Most golfers think about the health benefits of golf in pretty simple terms.

You walk. You get some fresh air. You spend time outdoors.

But what if we're only scratching the surface of what golf can do for our health and wellbeing?

In this episode of the Golf Yourself Happy Podcast, Golf Mindset Coach Kris Lynch is joined by Professor Charlie Foster, Professor of Physical Activity and Public Health at the University of Bristol, to explore the fascinating relationship between golf, health, wellbeing and behaviour change.

Charlie has spent much of his career researching physical activity and advising on public health policy. He is now applying that expertise to golf and is currently writing a book on Golf and Health, featuring insights from some of the leading figures in the game.

Together, Kris and Charlie explore the “tyranny of the handicap”, why the scorecard can be a poor measure of what we actually get from golf, and the many physical, mental and social benefits that can come from playing the game.

They also dive into some fascinating research around golf and brain health - including what happens in our brains when we putt, why slow-motion swings can stimulate the brain, and how simply holding a golf club creates a surprisingly interesting physiological response.

The conversation then turns to behaviour change and habit formation: why we're so attracted to quick fixes, why meaningful change takes time, and how small, consistent actions can ultimately compound into much bigger results.

And perhaps most importantly, Kris and Charlie explore a question at the heart of Golf Yourself Happy:

If golf can give us so much more than a scorecard, how can we make sure we're actually getting the most from the game we love?

Whether you're interested in the health benefits of golf, curious about what happens in your brain when you play, or simply looking for a healthier and more enjoyable relationship with the game, this episode will encourage you to think differently about what golf can give you.

In this episode:

• Why the handicap can become a “tyranny” for golfers
• The physical, mental and social benefits of playing golf
• What happens in your brain when you play and practise
• Why golf can be a powerful form of physical activity
• How small habits can compound into meaningful change
• Why enjoying the way we play golf matters as much as the score

Key Takeaways

✔ Golf's value isn't just measured by your scorecard.

✔ Small, consistent habits can lead to significant results over time.

✔ Don't be seduced by quick fixes - meaningful change takes patience.

✔ Pay attention to everything you get from playing golf, not just what you shoot.

Resources

• Book a free 30-minute Golf Yourself Happy Coaching Discovery Call
• Subscribe to Golf Yourself Happy podcast
• Connect with Professor Charlie Foster (LinkedIn)
• Listen to Charlie in conversation with Golf in Society Founder, Anthony Blackburn

there is so much going on in your head when you play golf. You probably wouldn't play it if you knew.

your brain works harder at imagining you holding a putt than you do when you actually hold it.

golfers have to kind of recognise that there's this trade-off between what you get from when you play and what you get in the long term when you play.

It's good for your heart, it's good for your brain. Get out and play more golf and enjoy the nature around you.

as you know, Charlie, I've kind of used health coaching in my case as a bridge

Mm.

to working with golfers really to help more around the kind of the emotional and mental wellbeing side as a bridge to happiness and in turn as a hopefully as a byproduct then a better performance. But

that problem that I want to be solving, and I'd welcome your perspective on, is how people seem to, use golf as yet another stick to beat themselves with basically, there was an expression that you used which was the tyranny of the handicap, or the words that you said. Could you?

Mm. Mm.

expand on that for the listener and can

Yeah, sure.

expand on your thinking

Yeah, no problem. So the reason it comes around, part of my role as a sort of academic in the physical activity world was to create guidelines for the UK public on how active you need to be. And I've done this since 2009, I think it was the first time around the block. Recently released some in 2019 and they were refreshed in fact a couple of weeks ago as well. And like all public health guidelines like...

how much should you be drinking, how many units of alcohol per week. There was a figure given for how active you need to be in minutes per week. And depending on what kind of activity you're doing, very vigorous activity, if you're going running or something like that, or if you're just going for a gentle walk with the dog or gardening, that's called moderate. And we set these target figures, like 150 minutes are moderate and 75 minutes are vigorous. And it became really clear to me when...

these figures were used to analyze population level data, that there was a real kind of tyranny. You either did 150 or 151 minutes and you're in the active group, or if you did 149,

Mm.

you weren't. And that just didn't make any sense to me because surely all those minutes up to 149 minutes means something and they do in health

Yeah.

terms, absolutely. So in fact, we kind of re, we didn't repurpose the message,

we just re-emphasized that

actually 10 minutes a day, accumulated up to 70 minutes a week are moderate, will reduce your risk of heart disease by 25%. So not quite as much as 150, but it was certainly a figure. So actually, I thought there's a parallel there with a kind of tyranny of the handicap. You know, you're only as good as the figure that says in your scorecard. And somehow that kind of validates who you are as a human being slash golfer. And if you've got a low number, then you're obviously a better golfer.

