Best Golf Shoes For Summer?
There are many golf shoes being released, but we feel that the Adidas ZG21 are brilliant and a great golf shoe for summer.
There are plenty of advantages to golfing during the summer, mostly due to the heat.
The courses stay drier, there are fewer clouds casting shadows onto the green, and because you dress light, there’s nothing to heavy and uncomfortable which can affect you during your swing.
Make no mistake, to avoid overheating in the summer sun you do need to dress light, from your head down to your feet.
In fact, when it comes to what you put on your feet, there are more considerations than you might think, everyone thinks I need sunscreen and a decent hat, but do you really think about your golf shoes?
If you believe that just any pair of golf shoes will do in the summer, you could be doing your feet, and your game, a disservice.
So, how do you decide which shoes are best for the golf course during the hottest time of year?
Let’s start by determining the risks inherent in wearing the wrong golf shoes in the heat.
- Regular fit
- Lace closure
- Soft textile upper with TPU film
- Low-cut stable golf cleats
- TPU six-spike outsole with aggressive traction lugs
How the Wrong Shoes Affect You During Summer
The problems that the wrong summer golf shoes can cause are either related to your foot health, or to your course performance.
Foot Health
If you’ve decided to walk 18 holes on a hot day, spare a thought for your feet. Trapped in a prison of leather and rubber, generating even more heat through friction, they can quickly become a hot and sweaty mess.
This poses more than just a risk to your comfort. Excessive sweating within your shoe is the best indicator that you are wearing the wrong kind of shoe for the weather, and it can lead to a host of issues.
Bad foot odour
If you’ve ever pulled off your shoes after a day of golfing and gagged at the stench, you’re familiar with this. The odor results from a combination of bacteria, sweat, and poor ventilation. When the moisture can’t evaporate, the bacteria on your feet has plenty of time to fester. This bacteria then produces volatile sulfur compounds, which are responsible for the awful smell.
Blisters
These painful, fluid filled sacs are normally caused by friction.
Tight shoes are the main culprit, but sweat-dampened socks within a hot shoe can increase the uncomfortable friction as well.
Blisters hurt enough on their own, but when they burst they allow bacteria into the body, which is some cases can risk infection.
Fungus
You’ve probably heard of Athlete’s foot, but did you know that it is a fungal growth?
It can only develop on feet that are moist for long periods of time.
Golfing for several hours on sweaty feet definitely counts.
You’ll know you have it by the itching, blistering, and scaly red rash that develops around and between the toes.
If you have had this, you will know the pain it can cause you especially in between your toes.
Slippage
Depending on the material make-up of your shoe’s interior, and the type of socks you’re wearing, you may find your sweaty feet slipping within the shoe.
The Golf shoe features are meant to provide stability, such as spikeless golf shoes and spiked, which expect your foot to be stable within the shoe.
If the grips on the golf shoe dig in but your foot slips around, you could lose your balance, throw off your swing, twist your ankle, or worse.
As you can see, wearing the wrong golf shoes in the summer can cause serious consequences.
Golf Shoes with poor ventilation are the primary cause of these issues, which means our search for the best summer golf shoe should be focused on those with the best airflow.
But that isn’t the only important feature.
Course Performance
While foot health and safety should always be your first concern when choosing footwear, when a sport is involved such as golf, performance should be a very close second.
Sweat, blisters, and fungus all negatively impact your ability to play, but don’t forget about the golf course conditions themselves.
Because the greens dry quickly in summer, it’s easy to ignore concerns about wet terrain when buying the correct shoes for the season.
That’s can be a big mistake.
Golf courses maintain their lush appearances through the hottest months because they are well watered.
If you arrive early in the day in an attempt to beat the heat, you’re likely to find the whole course is still dripping with dew.
The same applies if the weather was very wet overnight, or even the previous day.
Don’t forget, just because it’s dry in the open doesn’t mean there aren’t still wet patches in the rough.
Wet grass can be very slippery, and can be a challenge to play on without the right grip and traction.
Along with ‘boggy’ or wet patched, it also poses a mild water hazard to shoes without water resistance.
If you slip into a puddle and your shoes becomes waterlogged, the rest of your round is going to be pretty miserable, take it from me.
