6th Annual Guide To Senior Friendly South Shore Golf Courses

Golf continues to confound and intrigue many players and keeps them coming back for more. The attraction of getting outside for a healthy and socially active lifestyle makes golf a popular choice for recreation. After all, it’s often been said that a bad day on the golf course is better than a good day at the office. This year’s Guide to Senior Friendly South Shore Golf Courses looks at some of the best deals available for our readers in the area. Lower pricing, special discounts, programs and meal deals make this the year to visit some of these great tracks and save money while enjoying it.

2010 Guide Feature Stories

• Flexibility and balance are the key to more distance off the tee.
• The 2010 “Pull Out & Save” Guide To Senior Friendly South Shore Golf Courses.
• Birdie Sighting Made Easier.

Flexibility and Balance Make Golf More Fun
By Kathy Fox

Braintree - The noted American author and essayist Mark Twain once referred to golf as “a good walk spoiled.” That observation certainly rings true for those of us who continue to play the game despite an inability to achieve even a modicum of proficiency.

On the positive side - and with all due respect to Mr. Twain - golf is much more than a “good walk spoiled.” It is an activity which can be pursued and enjoyed well into one’s golden years. Given the relatively low impact and moderate level of energy required to participate versus other more strenuous sports, it is truly the game of a lifetime.

The game of golf, in fact, remains one of the few major sports that can be played not only when you are very young but also when you are very old: as long as you can stand up and walk, you can play.

And while seniors need not be finely tuned athletes to swing a club, there are a few things they can do to ensure that they are physically sound enough to enjoy the game, as well as improve their performance. The three most important are overall shape, flexibility and balance.

Shape Up
For senior golfers to enjoy the game of golf more they should invest the time into preparing their bodies during the week with a basic exercise regimen - every day if both their schedule and their physical condition allows. Playing just once a week can open seniors up for injury.

By engaging in at least 15 minutes of exercise on a daily basis, seniors will maintain their shape sufficiently to withstand the rigors of walking for 18 holes (on a typical course, a person can walk up to five miles in a single round).

Integrate some core strength training, such as Pilates, or other abdominal and back muscle exercises. Augment that with some weight training twice per week, focusing on exercises to strengthen the lower limb, trunk and arm muscles.

Being in the best possible shape will also help reduce aches and pains the next day. Any muscle soreness the senior golfer might feel from all the walking as well as the club swinging will be significantly reduced.

What’s more, it will allow the golfer to play more often and, hopefully, improve their performance.

A key factor in maintaining overall physical shape is to avoid the extra pounds that are so easy to put on but often so difficult to take off. Carrying even a few pounds above your ideal weight can put a significant strain on your body over the course of 18 holes. Plus, in the heat of the summer, that additional poundage can wear you down more quickly; the decreased energy is very likely to affect your performance as well as your enjoyment.

Stay Flexible
Perhaps the most critical physical element of the game is to be limber. In golf, flexibility is a major factor in creating an effortless swing. Whether male or female, you will lose a good percentage of your flexibility as the years go by. In golf, distance stems from your flexibility rather than from your strength, because flexibility results in a bigger shoulder turn for your swing.

Flexibility is particularly important in senior golf because it will:

• Improve your overall physical performance due to less energy used to extend the range of movement of your joints.

• Reduce risk of injury due to less tissue resistance.

• Enhance mobility due to increased blood flow and nutrient supply to the joints.

• Relieve mental tension.

• Decrease the risk of lower back pain common in golfers.

The most active muscles involved in the golf swing are the thigh and hip muscles (during the down swing); the lower back muscles (during the coil); shoulder rotator cuff muscles (during the back swing) and the muscles on both sides of your body (two-sided golf swing, both back and front).

Stretching exercises should be performed at two critical times: during your daily workout and just before you begin a round of golf. You should check with your physician to develop a daily stretching routine that is appropriate for your physical condition. As far as a pre-golf warm-up, seniors should do some light stretching to warm up their muscles before taking that big swing. The back is particularly important, as it is the “hub” of the golf swing. Thus, stretching exercises for the lower back, as well as the arms and legs will allow the golfer to swing freely without causing strain or injury.

Increased flexibility will not only help avoid injury, it can directly improve performance. Maintaining a certain level of agility will often lead to a better swing, allowing the senior golfer to hit the ball further and ultimately play better. In particular, if golfers maintain a high level of flexibility, they will have a better back swing, as well as helping to develop a stronger follow through, which will mean increased distance on the ball.

