When you're playing golf, particularly if you're walking the course, hydration is key.
Staying hydrated allows your body to perform closer to its best, but walking the golf course strips your body of that hydration. Lots of golfers drink water while playing golf, but often times, water is not enough to replace the hydration lost. Our bodies need a little bit more. And if you're having a few adult beverages while playing golf, well, that accelerates dehydrating your body.
So, if you want to perform at your best, have a good time and potentially avoid a nasty headache -- much less a hangover -- then you want to be well hydrated on the golf course.
Biolyte is a product that positions itself as a superior hydration tool compared to water and sports drinks. Dr. Luther Rollins, an Atlanta-based anesthesiologist, created the product when his wife needed access to better hydration as she was battling cancer. It has seven times the electrolytes found in a common sports drink and even 50 percent more than something like Pediasure, which adults have realized is a great hangover cure. It has several B vitamins to help increase energy. A small mix of dextrose and erythritol helps maintain blood sugar.
Biolyte comes in three flavors -- citrus, tropical and berry -- but let's get this out of the way: Biolyte isn't yummy. It tastes pretty good. It's not supposed to be delicious. It's supposed to be effective. Biolyte is marketed as an IV in a bottle, and no one in their right mind would think that's going to be delicious.
Electrolytes -- sodium chloride (also known as table salt) and potassium chloride -- are salty, and their job is to help keep water in your body. Biolyte, then, has a bit of a salty taste to it. Some people might actually like that. I didn't find it objectionable at all, particularly knowing Biolyte isn't loaded with sugars to mask the taste. In a way, the taste is a reminder that it works.
You should drink Biolyte, which you can get for $3-$4 per bottle, as cold as possible. That's their recommendation, and I'd agree with it. The colder it tastes, the less salty it's going to taste, even to a sensitive tongue. That might mean having it in a cart cooler, particularly if you're planning to drink it during the round. If you want to down a bottle before you play, you won't have to fret about keeping it cold until you're ready to drink it. The Biolyte folks say it takes about 30 minutes before the product works in full, so it's best to drink this earlier in the round rather than later.
A lot of golfers drag in the final few holes of a round and limp into the house a bit. I'm one of those players, especially since I rarely play 18-hole rounds these days. Biolyte was helpful for me as a drink at the turn, expecting that it would catch up as I had five or six holes to play. It did. I felt more pep in my step and not dragging quite as much, particularly on my home course's final three holes, which feature a lot of up and down.
About a decade ago, I did the 100 Hole Hike, and one of the guys I played with carried packets filled with electrolytes that he threw in his water bottle at different points in our journey. Biolyte takes out the need to carry a bunch of powder in your golf bag.
Biolyte was also immensely helpful for me recently when I fell ill with a non-Covid bug. Whatever I had finally caught up to me, and I was feeling it. I was shivering. Then I was hot. Then I had a headache and an annoying cough. In the past, when I've this kind of bug, chugging a whole ton of a sports drink has been helpful. Usually a half-gallon of it went a long way. As I was getting ready to lay down and drink some water, though, I remembered that I still had a bottle of Biolyte, nice and cold, in my fridge. I downed the citrus-flavored bottle quickly, and within 25-30 minutes, there was improvement in how I felt. I didn't feel as run down, and I felt like my body was in a good place to take on whatever was bothering me while I slept. A half-day later, I was feeling closer to my normal self.
Proper hydration goes a long way in helping you feel and perform at your best, yet it's something we as golfers often ignore because we're playing a game that's seemingly not that taxing. However, the body strain adds up over a round, and sometimes we need a little extra something to reset our bodies to get through a full round. Biolyte can be a good solution to do just that.