And if you're on a high number, you obviously are worst golfer. Well, each of those things are still completely untrue. It's what you do when you're on the course and do you enjoy it that really matters.

So actually, why I really resonate with your kind of view on the world is the things that happen on the golf course for me matter more because it's very chronic, it's acute. I have a

hilarious laughter moment with my friends when someone slams the ball into the river or, you know, can't get out of a bunker. You know, very frustrating for them personally,

hilarious for us. We enjoy that immensely and gives us great pleasure. And I think golfers have to kind of recognise that there's this trade-off between what you get from when you play and what you get in the long term when you play.

Why do we play? We like it because we see the same people. It doesn't matter who you're playing with. But how's your week gone? There's a sort of unwritten rules of camaraderie when you play with a similar kind of group every week or you play with new people. It's pretty nice to meet them and have a cup of coffee or tea or something stronger at the end of the round together. It's very social experience.

So all these different elements are really good for your health. And so clubs are realizing that and charities and also some of the clubs are recognizing now that actually golf clubs themselves could become a health hubs.

brain health,

Yes.

yeah, tell us a bit about that then.

So as part of the kind of research into the book, I've sort of taught myself some neurologies as brain structures and functions. But I was just interested in understanding at the end of my career how exercise helped the brain. And we did a number of studies looking at fitness and how it was reflected in the kind of physical characteristics and architecture in your brain. And we discovered

potholes and bunkers, which in your circulatory systems,

So you imagine a very beautiful fairway, not like we saw at the open at the weekend, know, which was all tight with lots of bumps and lumps in it. And know, if your circulation tubes in your brain, the vessels, are a kind of broad fairway, the blood flows through very, very quickly and well. But if they kind of fold up on each other and imagine lots of bumps and holes in it, the circulation's very poor. And these sort of, that sort of pathology, we...

correlated that with fitness and we found that the fitter you were, the fewer of these sort of grey matter lesions as they're described, you had in your brain. And we can assign that entirely to your fitness level and also that's then prompted and caused by walking. So I was really intrigued that actually just the prospect of walking on a golf course not only makes you physically a little bit fitter and all those exposures stronger, etc. But everyone's thinking about the heart in relation to the outcome, but actually I thought the brain would be more important.

And now I've sort of got bit more into it. I've realized that there is so much going on in your head when you play golf. You probably wouldn't play it if you knew. So I'll give you a little quiz here. So imagine you're over a putt, okay? So you're over a putt.

we like quizzes on this podcast. Excellent.

So how many bits of your brain, there's 47 according to an Austrian psychologist called Brogman.

There's 47, map the brain, 47,

There are 47.

yeah, different areas of your brain that all have a different function. Some are mirrored because left to right side, but anyway. So of those 47, how many of those are involved in you actually hitting a putt? We'll do a bit of Bruce Forsythe, higher or lower. So you give me a number and I'll tell you.

Uhhhh... 28.

Lava.

19.

Love it.

12.

Ooh, nearly, just a little bit lower.

11.

Yes, 11. Okay. So there's 11 processes in the visual reading of the green preparation. I'm sure you do that. Sensory integration, spatial awareness. So working out where the hole is in relation to you and where you need to be in relation to the ball and then to the hole. Then there's the actual execution of the stroke itself and the planning of doing that. Your brain's got to tell the rest of your body what to do.

So when people have the yips, that particular circular connection is broken. It just doesn't happen. There's no preparation, there's no memory. All they can remember is they keep missing three foot putts. So this is a good tip. Not that we're into performance, but imagine you just putted the ball in the hole and then go and hit it in the hole again. So how many processes or how many different areas of the brain involved in when you actually think and visualize

putting that ball on that green into the hole. More or less than 11.

Okay, so the previous one was the, did you say that was the physical act of hitting?

Yeah, that's you

planning the part, stepping up, hitting it, tracking it in.

is

11. Okay. Whereas this one is about the actual thought, the visualizing, visualizing the part that you're going to.

Visualizing, yeah. Yeah, you stand on the green, you've

got the break, you've read the line, you're standing behind the ball, and I want you to shut your eyes and visualize that part.

More Lesson 11.

