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Spikes; Soft or Metal?


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  1. 1. What do you wear. Soft or Metal?

    • Soft Spikes
      59
    • Metal Spikes
      2


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The PGA Professional (also the club owner) at my home course has been promoting the use of metal spike the past couple of years and this season I made the switch from soft to metal in one of my three pairs of golf shoes. The results have been great for me so far.
This was not something that was decided on a whim. Our pro has been a PGA Teaching Professional for close to 40 years so he has been around golf for awhile and he has owned our course since it was built and opened in 1959.
With tha being said, he feels that metal spikes do more good for the greens than damage so he has been pushing many of the members to make the switch when it is time to replace spikes. In our mens league this week, all four players in the match I was in were wearing metal and it was the first time since I was a kid I that I remember seeing this.
I have worn mine since the start of the season I have received no complaints nor have I noticed any damage on any of the greens, either by me or anyone else.
What are your thoughts on this subject?
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Almost all the courses around here have banned metal

OHIO

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They banned metal spikes at the local courses around my area.

Driver: :cobra: BiO Cell (10.5º)

Wood: :ping: G15 3 (15.5°)

Hybrids: :callaway: Diablo Edge: 3 (21º), 4 (24º)

Irons: :callaway: Diablo Edge: 5-PW

Wedges: :cleveland:588 RTX CB 50º, Paradise Black Chrome II Sand Wedge 56º

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Same here. Never played a course that allows metal.

Kyle Paulhus

If you really want to get better, check out Evolvr

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]With tha being said, he feels that metal spikes do more good for the greens than damage so he has been pushing many of the members to make the switch when it is time to replace spikes.

Time to replace your pro. He's clearly gone senile.

No WAY metal spikes are better for the golf course. It's not an opinion - it's a fact.

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
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The PGA Professional (also the club owner) at my home course has been promoting the use of metal spike the past couple of years and this season I made the switch from soft to metal in one of my three pairs of golf shoes. The results have been great for me so far.

This is so not true that I can't even believe I'm reading it. Since the banning of metal spikes, the greens at my home course, and at the others I play, have improved by 200%. They are smoother, truer, and as a result they can make them faster than they ever were. Saying that metal spikes improve the greens is total bull. The damage may not be as noticeable with the relatively light play that a private course gets, but that doesn't make it any less true. It has been proven over the years by better evidence than just one club pro can compile that the opposite is a fact. Turf research done by the USGA (one of their major contributions to the game) has proven that soft spikes are far less damaging to the grass.

This may be more significant on public access courses which see far more traffic than private clubs, but that is where most of the golf in the US is played, so you may do as you like, but you had better be prepared to change them out any time you leave your home course.

Rick

"He who has the fastest cart will never have a bad lie."

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Agreed, soft spikes are better for the course. They work just fine in the shoes too. I do miss the sound of metal spikes on the concrete though. That was always a welcomed sound that put a smile on my face...

Yonex Ezone Type 380 | Tour Edge Exotics CB Pro | Miura 1957 Irons | Yururi Wedges | Scotty Cameron Super Rat | TaylorMade Penta

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I don't know about east central IN, but over here in Lafayette we can only use soft spikes. Metal spikes good for a green? I think he may be confusing metal spikes with aerating and sanding the green.
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I've never played a course that allows them. Come to think of it, I've never seen metal spikes at all.

In my bag:

Driver: Titleist TSi3 | 15º 3-Wood: Ping G410 | 17º 2-Hybrid: Ping G410 | 19º 3-Iron: TaylorMade GAPR Lo |4-PW Irons: Nike VR Pro Combo | 54º SW, 60º LW: Titleist Vokey SM8 | Putter: Odyssey Toulon Las Vegas H7

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Time to replace your pro. He's clearly gone senile.

Not going to happen. He owns the course and is one of the top PGA Teaching Professionals in Indiana and the US. Lets not turn this into a personal attack on the pro here. He is an award winning PGA Professional and has been so for nearly forty years. The course is owned by he and his family and his opinion is the only one that counts at this course so if he says it is ok, then it is ok. The pro feels that more often than not, metal spikes were banned with the invent of soft spikes, because of damage to floors, walkways etc. than damage on the course. He has the right here to this opinion.

For me the jury is still out. Like I said in the opening post, there are many players here wearing them right now and so far I do not notice anything different on the greens. For now I will wear mine here, and keep in mind there are a fair number of professionals wearing them as well today around the world.
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Say that to arsehole who tees off around 7.15 every saturday and wednesday. He is the only man in the club who wears metal spikes and he wears them so early that he puts so many tiny holes around the cup and makes the greens not very fun for everyone else.
At our club metal spikes are not actually banned just frowned upon.

Driver: Taylormade R11 set to 8*
3 Wood: R9 15* Motore Stiff
Hybrid: 19° 909 H Voodoo
Irons: 4-PW AP2 Project X 5.5
52*, 60* Vokey SM Chrome

Putter: Odyssey XG #7

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

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This is probably the only time i'll ever say it...but go soft or go home...they're banned at just about every course i've been on...the benefits are far outweighed by the damage they can do to the course in my opinion

In my Titleist 2014 9.5" Staff bag:

Cobra Bio+ 9* Matrix White Tie X  - Taylormade SLDR 15* ATTAS 80X - Titleist 910H 19* ATTAS 100X - Taylormade '13 TP MC 4-PW PX 6.5 - Vokey TVD M 50* DG TI X100 - Vokey SM4 55 / Vokey SM5 60* DG TI S400 - Piretti Potenza II 365g

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why are the pro's allowed to play metal spikes?

My Clubs
Driver - LV4 10* R flex
Wood - sam snead persimmon 2 wood (for windy days)
Hybrid burner tour launch 20* stiff flex.
Irons - Tour Mode 3i,4i stiffIrons - FP's 5-PW R-flexWedge - spin milled 54.14Wedge - spin milled 60.07Putter - Victoria Lowest round 2010: 79 (par 70)Latest rounds at...

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why are the pro's allowed to play metal spikes?

That's a good question. Phrase it like this, "I see you're going with the soft spikes today . . . ever wonder why the pros are allowed to play metal spikes?" and you can add it to your "Tips" thread!!! Anyway, as we've learned recently, golf pros get to do a lot of things that are prohibited for us.

Mizuno MP600 driver, Cleveland '09 Launcher 3-wood, Callaway FTiz 18 degree hybrid, Cleveland TA1 3-9, Scratch SS8620 47, 53, 58, Cleveland Classic 2 mid-mallet, Bridgestone B330S, Sun Mountain four5.

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My first set of shoes back in the eighties certinly did have metal spikes and they were ekk no good. Thank goodness we have soft spikes now. Soft spikes all the way.

~It's the Indian not the Arrow ~

In my bag:
Driver: X460
3 Wood: WarbirdIrons: X18 Pros (3-PW)56 degree wedge: Oil can60 degree wedge: FeO2Putter: Desert Club: ISI 8 Iron~Still looking for a Straw hat~

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Metal spikes will be allowed this summer in all three of the remaining majors as they were at the Masters and every PGA stop this year. Phil Mickelson has always worn metal and I'm sure he will continue to do so.
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