This study is a bit old but it shows the calorie burn for various ways to get around the course:
The Physical Benefits of Walking when you Golf
Neil Wolkodoff, director of the Rose Center for Health and Sports Sciences in Denver, recently completed a study of these benefits at Inverness Golf Club in Denver, Co.
The Study
Wolkodoff found eight male volunteers, aged 26 to 61 with handicaps between 2 and 17, to participate in an experiment that would analyze energy consumption and scoring while playing several nine hole rounds of golf.
The participants wore equipment that measured such variables as heart rate, oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production and distance covered per round.
Each golfer then played nine holes at Inverness in several different formats:
1) Carrying a bag
2) Pushing a cart
3) With a caddie
Walkodoff found that over a 9 hole round:
- A Golfer burned an average of 721 calories carrying a bag
- A Golfer burned an average of 718 calories pushing a cart
- A Golfer burned an average of 613 calories using a caddy
So over an 18 hole round we can assume that:
Carrying = around 1,400 to 1,500 calories (108 holes = around 9,000 cals)
Push Cart = around 1,400 to 1,500 calories
Caddy = around 1,200 to 1,300 calories (108 holes = around 7,800 cals)
Another interesting element of the study was scoring:
Carrying = 90 avg
Caddie = 84 avg
Push Cart = 80 avg
I believe the course in question was rolling.
Obviously fitness, weight, etc. contribute to calorie burn so this is just directional.
Assuming an average walk of 7k yards total (which is probably low with green to tree transfers, chasing down errant shots and putting) a golfer playing 6 rounds in one day would walk about 24 miles.