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Extract

To the Editor-in-Chief:

Many of the world’s 56 million individuals who play golf, travel abroad to play the sport. International golfing travel has witnessed unprecedented growth with an estimated 1.6 million golf holidays reported in 2012 alone, with an annual growth rate of over 20% for emerging destinations in Latin America, the Caribbean, Middle East and Africa.1 Approximately half of all rounds of golf played in the Caribbean are played by tourists, with the Dominican Republic dominating the Caribbean golf market. In light of the popularity of this form of sports tourism and, given that golf may be perceived as a particularly safe leisure pursuit, we wish to highlight selected travel health risks associated with international golf travel.

As an outdoor recreational pursuit popular in hotter climates, golf travel presents predictable environmental risks, including sunburn and heat exhaustion or heat stroke. This is particularly relevant to tourists playing 18 or more holes on a given day while carrying their clubs or using a manual golf trolley rather than a motorised golf cart. Some golf courses are located at altitude and this may impose additional cardiorespiratory stresses on the older golf traveller with pre-existing medical conditions. Other golf resorts allow the golfer to purchase refreshments at the turn between the ninth and tenth holes but this is not always the case, and dehydration is a risk for golfers who may not be accustomed to playing golf on steep terrain in high ambient temperatures. We advise a wide-brimmed hat rather than the traditional baseball-style golf cap, and sports sunglasses should be supplemented with advice to use and reapply every 2 h a high sun protection factor sun-cream with UVA and UVB protection to minimise the long-term cumulative risk of photo-aging and skin cancer, respectively.2 Few golf courses provide safe shelter in the event of a thunderstorm and standing under a tree during a lightning strike is potentially dangerous. Golf clubs and umbrellas act as electrical conductors and are best abandoned to be collected later in the event of a sudden thunderstorm. Advice on how to behave during a thunderstorm should be provided to all golfers, especially given that lightning is projected to become more common owing to global warming.3

Issue Section:
Letter to the Editor
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