This has happened on a number of occasions and it is awful.
Therefore, the best summer golf shoes will need the features that allow you to play in these conditions as well to some extent.
Desirable Features for a Golf Shoe in Summer
Now that we are familiar with the problems, it’s easier to identify the solutions.
Thankfully, golf shoes are constantly being improved with new technology specifically designed to meet and defeat the very issues we have covered.
The three main features to look for are as follows:
Ventilation
The majority of athletic shoes on the market today will mention the use of breathable fabrics and other methods of ventilation in their construction.
This is meant to increase the airflow into and out of your shoe. Breathable designs help to keep feet dry by lowering their temperature, reducing sweat, and allowing the sweat that does form to evaporate.
This is the most important feature for the type of shoe we’re looking for.
Water resistance
Shoes rated water resistant won’t keep the water out in a downpour, but they will keep your feet from getting soaked in mildly wet conditions such as those discussed above.
Choose these over waterproof shoes, which achieve their rating by being completely sealed off, protecting you from exterior moisture, but ensuring your feet will remain sweaty in hot conditions.
Good Grip/Traction
You always need good grip and traction when playing golf, but it’s worth noting specially in the summer months due to how unexpectedly wet and slippery conditions can be.
Advancements in technology of golf shoes has progressed to the point that many spikeless shoe models offer stability comparable to ‘spiked’ or cleated golf shoes in wet conditions, so your options here are quite extensive and there is a lot of choice on the market.
The Best Golf Shoes for Summer
Knowing what features to focus on makes choosing the best summer footwear for golfing a simpler task.
Here are Three of the best examples of shoes that meet and exceed our requirements.
Adidas ZG21
- Regular fit
- Lace closure
- Soft textile upper with TPU film
- Low-cut stable golf cleats
- TPU six-spike outsole with aggressive traction lugs
Adidas ZG21, if you want a solid golf shoe for the summer months. The Adidas ZG1 is an amazing looking golf shoe, which is super light and perfect for the summer months, the shoe has all the technology we come to expect from Adidas with the Boost Foam.
The ZG21 is also manufactured from 20% recycled material, which we think is a great step in the right direction.
We can see this shoe becoming popular and is already being worn on all of the main professional golf tours,
Adidas are now starting to use these materials in more of their ranges and is also being used in their running ranges.
The golf shoe features the great Boost technology, so they are super comfortable, with the INSITE sock liner and the Adidas LightStrike cushioning.
One of the most interesting features and benefits of this shoe is it actually comes with a one year 100% waterproof warranty.
If you would like to read a more detailed review please check out our article Best Four Adidas Golf Shoes
FootJoy Men's Fj Flex Xp Golf Shoes
- Waterproof mesh - lightweight performance waterproof mesh delivers incredible comfort, breathability and all-day comfort
- Complete support - a soft EVA midsole provides increased underfoot cushioning, enhanced comfort and exceptional stability
- Versatile traction - The versa-trax outsole is engineered with traction elements to create an outsole that is perfect for on course performance with wear-to-the-course versatility.Each traction zone maximizes traction during your swing and provides exceptional grip when walking the course.
- Laser sport fit - offers a full rounded toe character with a standard fit across the forefoot and instep. A toe spring and a slightly narrow heel completes the athletic profile
The Flex XPs from FootJoy are an interesting example of compromise.
The breathable mesh construction is by all accounts effective, keeping feet cool and dry.
FJ’s versa-trax outsole is likewise effective, not only providing stability on the course, but comfortable to walk on off it.
The compromise is in the water protection.
These shoes have a waterproof rating, but it is only guaranteed for 1 year.
This suggests that the mesh is treated with a waterproof coating that will wear away with time, going from waterproof to having little to no protection at all.
If you would like to read a further detailed review please check out our article Top Five Mens Best Spikeless Footjoy Golf Shoes in 2020.
Conclusion
Hope we have helped you out, and you can now make a good decision on what to wear on your feet in the summer months.
It is so important to feel comfortable when walking int fairways. We understand how important it is that we have also written an article on the best shoes for winter, why not check it out here?
At East Sleep Golf Repeat we want to give you good solid information so we have also written an article on just playing golf in Cold Weather.
