Healthy Eating Helps to Get the Bogeys Out of a Golfing Diet

You have a golf match at 9 a.m., and you want to win. So you wake up an hour beforehand, zoom out of the house and get your usual large coffee on the way. You figure you’ll get something to eat on the course. Or maybe you get to the club at 8:30 and head to the grill, where you wolf down a cheese omelet and hash browns in time to putt a few balls on the practice green.

You are doomed, doomed, doomed.

You will run out of steam, helpless as your opponent runs the table late on the back nine. That’s the fuel and sustenance assessment, at least. Nutritionists may predict that you will start poorly, rally a little, then finish badly. Sound familiar?

You may think this is nonsense. If you’re faltering in matches, it’s because you have the yips over 3-foot putts. But nutritionists would have an answer for that as well: low blood sugar from an improper diet causes nervousness.

You are what you eat, they say, and in golf, it may be more true than you think. Is a slice driving you mad? That banana ball off the tee may be cured with a midround banana.

Topping the ball? Perhaps you should have topped that morning bagel with peanut butter.

You may be nuts to play golf, but nuts during golf may make you feel a little more sane. A fried egg might have seemed like a good breakfast, but it could be causing those fried-egg lies in bunkers.

You get the point. Is this nutritionist, tofu-eating mumbo jumbo?

An awful lot of people are beginning to suspect that what you put in your body can help you hit the golf ball straighter and calm your nerves around the greens.

Ever wonder if some of the guys at your club who take beta blockers for high blood pressure have an edge in tense, stressful matches? Beta blockers are also antianxiety drugs — musicians, opera singers and other performers sometimes take them to quell stage fright.

Some of the drugs intended to treat attention deficit disorder help people without the condition to concentrate and focus. They, too, could help golfers. The professional golf tours have been working on testing players for these drugs.

In Germany last year, 20 golfers spent six weeks eating an energy bar with 200 milligrams of phosphatidylserine, an ingredient linked to better concentration and coordination. During this period, when measured against a control group of golfers with similar handicaps who did not consume the energy bar, the golfers plied with phosphatidylserine began to hit their tee shots noticeably closer on a 148-yard par-3 hole, according to researchers conducting the study.

Now who knows what to make of all this. Golf is so capricious, with so many illogical things that can happen, I’m sure I could swallow 200 milligrams of phosphatidylserine daily for 12 months, and in next year’s club championship, one of my shots would still be blown into a greenside pond by a sudden gust. I’d fall apart, make an 8 and wonder why I play such a fickle game.

I have no fear whatsoever that losers gathered in 19th holes across the land will soon be muttering, “I’ve got to double my phosphatidylserine intake next week.”

At the same time, with golf rounds increasingly lasting four and a half to five hours, and with the touring pros having proved that fitness and overall good health help produce lower scores, it makes sense that we could fuel ourselves a little better.

Dan Benardot, an associate professor in kinesiology and health at Georgia State University and the co-director of the Laboratory for Elite Athletic Performance, recommended that someone preparing for a 9 a.m. match might want to get up a little earlier to finish eating breakfast at least 90 minutes before playing. Benardot suggested a glass of juice and some toast, something amounting to 400 calories. Another nutritionist, Nancy Clark, recommended the bagel with peanut butter, or cereal and nuts.

“An earlier meal will stabilize you, and you’ll need the boost it brings,” Benardot said. “Golf may not be marathon running, but it does require repeated, high-intensity swings that are coordinated, athletic movements like in other sports.”

The key, the nutritionists said, is not to avoid calories in this active setting. They recommended consuming enough carbohydrates to sustain proper blood sugar levels during play. Benardot said golfers should be sipping a sports beverage throughout their round — maybe a few mouthfuls every other hole.

There are many beverages in this category made by Powerade and Power Bar. This year, Gatorade introduced Gatorade Tiger, named for you-know-who. It has a carbohydrate makeup that nearly matches what Benardot recommends in a golf sports beverage.

Clark, the author of the “Sports Nutrition Guidebook,” said she would have golfers take granola, energy bars or trail mix to eat on the course. Clif Bars are portable and very filling. There are golf energy bars called 1st Tee and 10th Tee.

And what of the typical midround golf choices, the standard hot dog and beer?