The Loop
Are your bad habits costing you rounds of golf?

Photo by T-Lorien /Getty Images
We all know golfers whose habits are, shall we say, less than 100 percent healthy. You might even be one. To that we say, it's a free country. But have you ever thought about how many rounds these vices might be costing you?
An admittedly unscientific look at the golf you're missing.

How we arrived at these numbers: The National Golf Foundation says core golfers play an average of 34 rounds a year. 1. Nonsmokers live 10 years longer than smokers, says the Centers for Disease Control. 2. A 2012 Harvard study found 75 minutes of “brisk” walking a week adds 1.8 years to your life. 3. A 2012 University of Cambridge study shows every drink after the first drink takes 15 minutes off your life. If you drink four beers per round, that’s 136 beers a year, or 102 beers after the first one. That works out to 25.5 hours, or 6.4 four-hour rounds, every year. 4. The Journal of Clinical Oncology found that sunscreen prevented melanoma at a rate of 50 to 73 percent. Melanoma has been shown to cut 18 to 20 years off life expectancy. 5. A 2010 University of Washington study found healthy eaters in one Texas community lived seven years longer than unhealthy eaters.