Today, the Course Manager Greg Evans and Director
of Golf Ricky Willison met up with Adidas Golf. This was to discuss the issue
EGC have with the Adidas Zero golf shoe. For those of you who are unaware let
us remind you. We first noticed a problem when one of our members
reported back that someone was playing golf with football boots on. This
was very noticeable on the greens and after some investigation
from our Course Manager (mainly through greenkeeping blogs) we found out that
there was an issue with certain types of golf shoes. One in particular (The Adizero tour) was receiving several bad reviews.
After much
deliberation, we decided to put a ban on these shoes until further notice. We
published this on our blog in December (http://egcagronomy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/adidas-zeros-are-not-welcome-at-egc.html)
and several other clubs followed suit. This has caused quite a
stir amongst the golfing community. Normally our blogs receive between 150 to
200 views. With this one we have nearly reached 4000!
During today's meeting, Adidas were very
positive and came armed with their new 'improved' model as well as several others. It
also became apparent to us just how much technology goes in to making a
golf shoe. The days of just sticking 7 or 8 spikes in a shoe have long
gone! Now it is all about pressure points and comfort.
They explained that performance from the 'Golfer
to the golf green' is their number one priority. The Course Manager tested
the new shoes on the 18th green. What he felt is the new cleat (which is softer
and at less of an angle) is a lot more green friendly than the old
one, but based on today's conditions these were still deemed
unacceptable to the greens. We then tested other models (some of which
have yet to be released) and these are a lot more friendly to the turf.
So in conclusion we feel that the adizero's, new &
old, are still unacceptable for our greens, but we have been assured that
as conditions improve this will change. For the time being, the ban continues
but will be monitoring the situation closely.
We would like to thank Adidas for taking the time to
come and visit us at Ealing and we were delighted to hear that they
take this subject very seriously. We would also like to clarify that we have no
issue with any other Adidas shoes. In fact, we would like to
state that we would take a similar stance with any shoe that
is seen to cause damage to our greens, irrespective of make.
Thanks for posting this. Our club, Camberley Heath have also banned these shoes from being used on the course. I own a pair and as the greens became softer it was amazing the depth of the imprints being left by the spikes. This is the first information I have found that shows Adidas are aware although it appears other than waiting for the ground to harden there is no fix for my shoes nor the 1000's of other players who can't use these. These shoes are are expensive and are not something to just throw away. I would have hoped Adidas would be offering a fix for our shoes or some sort of deal to replace them?
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