While the mental and physical benefits associated with playing golf have been well documented over the years, one NHS Trust board in Scotland has taken the sport’s health-enhancing benefits a stage further by offering a grant to a golf club in the Western Isles to order a fleet of rental electric golf trolleys to encourage older members to carry on playing.
According to a report published on the NHS Western Isles website, the Trust has given a £20,000 grant to Stornoway Golf Club to order 16 electric Powakaddy golf trolleys that will enable golfers to transport their clubs without the strain of carrying heavy bags across the challenging gradients of its golf course.
Speaking about the decision to issue the grant, Gordon Jamieson, NHS Western Isles’ chief executive, said: “Golf can promote up to four hours of walking activity. It improves cardiovascular health, flexibility and balance. By making golf more accessible to more people through the use of trolleys, Stornoway Golf Club can encourage more elderly individuals to participate in regular physical activity, which is essential for maintaining mobility and improving overall health.”
He added: “We are delighted to have been able to support this health and wellbeing based initiative, which will undoubtedly improve accessibility to a popular sport and the associated physical activity, and will also support additional benefits including reducing isolation and loneliness and improving mental health.”
NHS Western Isles said the funding was made available to it as capital grant funding, separate to the patient care and NHS services budget.
Stephen Moar, club captain at Stornaway, which boasts a 5,288-yard, par-69, 18-hole course, said: “In recent years, we have seen a growing demand for more accessible options for our senior golfers, many of whom face physical challenges that make walking long distances or carrying golf bags increasingly difficult. We believe that providing battery-powered golf trolleys will remove this barrier and encourage more elderly individuals to continue participating in the sport.”
Moar also believes the trolleys will ensure users will not only enjoy playing more, but can play for longer periods, ‘which is crucial for their social engagement and mental wellbeing’.
Scottish Golf was a participant in a 2023 pilot health initiative which saw golf ‘prescribed’ to eligible patients in Fife to drive a more active lifestyle, in collaboration with St Andrews University and the R&A. GP practices in Fife were invited to take part in the pilot study, with participating practices linked with four local golf clubs offering a six-to-eight week, free-of-charge programme to around 30 patients. The clubs running the programme were Cluny Clays, Dunfermline, Dunnikier Park and Elmwood.