Don’t Stop Walking!

Middle age is the time of life that folk reach the age – and the financial stage – when they have the time, the money and the inclination to take up the game of golf.

Now don’t get me wrong – Golf is certainly is a great way to exercise, allowing enthusiastic golfers to spend a few hours early in the morning walking in the beautiful surroundings of a golf course, enjoying the company of like minded individuals and following these small hard white balls that you hit around the green. While walking around the eighteen holes of a course and playing a proper game of golf, a golfer not only walks but also has the opportunity to swing his or her hands about seventy times (or more, depending on their level of skill or lack thereof). It is great exercise, I am told, not just for your legs but also for your arms and shoulders and hips.

If you enjoy getting regular exercise playing golf, that is excellent – and I can only commend you for your efforts.

To proletarian me, however, playing golf appears to be a very expensive way of getting one’s physical exercise. I myself do a good early morning walk (without carrying a set of golf clubs with me) most days of the week, more often than not in the company of a friend or two, enjoying the bracing atmosphere of Galle Face Green when I am in Colombo or the picturesque surroundings of the Koonang Trail when in Melbourne. I probably get the same amount of exercise as my golfing friends – and the advantage of my form of exercise is that I don’t have to pay a cent for the privilege of exercising! Buying a good set of clubs, I am told, can set you back a pretty packet – and paying fees = for applications to and annual membership of – prestigious golf clubs certainly is not cheap.

So the other day, just to find out (a little like the proverbial yokel coming to town for the first time) I decided to accompany a few of my golfing friends on their morning round of golf.

It was a beautiful place, this clubhouse in Colombo into which they took me. It was reminiscent of the good old days of the British Raj, and I spent a pleasant time enjoying the view of the green, reading the papers and sipping a well brewed cup of tea. My friends had their exercise and returned in due course to the clubhouse, where we had a hearty breakfast (which probably replaced all the calories they had expended on their walk around the many holes of the golf course).

I guess it does not really matter in what form you get your exercise – whether you walk or swim or jog or play golf. What matters is that you exercise regularly – and if you do it with a friend, so much the better.

But if you, like me, are not a person who wants to start playing golf in their old age, the best piece of advice I can share with you is this:

KEEP YOURSELF PHYSICALLY ACTIVE AS YOU GET OLDER – AND DON’T STOP WALKING!