I have not bought a new pair of golf shoes for some time now. The last two, purchased from the sports store, Decathlon, have lasted pretty well. Recently, a girlfriend of mine invited us to take advantage of some super savings at the Adidas Brand Center, and we jumped at the opportunity.
I indulged myself and bought a sweet-colored pair of Adidas golf shoes because golf shoes are the most used item for me, instead of running or walking shoes. For the record, past golf shoe colors are typically white, dark blue, or black with a slight tinge of color. But nothing like this latest pair, a pretty peach shade for the whole shoe!
My peachy golf shoes
Now the shoes are too sweet to be worn, methinks. So it may not see action soon as the rainy season is here. I better be mindful of the weather to ensure the pretty new shoes don’t get wet and dirty if I want to wear them sooner than planned. Hahahaha.
Sometimes when sports equipment is left unused for too long, it will deteriorate in performance and strength – case in point, golf shoes. I have had many different brands of golf shoes. And it does not matter what brand, the rubber outsole, will deteriorate with time and usage or harden if underutilized.
Although I was golfing so much last year, I rotated only the newer three pairs of shoes. The two remaining older Adidas pairs were left collecting dust. Last week, I decided to wear the brown Adidas pair to walk 18-holes on Saturday. Bad idea.
As I have not worn the shoes for a long time, I did not check the shoe outsoles properly before donning them. Right after the first hole, a piece from the bottom fell off! Uh oh. A little unbalanced but still okay. I continued with the game. We were walking 18-holes, hubby using the golf trolley, and myself carrying my bag with 11 clubs. I wanted the exercise.
Eight holes later, the left outsole was flapping! Oh no, this is not good as we are only halfway through the game. I had to save the situation; otherwise, we cannot go on. Luckily, there were rubber bands on hubby’s golf trolley. So a quick DIY and the problem was resolved.
Three holes later, the rubber band snapped! Hmm. Why did it not occur to me in the morning that the shoes may not survive the walk? We’re talking about 8.25 kilometers and about 12,000 steps for the 18 holes. On foot, there is so much more stress to the shoes’ performance. I should have known better.
So there I was, that Saturday morning with a flapping left outsole and some other missing outsole parts on both shoes! On top of this, water seeped in, and my socks were soaking wet. Let’s not even go into details about my pruned toes and my heavy matchplay loss to hubby.
The moral of the story – never assume all unused equipment will still be okay for use. Always do a thorough check, not a quick glimpse, to ensure everything is tip-top before teeing off for a golf game challenge or tournament.
The shoes were immediately retired when we got home after the game.
Ta my Adidas, you served me well except this last game.
I swear I go through golf shoes so much more than work shoes. I had to throw away my 2017 Adidas pair because it was falling apart despite not seeing much action. Water seeps in after three holes on a wet day, it’s pointless to even wear it. Its last usage, I had to change socks but it didn’t help to ease the discomfort of having pruned toes. Into the bin the shoes went.
My latest purchase is yet another FootJoy which I find a bit more reliable although my last FootJoy, on a wet day could only last nine holes before water seeped in. Sigh… and I am still trying to break in the Nike pair because it tends to hurt my pinky toes if I don’t wear the correct socks.
This new pair is a Junior size for boys. Oh well, it fits, it looks great and I bought it for a steal, why not?
Guess what? It looks like the Shoe Queen has struck again! It was only in February when I bought a new pair of Footjoy golf shoes and exactly four months later, on June 1st, I bought my umpteenth pair of golf shoes. Honestly, I have lost count but there’s a reason behind this newest purchase.
Lately, it has been raining more often than I can remember for around this time of the year. Despite such weather conditions, I have gone back to playing golf. And sadly, my shoes are a disappointment. They don’t hold up well as claimed and neither do they dry on time before the next game.
The Footjoy has held up only slightly better than both the Adidas pairs. Water still seeps in but toes are not as pruned. The same cannot be said for both the Adidas spike and spikeless pairs. They have failed me with water seeping in midway through the games. By the end of 18-holes each time, I’d end up with soaked socks and pruned toes. Not a nice feeling. Ugh.
Then again, it has been raining cats and dogs every single day and any waterproof shoes would not be able to withstand the soggy conditions on the golf course. I don’t even bother to wear the canvas Skechers golf shoes because I know they would be totally done in.
So I hope this new pair, a Nike this time – waterproof, leather and semi-spiked, will fare better under those extreme soggy conditions. We will find out when I wear it for my next game.
The Shoe Queen in me struck over the weekend! Not another pair of work shoes or sandals but golf shoes…
My current Adidas spiked pair does not seem to be holding up good. Although it has been under utilized (I haven’t played for nine and a half weeks), the leather on the surface has cracked and water does seep in occasionally if the fairways are soggy. And there’s mold and discoloration under the brand’s stripes on both shoes. Eeeeks.
During last Saturday’s game, my first game of the year, somehow the shoes held up but only because the fairways wasn’t soggy despite all that rain.
Now the new shoes was a good buy as it was on sale and I couldn’t resist, being the undisputed Shoe Queen. A Footjoy again, this brand’s a better golf shoes than Adidas.
What’s worse than waking up at 5.30am for golf? Waking up at 3.45am for golf! Yes. This tops it all – the 5.30am, 5.00am and even 4.30am in the past.
Over the weekend, I did just that, waking up at 3.45am. It was a day trip from my Club to Ipoh for an Interclub match. With the tee-off scheduled at 8.00am, naturally our entourage had to start the journey early, like in the wee hours of the morning at 5.00am.
But we left the club only at 5.15am and arrived after the two and a half hours bumpy bus ride. With 15 minutes left before tee-off, the tee-off had to be delayed slightly for us to have a decently paced breakfast without choking. And after a quick group photo session, everyone’s off onto the fairways.
