Why Golfers Live 5 Years Longer

It's all to do with the benefits of outdoor daylight

Activities and hobbies that motivate people to spend more time outdoors in natural daylight increase their healthy lifespan. Gardening, fishing and golfing come to mind as activities that require multiple hours outside in natural daylight.

There is an old saying that every day you spend fishing adds two days to your life. It might be true, but I cannot find any scientific study to back it up.

However, the longevity of golfers versus those who don’t play golf has been investigated, and the results are dramatic.

Golfers live five years longer

A comprehensive study of over 300,000 Swedish golfers aged 40 to 79 years showed that their mortality rate was 40% less than that of age-matched Swedish non-golfers¹. This amounted to an average of about 5 years of additional lifespan. Those with the lowest handicap - presumably because they spent the most time outdoors playing golf - showed an even greater extension of lifespan.

This huge beneficial effect of playing golf was observed even after correcting for the socio-economic status of the 203,778 men and 97,040 women in the study.

A similar effect was seen in a study of 5,888 American golfers over the age of 65². Using data from the Cardiovascular Health Study between 1989 and1999, the researchers found that those who were regular golfers had a 40% lower risk of dying after correcting for age, gender, hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Interestingly, the golfers had the same risk of heart attacks (myocardial infaction) or stroke but still lived significantly longer.

Why do golfers live longer?

The study authors assumed that the moderate exercise associated with walking and swinging golf clubs was the reason for the beneficial effects of golfing on lifespan.

However, large scale studies in Sweden and in the UK show that these same benefits apply to anyone who spends extended hours outdoors during the day for whatever reason. In the study of 29,000 Swedish women, those with the highest sunlight exposure had a mortality rate that was 50% lower than women with the least sunlight exposure because they stayed indoors³.

Similarly, in a British study of 88,000 men and women the 10% of participants with the highest outdoor light exposure had a mortality rate that was about 30% lower than those who spent the least time outdoors⁴.

You don’t have to be a golfer

Having a passion for golf, which requires spending several hours outdoors to complete a round, is an effective motivator to get outside in daylight. But any motivation or activity that encourages you to go outside regularly will work. Hunting, fishing, playing outdoor tennis, training for a marathon, or working as a farmer or landscaper will serve this purpose.

The bottom line is go outside each day as much as you can. The average person spends less than 8 % of their time outdoors, and without realizing it, they are shortening their lifespan

For more insights into what we have done to ourselves by moving indoors under artificial LED lights, and advice on specific ways to extend your healthy lifespan, see my book THE LIGHT DOCTOR.

Sources

1. Farahmand B. et al (2009) Golf: a game of life and death – reduced mortality in Swedish golf players. Scand J Med Sci Sports 19: 419–424 doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0838.2008.00814.x

2. Qureshi AI et al (2020) Effect of playing golf on cardiovascular diseases and death in older persons: The Cardiovascular Health Study. Stroke 51: (Suppl 1) pp. ATP172-ATP172 https://doi.org/10.1161/str.51.suppl_1.TP172

3. Lindqvist et al. (2014) Avoidance of sun exposure is a risk factor for all-cause mortality: results from the Melanoma in Southern Sweden cohort. J Intern Med 276:77–86.

4. Windred DP et al (2024) Brighter nights and darker days predict higher mortality risk: A prospective analysis of personal light exposure in >88,000 individuals. PNAS 121: No. 43 e2405924121