Friday, January 23, 2015

The Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Golf

Beloved by people of all ages and personalities, golf is a constantly exciting game. It provides many benefits to your health, your athletic ability, and your social group. Whether you are looking to start playing for the first time or looking to return to the game, below are ten good reasons why you should play the game of golf.


1. Improve Your Physical Health
While Mark Twain call golf “a good walk spoiled,” regularly playing golf can benefit your health in many ways. Brisk walking provides light cardiovascular exercise and excellent circulation for your body. Golf helps to lower the risk of injury and aching bones, and in return will revitalize muscular flexibility. Also, carrying your own equipment—a weight-bearing exercise—will help improve your bone health and increase your metabolism.


2. Improve Your Mental Health
Golf is a therapeutic and stress-relieving sport that requires concentration. A temporary reprieve from the hectic schedule of life will improve your mental health significantly, allowing you to center and refocus after. The social aspect of golf and sharing a common interest with others can increase self-esteem and happiness while lifting depression and improving your outlook on life.


3. It is a Brain Exercise
No matter the outcome, you are sure to employ a number of strategies in your game that will exercise different areas of your brain. Problem-solving through the use of geometry and spatial reasoning to strategize your aim will provide a great workout for the left hemisphere of your brain, while the visualization techniques you use to imagine your swing will exercise the right hemisphere of your brain. This creative workout will stimulate the tracking functions in your brain as well.


4. Sharpen Your Focus and Coordination
By concentrating on your swing and imagining where the aim of your ball will travel, you are training your brain to focus on a target. Playing golf repeatedly will train you to focus on tasks and control your thought processing. Golf exercises your coordination as well, as you utilize precision strokes and balance to play.


5. Surround Yourself with Nature
Golfing gives you the opportunity to breathe in fresh air. With hundreds of beautiful golf courses around the country, it is not hard to embrace nature’s beautiful and winding views of oceans, forests, mountains, and more. Being on the course will help you soak up some extra sunrays. The Vitamin D provided by the sun will help increase your energy levels, improve your attitude, generate healthy cell growth, and aid in your calcium absorption. Plus, all the added health benefits will help you sleep soundly.


6. A Challenge for Every Athlete
No matter how competitive you are in sports, every different game of golf presents a new challenge -- a new personal best to beat or a new terrain to conquer. Golf is an excellent game for those who seek competition, and it is among only a handful of sports that has tournaments readily available for non-professional athletes around the world.


7. Learn Etiquette and Good Social Habits
Because there are no referees in the game, unspoken etiquette rules are how players govern both themselves and fellow competitors. Etiquette rules prove useful on and off the course. It allows you to practice personal responsibility and self-regulate your temper. It emphasizes respect and consideration for your peers and for the space in which you play.


8. A Game for Everybody
Simply put, anybody can play golf, regardless of age, gender or previous athletic ability. It’s a sport that can bond generations, heal disagreements and spark friendships regardless of whether you are a novice or a master of the game. A perfect union of socializing and exercising, it’s not hard to understand why people consider golf to be a life-long sport.


9. Network Your Way Through the Course
The nature of golf provides a relaxed atmosphere where you can socialize with peers and where you can easily make innumerable contacts. A round of golf can shed light on the integrity, personality, and habits of a playing partner. Being proficient at golf may help you make business deals and provide great opportunities for your professional life and personal connections.


10. New Trends
While the game itself can be traced back to 15th century Scotland, new trends always emerge in golf that keeps it relevant today. These trends address broadening the game further for a younger, more diverse group of people, and accommodating a generation where instant gratification trumps the rewarding game of golf.


These top ten reasons are only the tip of the iceberg for why golf is such a great sport to play. To discover why you should golf, visit Blueberry Pines Golf, Dining & Event Center located in beautiful Northern Minnesota near Park Rapids and Menahga, Minnesota. This beautiful championship 18-hole golf course features ‘towering trees, rolling hills, and a spring-fed streams’ plus offers individual golf outings as well as golf events and tournaments throughout out the year. Don’t wait to figure out why golf is the game for you!