A Balancing Act
As anyone from the most casual golfer to the most seasoned professional will attest, balance is a necessary piece of everyone’s game. Balance is all about transferring weight from one side of the body to the other, an act that is repeated over and over during a typical round of golf - not only in the swing itself, but in simple actions like bending over and taking the ball out of the hole.

Balance is so critical when seniors over swing that they fall out of their club path.

“Swinging within yourself” means swinging within the natural boundaries of your own sense of balance. The speed at which you choose to start your swing will only increase as you continue your motion; balance cannot be achieved if your swing speed is too fast. You need to find a rate of speed that keeps you on your feet and in balance, through to your finish position. Create a “low and slow” takeaway as you start your club back. This will benefit the stability throughout your swing and help you maintain a steady balance check.

When pulling the ball out of the hole (which you’ll obviously be doing 18 times in a single round), use your putter for balance and stand on one leg while bending over. This will help you maintain a steady pose.

To increase overall balance, perform balance exercises at a level that challenges you but that you can perform safely for a few minutes at least twice a week. Hold onto something or be sure to have a spotter accompany you if you don’t feel completely stable.

It’s All in Your Head
Paying close attention to the physical aspect of golf will usually translate to a stronger mental component. Playing the game better will mean less frustration, which will encourage golfers to hit the links more often. They will look forward to their next round, rather than contemplating the possibility of selling their clubs. Playing a good round of golf also makes the senior golfer feel younger. That’s a feeling you can’t put a price on.

About The Author
Kathy Fox, PT, SCS is a physical therapist and manager of the Braintree Rehabilitation Hospital Clinics at Brockton and Abington. To find out the kind of exercises that will be best for your game, call the Braintree Rehabilitation Hospital Clinic located in Brockton at (508) 586-6391.

Birdie Sighting Made Easier
A Non-Golfers Perspective

Norwell - I started not playing golf when I was eight years old. It began on the second hole of the Agawam Club course outside Providence. It was a very short hole with the tee separated from the flag by a deep gully. I teed up, looked across at the flag and swung hard, missing the ball, losing my balance, and tumbling down the hill into the stream.

The ball was there on the tee when I climbed back up. I finished the round, but since then I’ve seriously not played golf.

The game has other dramas and history. In the mid-15th century Scotland’s parliament banned golf to keep its soldiers focused on imminent English invasions.

The soldiers ignored the ban, of course, and still managed to stave off the British. Among vintage legacies are Ben Hogan’s comeback from injury, Slammin’ Sam Snead’s perfect swing and classic quotes (“Practice puts brains in your muscles”), and the duration of players like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson.

When Mark Twain said, “Golf is a good walk spoiled,” and Winston Churchill followed up with, “The best way to ruin a good walk,” their keen grasps of the obvious confirmed that golf is an opportunity to don outrageous attire and to use outrageous language in magnificent ways, while uttering vile expletives against equipment, Nature, and your fellow competitors, for the fault always lies elsewhere.

Meantime, your “walk” goes only one direction, people ahead dawdle and people behind push, you’re weighed down with all the clubs and irons, the huge bag, the unusual clothes and against all logic your walk often involves sitting in a motorized cart.

Too many golfers confuse the links for the office.

They go to the club house, change their 40-piece business suits for slacks and tight shirts and go to work for 18 holes. If perfecting the swing and hitting a true shot are the objectives, how does business fit in?

If a non-golfer’s perspective is unwelcome on the South Shore, where golf is popular, here’s a sporting alternative. Golf and bird-watching have much in common. Both have a lot of starting and stopping. Both require high levels of concentration.

Golf's all about hand-eye coordination and so is birding, only add in the ears. Slammin’ Sam would appreciate the practice needed to find and identify a fast-moving bird in your binoculars before it flits off.

But there are important differences. Birders go where they want to go.

If others dawdle, let them. If they push, let them pass. While golf goes hand in hand with your day-to-day job, birding and work are mutually exclusive.

You can’t hear a bird if you’re talking. So unless you’ve already paid good money for a round of golf, call me and join me on a good, unspoiled walk. I may have started not playing golf in my first decade, but I’ve not stopped bird-watching as I enter my seventh and I’d be delighted to have company.

About The Author
Henry Irving is a financial services professional who provides advice to clients throughout the South Shore. You may reach Henry at (617) 642 - 4011 or via email at hrirving@gmail.com.