Golfers love to talk about their game as a sport. Tiger Woods, after all, weight trains like a fiend. But the critics will not be moved. It's a pastime says, well, almost anybody with a pair of eyes and a brain.

Turns out the eyes may not be telling us the full story. Neil Wolkodoff, director of the Rose Center for Health and Sport Sciences in Denver, decided to put things to the test. He wired eight golfers up with sensors and tracked oxygen consumption, heart rate, carbon dioxide production and measured the distances they traveled on their rounds.

Afterwards, Wolkodoff told AP that: "The study shows there's a significant energy expenditure in golf, more than bowling and other sports it's been compared to."