Golf clubs are well placed to help people live healthier lives. The new healthy club checklist sets out eight practical steps any facility can take, drawn from the 2018 International Consensus on Golf and Health.
Golf gets people walking outdoors, it is social and it can be played for a lifetime. The facilities where people play have a part to play too. Small, practical changes at a club can make the game safer and more welcoming for everyone who walks through the door.
That is the thinking behind the healthy club checklist, a new feature on our Golf industry page. It is aimed at club managers, PGA Professionals and federations who want a simple way to check where they stand.
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All eight items come from the 2018 International Consensus Statement on Golf and Health (Murray et al., 2018, British Journal of Sports Medicine), which brought together experts from around the world to agree actions for golfers, policymakers and the golf industry. The full text is free to read. Its actions for facilities include:
The consensus also says facilities should encourage players to walk, avoid making buggy use mandatory, and be welcoming and inclusive.
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Some of these steps can save lives. A study of cardiac arrests on US golf courses found that survival was 37.9% when a defibrillator was used, compared with 18.7% when one was not (Gustafson et al., 2025). The same study found that golf courses are the fifth most frequent public location for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the US.
Sun safety matters too. Golfers spend hours outdoors, often in strong sunshine. Australian golfers were 2.4 times more likely to report a skin cancer diagnosis than the general population (Stenner et al., 2023). Stocking sun cream, hats and collared shirts, and sharing sun safety advice, is an easy way for a club to help.
Other items are about making the club a better place to be. Water and healthy food help people play well and feel well. Walking routes and child care open the club to more people, including parents who might otherwise struggle to find the time to play.
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Start by working through the list with your team and ticking off what you already have in place. Most clubs will find they are doing several of these already. The gaps then become a short, practical action list, and some of them cost very little to put right.
You can read the checklist on the Golf industry page, or download the one-page printable version to use at your next staff or committee meeting. It has space for your club name, the date and the reviewer, so you can return to it and track progress.
If your club has already made changes like these, we would love to hear about it.
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