Higher or lower than

11? Ooh. That's tricky. I'm gonna go lower for some reason. I don't know why, nine?

Okay.

higher.

higher.

15.

13. So there's actually two extra processes involved. So your

Wow, okay, marginal.

brain works harder at imagining you holding a putt than you do when you actually hold it. Now, I didn't know this until I started actually looking at the various different functions in these areas and how they might be involved in the sequence of hitting a golf ball. And I found this, you know, I'm very geeky, so I found this very exciting.

And it probably explains why a lot of folk don't bother thinking about how they're going to put the ball in the hole. And actually, because it's cognitively very difficult.

Hmm.

The whole time your brain is taking information from the environment, processing it out, and there's one particular bit which throws out all the stuff you don't need, all the distractions. You don't need to know that the sky is blue or the grass is really green. Oh, that's a bit burnt on that bit of fairway over there. Or that one's raked that bunker.

when you're hitting your shirt gobble.

Mmm.

So it kind of focuses your attention. However, we know when people get emotionally upset, and let's be honest, I'm sure there's some times that we've all kind of just lost it a little bit. We've whacked another ball into the river, or a big bit. So that

Yeah, or a big bit. Yeah. Yeah.

emotional regulation part in your brain happens in four or five different areas, but they're all connected with attention and focus and decision-making as well. So that's why when the red mist

descends, you and you whacked the second ball out of bounds because you thought you needed to do it bit harder. That decision making also sort of suffers and breaks down as well. So it's all interconnected. There's a lot of stuff going up on there. I'm still in the sort of relatively early days of mapping the rest of what goes on. But I just think it's really important and particularly when it comes to brain health, because when they have done studies comparing their brains of professional golfers and amateur golfers,

They find that different areas in the brain are larger, have better circulatory patterns, and are just like a muscle, stronger. And that's probably no surprise, because they've done the 10,000 hours of practice.

Yeah. Is that then an aspect, did you say that you're studying at the moment for the book? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I'm just trying to

connect the science around the brain, what we've seen in observational studies. And most of these studies are performed in Asia because that's where the really good research is going on at the moment. There

Okay.

was a lovely, I'm off on my soapbox now, because there was a wonderful study done practicing a

loving it.

10 second swing, but a slow-mo swing with no golf club. And they got

I think they got about 30 professionals and 30 amateur Korean women golfers to practice, I think it was six times a day, three sets of 10 second swings, 10 second slow motion swings. And what they saw is the professional's brains didn't really alter that much, but they were able to kind of assess which bit the brain was working when they did it. And when they went back after the amateurs had done the training,

those bits of the brain that the professionals had already developed and the amateur's brains had improved dramatically just by doing a 10 second slow motion swing.

What is

Wow.

it about the slow motion swing? What's the impact there?

It's

what's the why. So that's a really great question that they they they hypothesize

they think it's to do with the fact that you're asked your brain is asking your body to do something. But because it's very conscious, it's doing it much more intensely. And therefore a bit like doing it like picking a weight up really slowly and just curling your arm up. It means that your brain's working harder. Therefore that bit develops.

Wow. Yeah. I do. I

I love it.

absolutely do love that because if I, if I can sort of tie that to a piece, a tip or a piece of advice that you often hear for amateur golfers or recreational golfers is if you're

Hmm.

on a bit of a downward spiral of, know, you've been hitting a few shanks one after the other or hitting a few poor ones, how do you reset? And often

Hmm.

one of the, the go-to bits of advice is

slow everything down, know, trying just, it's almost like bringing more focus and intent back to the swing, you know, and almost not trying to over swing it basically. equally some research came out of South Korea, I it was, is about the blood flow in your brain when you grip.

The golf club. Do you want to share a little bit about that one? Yeah.

Yes. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, sure. So,

so we've all got boilers in our in our houses at home and they all run at a certain pressure. And, you know, if if you turn all the bathtubs on and the taps and the radiators and put the heating on, the pressure goes up in order to service that demand. Same thing with your blood pressure in your body. And there's a particular the unique thing about your brain.

is your brain has to have a constant pressure the whole time, even when you're doing some exercise and the blood is being demanded by your legs if you're running or something like that. And that's called your central nervous reserve. And that particular pressure needs to be consistent. The issue we notice when people hold a golf club, the blood pressure, the pressure goes up.

