Golf Swing Can Tell You About Your Fitness Level

SACRAMENTO, CA -- Golfers come in all shapes and sizes, hitting all kinds of shots, but experts say the direction of your ball flight tells a lot about your fitness level.

Short drives are an indication of poor flexibility in your lower body and tight hips and hamstrings lead to mobility issues when you get older.

Golfer Sam Harms says "I have worked on that flexibility thing. And I've always been flexible, but my swing never indicated it."

Accuracy problems tend to show strength and flexibility issues in your upper body. This could be a looming sign of poor posture and pending arthritis.

Golfer Bob Wenzel says "I gotta a lot of arthritis in my back in and neck both."

If your golf swing is all over the place, chances are your core muscles are weak.

Golf pro Mark Gouger suggests a fitness workout with every lesson.

He says "especially if they are taking a series of lessons. I want to make sure they are getting the most out of the series of lessons."

It's not just how you hit the golf ball, but also how you get around the golf course. If you elect to walk instead of using a golf cart, it will add to your fitness level.

Mark Gouger says "one of the benefits of playing golf as you get older is to keep exercise and keeping the range of motion and walking is a big benefit to that."

The USGA says walking 18 holes is like taking a four to five mile walk and then there is the mental side of the game.

Mark Gouger says "you can tell a lot about a person when you play golf with them."

How do you react after a bad shot, hole or round?

Mark Gouger says "take somebody out on the golf course and play golf with them and you'll understand their personality, how they work, how they act, because there is a lot of things in golf that bring that out, even when we don't want it to be brought out."

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