Ask most golfers what they look for in a pair of golf shoes and they’ll probably mention comfort above all else. Very few are likely to mention traction at the top of their list. But it’s the most important factor, or is it?
Modern golf shoes are designed to pretty much deliver everything. They were once heavily spiked and were moulded by a traditional saddle-style design. The past few decades has seem them evolve into something that would look at home on the high-street just as much as the golf course.
But while their looks may have changed, the importance of properly fit golf shoe has not. After all, every movement in the golf swing starts from the ground up.
According to Chris Murtagh, Head of Footwear Optimisation at Under Armour, traction is the fundamental factor in aiding with this and a big reason golfers wear specialised footwear in the first place.
As golfers we often associate traction with simply stopping our feet from slipping mid swing, but its influence extends much further than that.
“We’ve done a lot of testing,” Murtagh explained. “Testing barefoot, testing in shoes, and I think you can get very high peak forces, you can get very high force numbers, even in barefoot. I think that’s a fact.
