~ ~ Most of you will be aware that one of the greatest pleasures in the ‘mad cabbies’ life is my beloved golf. I’m never happier or more content with my lot in life than when I am stepping onto the first tee of a golf course, and preparing to pit my skill (what I have left of it) and wit against the course and my opponents. Every time I do this it’s a new challenge, as no two rounds of golf are ever the same, even when you have played the sport for over 40 years as I have!
~ ~ But here in Ireland, there is one huge drawback to being a golf addict, and that is the climate. Ireland is a small island stuck out here in the Eastern Atlantic, and as a consequence the amount of rain and wind that we get throughout the year is enormous. There’s an old Irish legend that predicts that we will eventually sink into the sea, and with the amount of rainfall we’ve experienced in the past year, I can tell you that I’m really beginning to believe it! If you were to wait until the sun shines here to have a game of golf, you’d probably only get about a half a dozen rounds in the year. So the trick is to adopt the old Boy Scout’s motto, and be prepared. This means the best set of waterproof clothing that money can buy, a good, strong golf umbrella, a sturdy hat, lots of towels, and most important of all, an excellent pair of golf shoes in order to keep the old tootsies both dry and warm. It doesn’t matter how cosy and snug the rest of your body is. If your feet are cold and wet, then I guarantee that you’ll feel totally miserable, and your golf game will suffer as a consequence.
~ ~ And golf shoes simply don’t come any better than those manufactured by Footjoy. They’re stylish and comfortable, and best of all, you get a one-year guarantee that they will retain their waterproof qualities. And they come in all sizes and colours, from plain black or white, to the fancy ‘two-tone’ type if you are a dedicated follower of fashion. (that was an old ‘Kinks’ song, wasn’t it?) The shoes that I’m using at the moment are from their ‘Dryjoys’ range, which for the past decade and more have been the top-selling golf shoe on both the European and US market, with over 70% of golfers wearing them. And not just amateur golfers. A survey conducted at the British Open last year showed conclusively that they are also the golf shoes of choice of most of the professionals. (With the notable exception of Tiger Woods, who gets paid the equivalent of a Third World countries’ budget to wear golf gear from Nike!) Mind you, the pros all wear shoes from the even more expensive ‘Classics Dry’ range, that retail in the shops at between £225 and £250 Sterling. (But which they get for free, naturally!)
~ ~ The Dryjoys that I wear retail at a far more affordable £110 per pair, although if you shop around either on the Web or at one of the golf superstores such as Nevada Bobs or American Golf Discount you can purchase them for considerably less. I bought my current pair during a sale at Nevada Bobs back in April for only €110 (about £70 Sterling) The only real difference between the more expensive ‘Classic Drys’ and the ‘Dryjoy’ range (well, as far as I can tell) is that they use a more expensive and better quality calfskin leather on the more expensive shoes. The leather in Footjoy golf shoes is treated with what they call the ‘AQUAf.l.e.x.™ leather system’ by a company called Pittards. Now don’t ask me what this actually means! I did try to find out for you by a bit of investigation at the Footjoy website, (http://www.footjoy.co.uk) but couldn’t really find a satisfactory explanation of the system. (Maybe it’s a secret?) But what I can definitively tell you is that the waterproofing system DOES work. No matter how cold, wet and miserable the day, and no matter how damp, soggy and muddy the underfoot conditions on the golf course, you can rest assured that your wee tootsies will still be in dry, warm pristine condition at the end of the round. There’s a whole load of other technical details at the website, about how they use gels to absorb moisture inside the shoe, and about how they achieve the flexibility and comfort levels that Footjoy are renowned for. But even I found it a little bit hard to understand, to be totally honest, so any of you non-golfers out there would probably think it was total double-dutch. Suffice to say that whatever technical manufacturing processes they are using, they are most definitely working, and doing the required job of keeping a golfer’s feet both dry, warm and comfortable.
~ ~ Of course, golf shoes have another job as well. They have to provide outstanding grip on all types of surfaces, as if your feet slip when you are making a swing, then the chances are very high that your wee golf ball will not go where you intended it to, and you’ll end up buried in a lake, woods, or knee-high rough. (none of which are recommended places to end up!) For this reason, they all have some sort of spike or cleat system on the soles, that give you the necessary grip on the ground to be able to swing the golf club with confidence. Up until the late 1980’s, this was invariably a metal spike system, and it has to be said that most of the top professional players still use these types of spikes in their shoes. But in amateur golf, the spikes are now almost invariably made of hard rubber, and called ‘cleats’. Nowadays, a lot of golf courses actually insist that you wear these ‘cleats’, (another name for them is ‘soft spikes’) or they wont even let you out on the golf course! The reason for this is that the softer rubber spikes tend to cut up the putting surfaces on the greens far less than the harder metal type, thus keeping the golf course in better condition. The Footjoy range of golf shoes use a system of soft spikes called “Black Widow”, which are generally regarded as the very best on the market. You also get a little handy metal tool supplied with your shoes in order to remove old spikes when they become worn down with use, and you can buy replacement cleats in nearly all decent professional shops at any golf course. (it’s only a five minute job to change them)
~ ~ Well, there you have it folks. Footjoy golf shoes come with the very highest recommendation from the ‘mad cabbie’.
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PS. I just clicked on the 'Ebay' link supplied by Ciao at the bottom of the opinion, to discover some AMAZING bargains for Footjoys. Guess where the 'mad cabbie' will be buying his next pair of golf shoes.
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Copyright. KenJ. December 2002
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