Archery vs. Golf, Which Is Better?

Are you having trouble deciding which hobby is better for you, golf or archery? While both archery and golf are very good disciplines to practice there are a few key distinctions between the two you must know.

Golfing provides you with better exercise than archery since it burns considerably more calories in one practice session. And while golf is a better exercise, archery on the other hand is far cheaper for you to begin and easier to get good at.

So what are some other key benefits of one over the other? Keep reading.

This table should give you a clearer picture.

If you want a more detailed breakdown then pay attention. I know this website has »archery« in its name and I might be a little biased but even with that I will give you the most objective breakdown I can.

Calories Burned

Well, this one goes to golf, hands down. Golf burns more calories than archery. While a normal 1-hour archery session burns up to 200 calories for an average user, a normal golf session will burn up to 1500 calories.

It is no surprise there. Since golfing involves walking from hole to a hole and you can easily walk up to 5 miles without noticing.

If you add the weight of carrying a bag on you or pushing a golf cart then it is no surprise the calory count can reach 1500 per round of golf.

You can burn less. If you ride from hole to hole on a cart. But it is still a lot more than archery.

Archery on the other hand involves standing in one place, using your muscles to draw a bow, and releasing the bowstring. The vast majority of calories burned comes from the force needed to draw a bow and of course to walk to the target to collecting your arrows after you are done.

One could in theory increase the calory burned in archery if you use a bow with a higher draw weight.

Meaning you would need more force to pull the bowstring. I would strongly advise against that if that jeopardizes your form.

Like in many other sports correct form comes first in archery.

Equipment Needed for Golf and Archery

This one goes to archery. The fact is archery requires less equipment than golf and you can also get archery equipment for far cheaper than you can golfing equipment.

Let’s examine what I mean by that.

We will see how you can avoid buying equipment a little later on, but let’s assume you have your own equipment. 

Archery Equipment You Need and The Cost

In one archery practice session the things you would need are:

• A bow
• Arrows
• Arm guard

You can buy a few other things like gloves but you can do without gloves if you want. That’s it, three essential pieces of equipment and you are good to go.

And they are cheap! If you take a look at amazon or any other archery shop you can easily find basic archery set with everything you need in it for 60 dollars.

It is basic but it will do the job. If you decide to take it up a notch you can easily buy a bow for 500$, those are really cool.

But let’s look at golf

Equipment You Need for Golf and The Cost

In one round of golf, the equipment you will likely use is:

• Golf clubs
• Golf bag
• Golf gloves

In the beginning, you can avoid buying too many golf clubs and start with a small number of them. Even with that, the equipment cost is far higher than in archery.

The lowest price I could find for the equipment above is up to 500$ for the beginner set of golf clubs. If you add the cost of a golf bag to carry the clubs which can go for up to 150$, and a golf glove which is around 10 $, it adds up to the fact that archery is less expensive to do than golf.

What if you rent out the equipment?

So is there a way around the high costs? Well, most archery and golf ranges rent out equipment. So the answer is yes.

I gave a call to a few golf courses in the US and the rental costs really do wary. I found a golf course that rents out golf clubs for 8 dollars. On one hand, there are golf courses that rent out equipment from 40$ all the way up to 80$ at the high-end courses.

The price seems to depend on the location, quality of the golf course, and the quality of the clubs.

Archery ranges on the other hand offer rental equipment for the day for between 10$ and 20$ for one day. It’s simply a matter of calling them beforehand to make sure they offer that and you can easily set it up.

Time It Takes To Get Good

So which one is easier to master archery or golf? Or at the very least get good at it?

As with every sport, correct practice over a long period of time makes you better. With that, I will have to give one to archery as well.

Archery even with its challenges is rather simple and you can get decent beginner results within 2 months of regular practice. If you focus on your stance and correct form good results invariably follow.

Golfing is a bit more challenging. Since there are concepts like long game and short game to practice to get yourself decent enough to get the ball as close as where it needs to be.

So, archery is easier to get good at than golf.

Obviously, if you want to get really good at archery, beyond a beginner level it can take you between a year or two, depending on the frequency of practice.

The same goes for golf. The progress in both sports has no time frame. You are always progressing.

The Cost of Lessons

Archery wins in this category.

At my local archery range, they offer group lessons designed to get you decent at shooting a bow for 140$. With that, they offer a 3-month free pass to the archery range for practice.

After that, the annual pass to the shooting range is 90 dollars. Which translates between 7 and 8 dollars a month.

You can find the closest archery range if you’re from the US by clicking here.

I’d say it’s pretty cheap.

What about golf?

It is recommended you least get at least between three and 5 lessons of golf in before you go out on the green by yourself.

Based on the calls I’ve made individualized lessons can cost between 45$ and 60$.

For a well-qualified instructor at an average golf course.

Obviously, if you go to a high-end course the price will be higher dramatically.

The lessons usually come in packages. Meaning a 3-hour package will likely cost you between 120 dollars and 150 dollars. The lessons are usually spaced out.

Meaning you can have one hour today, then you practice and have the second hour next week, and so on.

This allows the instructor to give you assignments to do between lessons and for him to observe your progress.

While individual lessons like these are the best, if cost is a concern then you can enroll in group lessons. Those are cheaper.

You can click on the link down below to find a golfing instructor near you if you live in the US. (The 10 Best Golf Lessons Near Me (for All Ages & Levels))

It is best to take golfing lessons every few months to get input on how to improve your game.

Membership Costs Involved?

So what are the costs involved to play golf or practice archery?

As I said annual passes at archery ranges are ridiculously cheap. You can get an annual pass for less than a 100 dollars. Which is less than 8 dollars. So it costs next to nothing.

The cost for an annual membership at a golf course can range from a low end of 500$ to over 1500$ for the so-called “Platinum Package”, which is offered at many golf courses.

You must be tired of me saying this by now but Archery wins out here.

The Chance of You Getting Hurt

While we will take a look at a few common injuries in both disciplines let me emphasize this: Both sports are incredibly safe for the practitioners. Statistically speaking archery is said to be safer than golf.

Both sports are safe for you and your loved ones. You can take a look at the most common injuries in my article discussing if archery is bad by clicking here.

When it comes to golf it’s somewhat similar. A lot of problems can be avoided with a proper warm-up, stretching, and not over-exerting yourself.

Some common golfing injuries are:

• Pain in the back. Golfing requires sudden movements and often times carrying a bag around for an extended period of time. If you are not warmed up or if you lift the bag incorrectly over the long term this will cause problems.
• Pain in your joints like elbows, shoulders and knees. Due to the time you spend walking around and all of the sudden movements required for your long game can do damage not tot he actuall joints but to your tendons surrounding the joints.

Please consult your instructor on this. Let him tell you how to lower your risk of injury and always do proper stretching and warm-up before any round of golf.

And obviously, if you notice any discomfort stop immediately and contact your doctor. It’s best to catch any issue in the beginning.

I can’t really choose a winner here since both disciplines here are extremely safe.

So it’s a tie.

In Conclusion

So which one is better archery or golf?

Archery has the benefit of being a low cost, easy to start sport you can practice to improve your physique and focus while golf is a discipline that burns a lot more calories than archery yet it costs a lot more to start and it takes a little while longer to get halfway decent at it since archery is easier to master than golf.

In the end, it depends on you. Is money not an object and you want to get a good workout in? Then go for golfing. If you are searching for a cool low-cost hobby to practice?

Then archery is the way to go. You can see other surprising benefits of archery by clicking here, it will take you to an article where you can see all of the benefits archery brings you.

That is all from my end thank you very much for taking the time to read this and if you want, you can take a look at other articles on my blog.

Take care