And they're already actually sort of training their central nervous reserve to cope with that extra demand. So it's a bit again, the bit like lifting a weight. When you lift that weight, your muscle gets stronger. When you hold a golf club, you're actually asking your body to kind of do the golf club holding and still supply all the blood to your brain at the same time. And that's what it particularly does. And the issue is, as you get older, sadly,

your ability to hold that reserve becomes much, much harder. So your body has to work so much harder at 80 compared to when you were 18. And that

Mm.

working harder actually is kind of, it's a bit of a shame, but it's also quite good for you as well. So it kind of makes you work even harder at doing the same thing. So that's why even in our golf society sessions, we get people to hold golf clubs, even putters, for example.

and we get them to do slow motion swings because we know that that is going to have a very good cognitive impact on their brain.

How do you think behaviour change plays out in a golf context, Charlie?

I suppose it kind of depends on what we're trying to achieve by what's the goal

Hmm.

in that particular behavior. But we know that the acquisition of a new skill or habit takes time. And often we're very, as we've started in this conversation, very outcome focused. We want to lose two stone by the start of our summer holiday. And we're

Yeah.

fixed on that moment there. But to lose the two stone, you've got to lose

one or two or three or four pounds over the next few weeks and keep that going and maintain that change.

Yeah.

that's making the changes that you do to achieve that habit are the bits that we find difficult because too many distractions. This is why we get sucked into easy answers, know, take this particular supplement or wear this particular garment, it'll make you thinner. It almost certainly won't because the laws of physics just don't disappear.

I think behavior change is really sticky and difficult. We often try and do it by ourselves without support. That's very hard. So, you know, I'm always surprised when Golf PJ Golf Pros offer you a lesson and that you spend your hours up and that's it. You know, if it had kind of coach in context, you and I know that you need to kind of reinforce and support and help somebody. How did it go? See change as an experiment. You know, we can change the plan.

do it a different way

Mmm.

but that one didn't suit you etc etc. So I think that kind of feedback loop that's shortened and connected that leads you to the goal is much more successful. Certainly into adoption of exercise that definitely is the case.

Yeah, I think there are this this this area of conversation spotlights something really interesting that where you see overlap and parallels between golf and wider health, well-being, fitness, exercise, diet, nutrition, whatever, for example,

Mmm.

is because I think, you know, I for one, you know, I'm really close attention at the moment to

developments in weight loss drugs, like, you know, sort of as M-Pick and Manjaro and things

Yeah. Yeah.

like that. that's obvious. I can totally understand the appeal of something like that because of that quick fix effectively. you know, but then if you, if you look almost, I don't think there's any direct equivalent in the golf world. However, something I've talked about quite a few times on this podcast has been about how I find it a bit

I can't find the word, but maybe disingenuous at times or

Mm.

even just frustrating to see how the golf industry sells in terms of whether it's golf club manufacturers or it's people that are selling you the latest training aid. It's selling it to you as a silver bullet,

effectively, which is like if you just get if you just do this thing or get this thing or buy this thing, then then then you're solved. And I suppose

almost at one of the simplest levels, the work that I'm trying to do as a, you know, as a golf coach now specialising more in the mind is getting people to really find value and enjoyment in the process of learning or in actually being rewarded for those, the compounding of habits is what you're describing there as well. But unfortunately,

Yeah.

That feels boring to a lot of people. It's like, why should I have to work for something over a period of much like your weight? If you want to

Yeah.

lose two stone by, I'd absolutely love to lose a couple of stone by the time I tee up at the golf event I'm playing at on Thursday. And I'll probably get on

Hahaha

the exercise bike or lift a few weights. But there's no quick...

quick, there really aren't, I don't think. Especially not if you want long term, if you want to achieve certain outcomes or certain goals, it requires sustained effort, doesn't it?

Yeah, human

beings are really good at putting calories inside them and storing them. As we get older, we get even more efficient at it, which is really depressing. But, you know, the habits that cause those things are the ones you need to break in order to lose the weight. And actually, mean, just think, you I've been looking at the history of golf and medicine and, you know, a

Mmm. Mmm.

lot of these, a lot of the things that we're talking about.

very zealot Christian right-wing kind of views, and he did have them. He talked about golf as being the sort of perfect exercise used by gentlemen in Scotland. It was played with the little leather balls stuffed with feathers and sticks tipped with the horn. And he says, Dr. Mackenzie, his friend, said that a man would live 10 years longer for doing this exercise once or twice a week. So one of the first epidemiological

Yeah, I hear. What do you hear

Yeah, these folk know this stuff. You hear it.

when you hear that? What does that translate to for you? What are we laughing at in golf?

