Soft Spikes - The Way Forward ?
Thursday, July 4, 2002
Article Reproduced courtesy of The Golf Club Secretary
A course management column by Alistair Beggs BSc Hons, STRI Manager/R & A Agronomist
Soft Spikes - The Way Forward ?
Much agronomic debate has centred around the use of soft spiked shoes on golf courses in the UK. Although this convention has gained popularity in the US and in continental Europe, the traditional approach of using metal spikes is still popular in the UK and with Tour professionals. However, among the latter group the mood is changing. In this year's US Open, 97 out of a total of 156 golfers used soft spikes including the winner. This confirms a slow trend away from the traditional spike, which could increase in the years ahead particularly if research currently being carried out at STRI reveals similar results to those seen in the US.
Before 1914, golf was largely played in shoes with relatively smooth soles- heavy footwear largely indistinct from street shoes. it was only in 1914 when Walter Hagen won the US Open that spiked shoes became more popular. Hagen was such a golfing icon of the time that everybody decided they needed a pair of hob-nailed boots, similar to his, in which to play the game. Nobody gave the effect the nails had on the turf a second thought - indeed, it was felt by many that the action of piercing the turf surface 10,000 times per round was positively beneficial !! It was not really until 1958 when Dr Marvin Ferguson of the USGA Green Section began doing some work on the potential negative effects of spiked shoes that anybody really gave it further thought. He established a link between the metal spike and turf damage but apart from A brief flurry of dimpled soles in the 1970's and 80's (do you still have a pair under the stairs !) it had little impact on the shoes we wore.
The issue was re-ignited by an explosion in the popularity of the game in the 1960's and 1970's together with increased purses on the world golf tours and complaints by players about spike marks on greens costing them dollars. In the 1990's researchers at the Ohio State university supported Ferguson's work of the 50's. They established that balls rolled truer and farther on spikeless plots - a tour pro's dreams !! These issues together with other perceived benefits such as increased freedom of movement and comfort (some golf shoes look more like training shoes these days !!) are helping to popularise the spikeless shoe. With more and more golfers travelling to exotic destinations where spikeless shoes are compulsory and buying shoes from American manufacturers already fitted with soft spikes, the pressure is on the poor old steel spike. If researchers in the UK can establish similar benefits here to those already found in the US the days of the true spike may be numbered.
The popularity of the soft spike has also been enhanced by some course Superintendents in America who appear to have recognised a link between spikeless shoes and a reduction in turf grass disease. This view was expressed to me on a number of occasions when I was fortunate enough to visit Clubs in America in 2000. The feeling is that fewer spikes mean fewer puncture injuries on the leaf of the plant, which in the opinion of some has reduced the incidence of Anthracnose (Colletotrichum graminicola) in particular. Thus far I know of no research to reinforce these observations.
But, hang on a moment. The botanical composition of putting greens in the UK bears little resemblance to those in warmer climatic areas. many US greens and those in Spain and Portugal are effectively monocultures of creeping bent (although you will be pushed not to find some annual meadow grass as well). This grass grows sideways and plucks very easily. Our grasses of which there are not uncommonly 4 or 5 in our greens tend to grow vertically and are less susceptible to plucking damage.
Our climate is very different too. You are far more likely to slip and fall on a wet slope in Scotland than you are in in December !! The value of true metal spikes in a UK winter is well established. Some forms of soft spike can be come "ice skate like" on wet slopes and on artificial surfaces whereas the conventional metal spike affords better traction in most cases.
The very fact that we walk and they ride is also worth consideration because good traction is as important between shots as it is during them. We tend to have less concrete on our courses because we favour playing and walking on grass. Maybe the spike type we favour highlights the cultural differences that exist between the way the game is played in the UK and overseas. There is no doubt that metal spikes and cart paths are poor bedfellows.
Although research is only in its infancy my feeling is that work in the UK will show that soft spikes do have agronomic advantages over metal ones. Not only spike marks but reduced puncture injuries to grass plants may be significant in the production of smoother and better putting conditions which are less vulnerable to disease. No disease is better than a little disease particularly if our pesticide arsenals are to be emptied by legislative authorities. If research does show this I think the current trend towards the use of soft spikes will accelerate.
However, it is likely that the metal spike will always have a place in the UK game. If it continues to rain - and I am told it is going to do more of this rather than less in the years ahead, we will need them as often as our weatherproofs id we Are going to play the game on wet winter surfaces. The winter use of metal spikes and summer use of soft spikes might be a compromise to satisfy both the greenkeeper and the golfer. Now there are not too many of those are there ?
Reproduced from The Golf Club Secretary newsletter - Does your club subscribe to this very informative and excellent publication if not contact the Subscribers Helpline on +44 (0)1255 676727
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