19th Hole
Study shows how using a push cart or electric trolly can help lower scores

Golfers love a stat.
Apart from keeping score, there are more than a handful of devices available to measure ball speed, plane, stance, putting stroke and on and on.
Even non-players are involved in numbers, with golf bettors using the likes of tour-tips.com and datagolf to crunch the figures and sort out which player’s best attribute suits that week’s course.
So, even though it may seem fairly obvious that walking and pushing a golf cart is more beneficial to your health than riding a cart, the latest study by the Colorado Center for Health and Sports Science adds the oft-sought science to the belief.
The study was carried out by lead researcher Neil Wolkodoff, PhD and backed by Europe’s number 1 golf bag and push cart brand BIG MAX. It also set out to find out how energy expenditure varies in golf based on the mode of transport, as well as recording data on participants’ reported mental focus and their scores across a round of nine holes.
Researches used a VO2 Master metabolic analyzer and a standard Hans-Rudolph mask to test energy expenditure on the course, finding that golfers burned most Kcal per hour using a pushcart, a significant 36% increase on motorized cart use.
Both using a push cart and electric trolley reached the threshold for being recognized as moderate intensity exercise and would have a positive impact on the health of users, while golf using a motorized cart constitutes a health improvement activity.
Wolkodoff commented, “It is clear that if you walk the course, you will experience the same health benefits as other moderate exercises, possibly better. Particularly noting that improvement when using a pushcart, and certainly more than when taking part in recreational or leisure walking.”
“Previous studies I’ve worked on demonstrated that using a pushcart had performance benefits over other types of course transport. The walking modes in this study had a clear improvement in reported mental focus of participants when walking compared to a motor cart.”
The health benefits were pretty much a given, but how does this affect your actual performance? Will walking gain you that vital shot for your weekend $50 scramble?
In reporting mental focus and overall score to par, the studies concluded that pushcart and electric trolley usage came out with very similar results.
For reported mental focus, manual cart use averaged a score of 5.67 while the electric versions scored 6.63, both outscoring an average of 5.01 for the motorised aid. Scores to par fared similarly, with the two manual carts scoring 10.4 and 10.2 above par respectively with the motor over a shot behind over 9 holes at 11.5.
Rick Oldach, CEO of Big Max USA, the company that supplied all the carts and bags for the experiment, was pleased with the end results.
“Neil and the team have done a fantastic job,” he said enthusiastically. “The methodology for testing energy expenditure delivers undisputed evidence for the health benefits of walking the course. The results that particularly please me though are around mental focus and scores. I’ve long suspected that having time to think between shots, to decompress after each shot and to have time to prepare for the next shot is of real benefit, and this study proves that walking improves performance.”
So, not only for your health, but to also beat your buddies for that free round of beers, go manual!
19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
19th Hole
How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
19th Hole
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.