It was my first time playing at Royal Perak Golf Club. The past few trips to Ipoh for golf and food, RPGC was somehow never on our agenda. Well, there’s always a first time.
It’s a scenic course with lots of trees, short old ones and tall ones too. The fairways were generally narrow and very undulating. One has to be accurate and straight when teeing off to have a good second shot opportunity. Our flight mates were very serious and good golfers. My partner—another Club member, not hubby—and I totally lost out to them in terms of the golf course knowledge and management.
Did we have a good game? Err… well, I wore my new Adidas shoes and it felt very comfortable. No pruned toes. And I laughed a lot because I felt I was playing jackpot and not golf, raking up several 7s in a row on my scorecard! It’s one of those days that you cannot do anything else but just laugh at yourself.
The Interclub match saw our visiting team losing out to the host team by only four points, 998 to 1002 with a Four Balls, Best Ball format for scoring. Oooh.. ouch, so close. I am sure revenge is on every members’ mind when we host them for a return match in the near future.
We headed home immediately after the luncheon and prize presentation. And in the blink of an eye, another Sunday went by so soon.
What can I say? Shoe Queen? Shoe-crazed? Fetish? Obsession? I have valid reasons for the latest purchase.
Firstly, my FootJoy is on the verge of falling apart. My only pair of water-resistant spiked golf shoe, I felt I needed a replacement of the same kind like pronto. Most of my other shoes are spikeless and not so water-resistant.
Secondly, wearing the Skechers during a game three weeks’ ago had my toes all pruned. The morning dew and a misstep into a puddle of water early on in the game was too intense for the non-water resistant shoes to handle. And once you have soggy shoes, the discomfort level increases while the game performance decreases. Sigh…
Thirdly, I had to dispose two spikeless pairs, the Nike and Head as they were also falling apart. So it’s not like I am increasing my shoe count, it’s a replacement.
If you must know, last count of my golf shoes prior to disposing and acquiring, I have two Adidas, one FJ, one Nike, one Head, one Skechers and one True Linkswear. Obsession? I think so.
The journey to Singapore took slightly over five hours this morning and unexpectedly, the immigration at the Singapore checkpoint held us up. It took almost two hours for the whole group to clear this necessity only to be met with rain and thunderstorm! Nooo….
All that trouble and no golf ahead?! It didn’t look promising as the bus inched its way slowly through traffic to get to Keppel Club. We were so late to arrive but our gracious hosts waited for us for lunch!
So lunch was a leisure affair because the course was closed due to the rain and thunderstorm. When the weather finally cleared, it was about 2.45pm when we teed off.
We never got to finish 18-holes. My flight had 3 holes left while other flights varied from 6-holes to 4-holes to go. As dinner could not be pushed to a later time, we had to finish by 6.45pm regardless of how many more holes to go.
Keppel’s hospitality was impeccable. The food was delicious, the beer and wine was free-flowing and the company very good. But all good things had to come to an end. By 9.45pm, we left Keppel Club with happy memories and braced ourselves for the heavy traffic ahead.
It’s a long Labor Day weekend ahead and we had the holiday makers to contend with on the road. These Singaporeans are headed over to Malaysia and we are leaving Singapore to check in at Johor Bahru.
Tomorrow, we play Palm Resort and thank goodness tee off is passed noon. It has been a long day and yes, I am tired. Checked into the hotel pass midnight.
Mortals being mortals like us, Adidas tagline or Nike tagline did not help at all when one is so tired from the traveling and waiting. Oh well. Tomorrow is another game and it’s either ‘all in or nothing’ or ‘just do it’ again.
I just realized Adidas changed its old tagline ‘Impossible is Nothing’ to a new ‘All In or Nothing’. Now how do I apply this to my golf? The first thing that comes to my mind would be the putting. Of course to put the dimpled ball in the cup with one putt would be best for the ‘all in or nothing’ statement but what if I missed?
Two putts or even three putts, which is my problem lately, just do not bode well with the brand’s statement. It then becomes I will be nothing because I was not all in. This in a sense would affect my confidence and ultimately my focus in the game. Not good.
Honestly, I would prefer to ‘Just Do It’ but I am not giving the brand with this tagline any justice because I am geared in all Adidas, down to my sports bra but short of my underwear. There is a conflict as far as brand loyalty is concerned.
Even Adidas’ old tagline of ‘Impossible is Nothing’ does not work for me. Most times the impossible become possible in a negative way! Shots that you wouldn’t think possible you’d execute becomes a reality. Nothing becomes everything whereby unwanted situations on the golf course becomes a nightmare, the list can go on! It all works more in the opposite manner instead. Sigh… Although it’s a mental state of mind, it is tough to discipline the thoughts when things do not go the way you want it.
Maybe I am championing the wrong brand all this while. Hmm…
Let’s see how I fare today. The mode of play for today’s Interclub match is four ball, System 36 with handicap of the day.
The journey has taken three hours already as I am writing this. My tee off is at 1.07pm. I shouldn’t be too Adidas on what lies ahead but ‘just do it’!
The Shoe Queen in me struck and I bought another pair of golf shoes on Monday when we went shopping. Unbelievable. My last pair, the Skechers, bought not too long ago is still in good condition but I couldn’t resist this latest one, an Adidas Adicross. It’s adorable plus it was on sale.
At the rate that I am buying golf shoes, I am certain it has surpassed my collection of heels and work shoes. Then again, when I wear Skechers to work, my other work shoes are hardly used. And also, when one has a pair of classic Ferragamo Vara, one does not buy any other shoes. And when there’s also another Ferragamo Artiste heels, there is no need for further purchases.
Angieneering 
Remarks