C., Kelly, P., Grant, L., Mutrie, N. (2016). The relationships between golf and health: a scoping review. Br J Sports Med, 51(1), 12-19.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2020). Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults: Opportunities for the Health Care System. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25663.
Scala, A., Allmann, S., Mirabella, R., Haring, M. A., & Schuurink, R. C. (2013). Green Leaf Volatiles: A Plant’s Multifunctional Weapon against Herbivores and Pathogens. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 14(9), Article 9.
The R&A. (2020). Golf and Health 2016-2020.