Proper clothing is your first line of protection against the sun’s burning rays. Prolonged exposure to bright sunlight and sun transmitted through cloud cover can result in sunburn and premature aging. Worse, the effects of the sun are cumulative and irreversible. Every hour of sun exposure, every sunburn, all adds up over time.
It may surprise you that the sunburns of your past never go away. If you can imagine putting pennies into a piggy bank, every burn you experience keeps getting added to a bank account that eventually results in aged, raisin-like skin, or worse, skin cancer, the most severe being melanoma.
Both sunburn and suntan are caused when ultraviolet rays damage your skin’s DNA, which can be the first step on the pathway to cancer. For every round of golf you play without a hat, sunscreen, and protective clothing under the sun, you are adding more and more damage to your skin’s DNA, eventually triggering the formation of basal cell or other forms of skin cancer. And if that happens, the cancer must be removed with invasive surgery, leaving a terrible scar on the affected area.
But won’t my cotton or regular golf shirt protect me? Sadly, no. A typical cotton T-shirt or golf shirt has a UPF protection factor of only 10, and an UPF of only 5 when wet. Compared with the UPF 50+ protection offered in a coLLo golf shirt, the difference is well, night and day. So while a shirt can give you a bit of protection, under the hot summer sun, wearing a cotton or basic golf shirt can give you a false sense of protection. It’s even worse if you’re playing golf in the tropics or at high altitude.
Some not so fun facts about skin cancer:
- Melanoma is the sixth most common fatal malignancy in the United States, responsible for 4% of all cancer deaths and 6 of every 7 skin cancer-related deaths.
- One in five Americans will develop some form of skin cancer in their lifetimes, which means that each year there are at least one million new cases in the U.S. alone.
- Nonmelanoma skin cancers, basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) are also on the rise, with two million new cases every year.
- Your risks for cancer are highest if you get one, heavy dose of sunlight infrequently, or if you constantly expose yourself to lots of sun every day.
To learn more, the Skin Cancer Foundation website has some excellent tips on how to protect yourself, and why leading touring pros take their warnings seriously:
Golf: You’ve got skin in the game
Sun protection tips for athletes and weekend warriors
PGA: skin cancer awareness (YouTube video)