palindromicbob
Tour Winner
While I'll be the first to admit this shoe isn't going to be to everyones taste I picked up a pair last week and decided to give them a shot. I had tried a few pairs of spikeless that day and these were the most comfortable. At £99 the price was a little higher than I'd normally be looking but courtesy of a voucher win in my winter society I was able to look at a higher price point than if I'd been paying myself.
First the looks. They do look more like a football boot than a golf shoe. The moulding of the bottom sole is aggressive and certainly looks like it will provide grip. There are a few colour options but I choose the black and red figuring it would go with most clothes and not be as hard to keep clean.
The insole is shaped and provides a little more support at the arches and heel than I've normally had.
Took them for their first outing today and wore them right out of the box from home. First things first. They were no problem to drive in. I also wore them into the shop onto the tiled floor and felt like I still had good grip. I've made the mistake of wearing astroturf shoes into the shop before and nearly ended up on my arse so did have this in mind. There was also something highly liberating about being able to walk out of the house, into the club and out to the course without having to change my shoes.
The course was wet underfoot, thanks to last nights heavy rain, so I figured this would be a great test of both grip and waterproof qualities.
Never once felt my grip slipping even on the more sodden tee boxes. The rain came on more heavily at the 4th. My feet remained dry and the grip solid. Even going down the steep slope from our 5th to the 6th I felt secure underfoot.
The comfort was great. Felt like a nice pair of trainers and they are a light shoe to wear. Didn't pinch anywhere and no problem with flexibility around the right foot when adopting that classic finishing pose (after a less than classic swing sequence)
Finished today on the 10th after 13 holes because our group had no score going in the team comp and the side match had been put to bed on the 9th. (started on 16th for shotgun start). This meant a walk up the road back to the club house. Again the shoes had no problems. Not even on the steeper tarmac hill up to the club were I have slipped in spikes before now. I have also found a spiked shoe can be a less than comfortable on the harder tarmac but these were like a trainer. A quick blast with the air line and a wipe with my towel and they were clean, dry and ready to be worn back into the club house. If the weather had been more favourable I would certainly have been happy to keep on going in relation to my foot comfort anyway.
Will see how they hold up for the season but I would certainly say that anyone looking for a spikeless shoe that can be used on a wet course could do worse than consider these. I'm actually tempted to have a look at the yellow ones as well
