How to Find the best Golf Shoes for You
Our 2024 sports survey found that more than 1 in 20 of you plan to play at least monthly. When you’re planning a day on the green, you will of course need to make sure that you’ve got all the right kit, clothing and equipment. And we reckon one of the most impotant things to get right is your golf shoes.
So in this post, we’ve compiled tips to make sure you find and buy the best golf shoes for you.
Comfort and Fit
Arguably the single most important thing is to make sure they’re comfortable. You’ll spend a long time wearing them. You can go and get a fitting with specialist golf retailers where experts can help you find the right fit. And it’s a balance. Too loose and your feet may slide while you’re swinging your club. But too tight and you’ll feel incredibly uncomfortable.
Bear in mind that the fit around the middle of the shoe is usually tighter than with your regular shoes and this is by design enhance the support when you’re swinging your club.
If you decide not to go and get a golf shoe fitting and choose instead to buy online, measure your feet first as you can compare this with branded size guides to help you make the right choice.
Support and Stability
Different types of golf shoes have different levels of support and stability. And one key thing to consider when it comes to weighing up stability, is whether to go spiked or spikeless.
Spiked golf shoes have a number of benefits over their spikeless counterparts. Spiked golf shoes ensure that your feet are very stable on the ground while you swing your club. With spikes, you can be confident your feet will not be unsteady. Golf shoes without spikes are less traditional, but we have seen more of them launched in recent years. They typically feature a sole designed for traction and grip but in reality, even with the best ones, you’re still not likely to be as steady on your feet as you will with spikes.
Materials and Durability
When you’re investing in a good pair of golf shoes, you want to know they’re going to last. And this is largely down to the quality of the product and the materials. Shoes are generally made of leather, or synthetic materials or are a hybrid of the two.
- · Leather’s often the top pick for golf shoes, and it’s easy to see why. They treat the leather and stick it on the outside, giving you a snug, waterproof fit that won’t stretch out. Usually, you’ll see it in a saddle design to keep the shoe stable. It’s great for summer golf since it’s more breathable than other materials. Top brands might throw in a waterproofing guarantee too.
- Synthetic materials are the budget-friendly alternative to leather. They use a man-made upper, typically nonporous polyester, to cover the shoe. This material is lighter and thinner than leather, which means the shoes are cheaper but might not be as breathable. These are less common since manufacturers can now make affordable shoes with other man-made materials that offer more comfort and breathability.
You can also get a hybrid of the two which can offer up some the breathability benefits of synthetic materials alongside the durability of leather.
The Weather Where You’re Playing
One thing that has the potential to really impact your choice of golf shoes is the weather where you are playing. If you’re playing here in the UK you may often be playing in damp/wet conditions (don’t you just love that British summertime?). So you may want to consider shoes with waterproof linings (Goretex is often a supreme performing material for this).
But if you’re playing in a hot and dry environment, the waterproof liner may remove some of the breathability of the shoes. So be sure to consider your playing environments.
For golfers who play both at home and overseas, it’s not uncommon for them to have different pairs for different places they might play.
Look and Style
There are so many brands now making golf shoes. Specialist brands like Footjoy are joined by general sports brands like Nike, New Balance and even Skechers. So choice is at an all time high.
Nike even offer a Jordan 1 low golf shoe, so you can essentially take your favourite trainers and get golf shoe versions of them.
Essentially, you can buy more “traditional” looking golf shoes like the Footjoy Premiere Series shoes. Or you can pick up golf shoes that, at first glance, look no different than the trainers you might wear day to day. It’s a personal preference thing. But shop around. And if you have a brand you particularly like to wear trainers from, check out their golf shoe ranges.
New Tech
Technological innovations are everywhere and our golf shoes are not exempt from progress.
Some of the really impressive ways technology is enhancing golf shoes which may impact your buying choices:
- Lighter and lighter designs. As technology in footwear improves, we’re seeing the same sturdiness and stability of heavy shoes in much much lighter shoes. Brands like Skechers came into the golf game bringing with them lots of technology from their running shoes range, which places a huge emphasis on lightness. So this is one way shoes are changing – they’re getting lighter
- Traction systems: lots of brands now have spikeless shoes with incredible ground traction. Are we getting close to a point where a spikeless shoe could offer the same stability as a spiked shoe? Possibly.
- In built tracking: There are some really innovative shoes that contain tracking sensors within them and communicate with a phone app to give you information and as time goes on, we expect to see more of this. Could it be commonplace for golfers to be getting information about their stance in their phone directly from their shoes?
Brand Allegiance and Budget
We all have our favourite brands and experienced golfers who’ve been buying golf shoes for years potentially have both a favourite brand and even a favourite specific shoe from within that brand. If this is you, simply searching the name of the shoe you like will shoe you lots of retailers that stock that shoe, allowing you to buy based on price and store reputation.
If you don’t yet have a favourite, check out reviews of specific brands that have shoes in your budget and read about what other golfers say about them.
As a tip, we would recommend you have a budget in mind before you start buying and then check out reviews of the shoes that:
- Meet the basic spec you want (e.g. waterproof lined if you need that)
- You like the look of
- Sit within budget
Best of luck with finding the best golf shoes for you.
