My Dad never wears golf shoes. This guy will tighten up his ratty old tennis shoes and hit the links at any time. I know what you are saying, “You work in the golf business, cant you buy your dear ‘ol Dad some golf shoes?” Trust me, he has been well taken care of in that department. Yet he still wears his tennis shoes. He plays fairly well too, which begs the question…do golf shoes really matter?

Truth is, I think so. I wear golf shoes. Just about every time I play I wear golf shoes. I even change my shoes to practice. I wear Adidas Tour 360 shoes most of the time because they are the most comfortable shoes I own but I also own a few other pairs. I make my decision on what to wear based on the conditions of the golf course as well as the outfit I choose to wear when I play.

Yeah, I am one of those guys, I match my shoes to my slacks or shorts. I wear white socks with black slacks though so I am not labeled as a “matcher.” If I wear slacks that are black or if it is a sloppy day, I wear Nike Revive shoes. They look good with slacks and they are waterproof. Being black they do not show wear as much as a white pair of shoes. They are fairly comfortable and so they work just fine.

I also own a pair of white Nike Air Zoom Elite shoes that I like. They look great with shorts and, again, are fairly comfortable. I do not like to wear these shoes when the weather is bad because the white shows dirt so badly. I also wear these during most practice sessions. The reason I like these for practice is that I like to practice in shoes that are a bit tighter to wear them in. These are the tightest of the shoes I own so I break them in practicing.

But the question was not what I wear, it was “does it matter?”

Again, I say yes. Maybe it is the placebo effect and I just “think” it matters, but I don’t fully believe that. I know that I do not slip as much in golf shoes during a swing as I do in my tennis shoes. I also know that the soft spikes provides better traction than my tennis shoes when I am walking the golf courses hills and valleys.

Golf shoe companies have told us that they have tested golf shoes and that they provide more “torsional stability” which is supposed to provide better stability through the golf swing. Golf shoes have been sold to us as a way to increase power over that which our natural ability can provide.

I’m not going to say that is accurate, and I am not going to dispute it. I am simply going to say that if it is true, I am taking advantage of that technology and my Dad is not. If he ever started, I would probably be in trouble ha ha. I prefer to say that I have not done enough research to support anything like that, but they sure look good with my slacks and shorts.

Shoes might just be a fashion statement as it relates to this sport, but every sport has their particular shoe…why shouldn’t we?

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