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If a study in the March issue of the US Journal of Neurosurgery was focussed on cycling it would be leapt upon by cycle helmet compulsionists, such as Eric Martlew MP and the Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust, a political lobbying group funded by the Freemasons.
But it’s about golf so will be wholly ignored by those who feel it’s only cyclists who need to wear head protection even through the accident stats reported by the brain surgeon’s magazine show that golf is almost as "dangerous" as cycling.
Dr. Scott Y. Rahimi, a neurosurgery resident, said that a review of 2546 patients under age 19 seen by brain surgeons at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta between 1996 and 2002 revealed 64 sports-related injuries. 17 were cyclists. 15 were junior golfers.
"Golf-related injuries constitute a common type of sports injury in the pediatric population," said Dr. Rahimi.
He and the study’s co-authors found that depressed skull fracture – where a portion of the skull is broken on impact and underlying brain may be bruised – as the most common golf-related head injury.
Most injuries occurred not on golf courses but in neighbourhood parks.
Dr. Rahimi does not advocate the use of golf helmets, preferring "precautionary guidelines" and "safety training programs to reduce golf-related injuries."