think we're laughing at ourselves and we're laughing at each other and we're having a social moment that's positive and happy and it happens to be on a golf course. Yeah, and most of the times I do apologize to the folk I go on my Traverse tours with. I've laughed, it's been on the golf course when somebody's done something really foolish and they're able to laugh at themselves at the same time. And

Yeah. Yeah.

it's just, and those memories stay with you.

remember this particular, this poor lad getting just absolutely frustrated in the rough and whacking away at the ball, nothing happening. And we were speechless. was brilliant. And actually, the more we can make those moments engulf, not necessarily at the failure of others, but that's human nature sometimes, but things that make us smile. And it can be connected to good performance, but most of the time it's the fact.

I'm very blessed, I live in Ilkley, we have a course by the river and I was out really early the other day and second I was standing in the tea, looked in the river and there was an otter swimming past and I thought, do know what, I might as go home because this is just brilliant. This is so good. And

Yeah.

they put me playing, I'll just sit here and watch the otter. So I did. And he was having a lovely time and the group came behind and said, are you okay? And said, yeah, there's an otter in the rubble just watching it. And they kind of went.

Oh, can we play through? said, of course you can, but watching the arteries, lovely. And it was

Yeah.

sort of something wrong with me. So I think how, and this is why I love what you're trying to do, how we play golf really matters. It's, know, are we giving its best chance to make it fun? How can we entertain ourselves? How can we have, take pleasure in doing something so we're blessed to be in beautiful country with General Morama Golf Course, you know.

Absolutely.

And

I think we have to make the most of it.

How do you see the things coexisting though, Charlie? Because I'm very mindful that, you know, what I never want to do when I come on my podcast or when I coach someone in golf is to sort

Sure.

of, I'm never asking someone to give up on their ambition, but I'm trying to see how we can strike that balance between having fun and enjoying it versus striving for, yeah, performance related outcomes. What's your view on that?

I think that's a balance that we all have to decide where our tipping point is. How towards the performance end do we want to be and how before just having a good time and hanging out with our mates do we want to be. And my dad was very much towards the having a nice time element to it. He roared with laughter at his terrible golf and he enjoyed every moment of it. But for some people, they want to improve. It's performance and competition and that's brilliant.

And any sport allows that opportunity for people to thrive. And you probably find like-minded people who also want to, you know, carry that value with you when you play golf. That's okay. You know, that's the way you do it. But it's the consequence of not achieving what you expect you should do is actually quite, I think that's a dangerous moment where you're going to beat yourself up for not being brilliant, you know. And we've seen in the major championship this weekend that actually

overall I don't know how many people were playing 150 plus you know one person walks away with a trophy and everyone else thinks

they failed well I don't think they did it's just different

No, no, exactly.

I think, yeah, I think.

As I said to you before we started recording, you know, more and

Mm.

more these days in men's professional golf, especially, I think there's a bit of a chasm opening up between, you know, there was a time maybe back in, you know, the days of Seve or Monty or whatever where, know, in terms of finesse in a golf swing or whatever, you know, we might have been able to keep up with them in terms of distance and things like that, but.

Nowadays, you know, the kind of distances that the men are hitting are just kind of out of reach. But I always maintain that there are mental approaches or habits that we, the everyday person, can definitely replicate. And that includes having perspective. Like you say, you know, I heard Ryan Fox talking about how

you know, he said to his caddy, we're going for this on the last and I can, I'm going to, deal with the consequences if it doesn't go my way, you know, and I think what a great way to live your life is to kind of go, well, let's have a go at it. You know, the world's not going to end if I bogey this hole or double bogey this hole or whatever kind of thing. still, I'll be able to look back at the end of my 72 holes in his case and say,

there are positives to find. It's a, it is a mindset thing and it's, it's our, it's the

you

way that we think about ourselves, the way that we talk about or to ourselves. and, yeah, just our overall outlook on things. So,

Yeah,

And the conclusion of this book, you know, it is in truth difficult to sing its praises enough. In praise of golf, it was called. There's no better form of exercise, no sport in which the young and old will meet in equal terms. No game played under conditions so healthful. Following the flying globe, I think that's the ball, following the flying globe over the green links where sea breezes fan the cheek and the song of the lark mingles at the murmur of the waves may rouse the torpid frame.

and dispel the gloom which besets the mind. Okay, the Victorians liked to be that florid writing, but they still nailed it. It's good for your heart, it's good for your brain. Get out and play more golf and enjoy the nature around you.