Why Do Football Players Make Good Golfers

Having played with a number of football legends (we run the following at http://www.FootballLegendsGolfEvent.com and it is open to golf shake members to win a place, go visit) I am always amazed at how competitive they are and also 'most' are very long hitters even when they are into their 60's...

Do Sunday league footballers make good golfers or is it just the professionals ??   

Sorry to hear about that your football career has come to an end but 20 years is not a bad innings...just means yoiu can go the pub earlier...Do you think also that not having your usual 2 pints before the golf doesn't help..

Sorry to hear about that your football career has come to an end but 20 years is not a bad innings...just means yoiu can go the pub earlier...Do you think also that not having your usual 2 pints before the golf doesn't help..

I play in the week with an ex-pro footballer in the summer as he can't play in the winter because he still scouts for Coventry City and Watford. He's in his 60's and hasn't been playing for years like most others now. He smashes the ball as far as I do most of the time. He played for England a couple of times in the 60's.

I too played for a German club in the 80's for 2 years at a respectable level and I think that if you're reasonably good at both then its got to be down to playing ball sports regularly.

Paul, Would we know that team? (my German football knowledge is not that vast though)... Would learning someone a new sport i.e. Cricket or tennis improve a begineers golf game???

No Darren, Bad Sassendorf, equivalent of a Doctor Martens League team I reckon, they were a filter team for Schalke 04 at the time and a few of the better players tried out there. The guy I play golf with is Colin Dobson who played for Sheffield Wednesday amongst others.

I think that the action of swinging a cricket bat and tennis racket, certainly a forehand stroke does have similarities to the golf swing in the way that you are trying to get a lot of your upper body powerfully swinging through the ball using a full body turn. I still play a lot a squash and I can definately vouch for the fact that not all the power is in the arms. It would probably help with co-ordination. By the same token, because golf is so mental you can't compare it to anything!

Not just footballers.  I used to play in a fourball with three top grade club cricketers who all shot in the 80's without playing regularly.  There is also a piece in latest TG that shows Ian Botham has a 7 handicap, Paul Collingwood 4 and Ricky Ponting 1.