I noticed that the new buzz in golf shoes surely must be the low profile.  Get closer to the ground.

Adidas 360 Tour 4.0 golf shoes and the ladies’ Signature ranges – all low

Nike Air Tour Saddle – low profile

FootJoy – the LoPro as shown very recently on Golf Shoes Blog again

The Callaway Men’s Palmares – low; the women’s Vela (as pictured) - low profile

So is low profile the way to go? Is it better?  Then why are so many golf shoes still “high”?  And what about the higher heel concept as conventional wisdom? Or is it because the trend for a lot of regular players is to fashion a trainer/sports style golf shoe which is (almost by definition) lower?

You see the questions all over the tinternet (drumming up business for someone, with a link, no doubt).

So let’s answer the question of why golf shoes… from at least one angle: Because when you play golf you are realtively stationery (given your swing) but the ball is completely at rest – like snooker/billiards/pool.  (Are there other games with a stationery ball?)  You have to stay firmly on the ground because you’re making a comparatively big swing (compared to snooker for example) and you want maximum control and staility. When you read about golf shoes they talk about stability a lot -whilst allowing the movement of your feet, legs and weight distribution.

This is very different to tennis, football, hockey etc where the ball is travelling often toward you at a rate and you are running to get to it.  (In some of those games there are penalties/free kicks when the ball is still but that’s not really the main strike in a game.)

Maybe the closest – apart from the moving ball but for the stability and grip - would be cricket or baseball.  Cricket shoes cetainly have (had?) spikes as do baseball boots (as left with some nearly-seen odd-looking bar style spikes).  And they are probably the most similar spikes.  Could you play golf in cricket or baseball boots?  Probably but….