I Miss Metal Golf Spikes

As most golfers know, about 15 years ago a different sort of idea started gaining popularity–the plastic golf spike.

Metal Golf Spike

Alternative golf spikes have actually been around for quite a long time. A company called Stedman Products advertised a rubber outsole named the “Steady Man Soles and Heels” in a 1921 issue of Golf Illustrated magazine, but the concept really didn’t enter the mainstream golf world until the 1990’s.

Up until that time, the bottoms of most golf shoes were each embedded with a dozen metal spikes. These spikes served numerous purposes, from keeping a golfer’s foot stable during the swing to providing traction while walking along hills and slopes. Many suggested that they helped keep putting green complexes healthy by creating a sort of automatic aeration process as the golfers walked around to putt. One other benefit these shoe-nails provided was that they made a really cool “clacking” noise as you walked along any hard surface.

I would bet that almost everyone who played golf before the advent of softspikes gets a little twinge of nostalgia when they think about that noise…to me it always meant good times at the golf course or practice range.

OK, back to the 90’s…along comes the Softspikes company. The products they offered didn’t look very much like the spikes we know today. Back then, the non-metal “spikes” looked more like buttons with various ridges and/or nubs. The problem was that these little plastic spikes didn’t provide as much stabilization as metal spikes–at least while walking on hills and slopes especially if the ground was at all wet. Some of the soft spike companies actually put a disclaimer on the package, warning that the spikes could be hazardous when walking on slopes or wet areas. Add to that the fact that almost every professional golfer scoffed at the funny plastic spikes and you had a product which didn’t seem like it would last.

Various forms of Plastic Spikes

Ignoring the professional golfers, at least for the time being, the softspike manufacturers instead went directly to the golf courses to explain how eliminating metal spikes would benefit the courses themselves. No more damaged carts or scuffed up hallways! No more slow erosion of wooden walkways and bridges! And, of course, the biggest selling point–no more damaged putting greens!

Golf courses must have liked what they saw and liked what they heard, because within only a few short years we saw almost every golf course ban metal spikes. I’m not sure there even are any golf courses left (at least in the United States) where an amateur would be allowed to tee off while wearing metal spikes. The courses I play certainly don’t.

Today, even most professionals have changed over to alternative spikes as well. There are some holdouts (remember Vijay Singh calling out Phil Mickelson at the 2005 Masters for damaging the greens?) but for the most part, non-metal spikes serve the professional’s shoe the same way they do the amateur’s. This can probably be attributed to several factors:

First, the spikes themselves have gotten much better. Today’s softspike has arms which extend outside of the center, providing even more traction and comfort than a single metal stud might offer. Second, you really can’t find golf shoes nowadays which even accept metal spikes, so unless you have a large supply of shoes from the 80’s or can afford to have your shoes custom-made, you’re forced to go the non-metal route. Lastly, it seems that any stigma which might have been attached to the softspikes years ago has completely disappeared.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m really not at all anti-softspike.

I think they are more comfortable than metal spikes and I couldn’t imagine some of the advances we’ve seen in shoe technology ever happening if golf shoes were still based upon ¼-inch metal spikes at the bottom. (Picture THOSE on the new Adidas Tour360’s!) I admit that they certainly seem to have made for smoother putting surfaces, which is a good thing, but I just still really miss the sound that metal spikes made when a golfer walked…

The Metal Spike, 21st Century-style

You know, we’ve got musical greeting cards these days–could I get something similar for my golf shoes so that when I take a step it makes a clack? If phones and Wii nunchucks know which direction is up, and in what direction they are being swung, can’t I get something in my shoe that knows when it hits concrete?? Now THAT would be a technological advance I could really support.

Meanwhile, soft spikes are certainly here to stay, and metal spikes probably ain’t making a comeback anytime soon. At least on the golf course that is.

© 2009, No Gimmies!!. All rights reserved.

Tagged as: Equipment, shoes, softspikes