Golfers warned teeing off could make you deaf
Keen golfers are being warned by doctors that they could be risking their hearing for the sport.
The BBC reports today that players who use a new generation of thin-faced titanium drivers to propel the ball further should consider wearing ear plugs.
Ear specialists suspect the "sonic boom" the metal club head makes when it strikes the ball damaged the hearing of a 55-year-old golfer they treated. They outline the details of this case in the British Medical Journal. (BMJ)
The man had been playing with a King Cobra LD titanium club three times a week for 18 months and commented that the noise of the club hitting the ball was "like a gun going off".
It had become so unpleasant that he decided to ditch the club, but by this time he had already suffered some hearing loss.
Doctors at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital carried out tests on the keen golfer after he attended their clinic with unexplained tinnitus and reduced hearing in his right ear.
The tests confirmed that his hearing problems were typical of those seen with exposure to loud noises.
As the Daily Mail observed in its write-up today, 'being caught in a thunderstorm or hit by a ball ought to be the only real dangers in a round of golf!'
Read the full story at the BBC.
