The Best Shoes at The Open Championship

Why do we spend so much time obsessing over the gear PGA TOUR players use when it’s almost impossible to get our hands on?

And even if you COULD theoretically get the same putter that Tony Finau uses through PING’s PLD Program or a Rogue ST Triple Diamond LS Driver like Jon Rahm, the notion that you, a mere amateur, could make good use of it is just as tricky. 

If you want to feel like a Tour player, here’s my advice: Pay attention to their shoes! Yes, the one piece of gear that every player uses. Most of the golf shoes you see across the professional tours are readily available at retail to the rest of us. 

That said, I want to introduce a new column of sorts to MyGolfSpy. I hope that by recapping and showing off the golf shoes the professionals are wearing, you might find your new favorite pair. 

Here are the best shoes I saw at The Open this week.

The 2022 major season is over. It's never too early, though, to look ahead to 2023 and see who will be claiming the sport's biggest prizes.

OUR JOB IS YOUR GAME

2022’s Most Wanted Hybrid is here!

Do you struggle with your long irons? Do you have a large yardage gap between your irons and fairway woods?

Hybrids are versatile, offer more forgiveness than long irons and can fill the gaps in your set makeup.

Let’s take a look to see which club takes home the title of 2022’s Most Wanted Hybrid.

Sqairz Speed golf shoes got the top spot for stability in our 2022 Best Spiked Golf Shoe test. Spiked golf shoes are not a thing of the past. In fact, many high-swing speed players won’t even consider a spikeless shoe. 

The Sqairz Speed is funky looking and your foursome will know you got new shoes but, when you start hitting it past them, they will likely be wearing them next week.

Sqairz Product Details

The Sqairz Speed golf shoes were released in 2020. Once people got over the unique square toe shape, they started seeing performance. 

The first thing that stands out is how wide the base of the shoe is. The idea is to create more balance and stability. The balance and stability will, in turn, translate to more distance. Sqairz likes to advertise about eight yards extra. 

There’s lot of talk about the Kirkland golf balls being the same (or better) as the Pro V1 and the Kirkland Signature putter being comparable to the Scotty Cameron. Costco works hard to offer products that are a great mix of performance and value. If you have ever tried the rotisserie chicken, you know what we mean. 

During our 2021 Most Wanted Putter test, we analyzed the Kirkland Signature putter’s performance from five, 10 and 20 feet. The results were not as good as we had hoped. As you will see, the club has some good things going for it but when the majority of positive feedback deals with the grip of the club, there are some issues. 

Kirkland Signature Putter Product Details

The Kirkland Signature KS1 is a forged CNC blade-style putter with an adjustable heel and toe. The putter is sold for a price that is hard to believe, considering the technology that was incorporated into the club head. 

In addition to the CNC body and face, a SuperStroke CounterCore Mid Slim 2.0 grip helps improve stability and feel. Typically speaking, a putter with precision-milled 303 stainless insert does quite well in product testing because of the feel and consistency. 

An adjustable weight kit is sold separately if you want to fine-tune the feel. The classic blade-style look is very similar to the premium blade putters on the market but the head is slightly larger. 

GPS or rangefinder? 

Isn’t this a question many of us agonize over? Which is better? More accurate? Faster? We have products that we love that are rangefinders and those that are GPS units.

However, Precision Pro tried to make things a bit easier on us with the release of the Precision Pro R1. This is a combination of GPS and laser with more features than we can keep track of. You know that feeling at Disney where you just can’t possibly see everything there is to offer in a day? That’s a bit of what it feels like when using the Precision Pro R1. 

We tested the Precision Pro R1 as part of our Best Golf Rangefinders 2022 study.

Precision Pro R1 Product Details

The Precision Pro R1 is a laser golf rangefinder with slope that also displays GPS distances. This essentially means that when you look through the scope of the R1, you are bombarded with data. For those that like data, this is a tremendous feature. 

At Costco, you buy in bulk. This includes golf wedges. 

This bundle c0mes as a set with 52-, 56- and 60-degree wedges. The Kirkland Signature wedge was included in our 2021 wedge test and some results were surprising. Take a look at what our data revealed.

Kirkland Signature Wedge Product Details

The Kirkland Signature wedge is a blade-style wedge with a clean, classic look and a milled face. The wedge features a wedge-flex shaft by True Temper with no options. 

Kirkland wedges offer no options for bounce or grind. This value-priced wedge set is designed to fill the bag in one quick purchase. Kirkland wedges are typically available only through Costco. 

Pros

Clean-looking blade-style wedgeFair pricing No issues with loft gapping Milled-face technology 

Cons

No options for shaft, loft or grind Lacks spin technology seen in other wedges 

How We Test 

The Kirkland Signature was part of our 2021 wedge test which included 35 golfers using the Foresight GC Quad launch monitors. All golfers used Titleist Pro V1 balls to help minimize variables. When our final details were calculated, outliers were removed. In addition, we made sure to test the Kirkland Signature for players at different swing speeds and with moisture on the face as a variable. 

Chez Reavie won the Barracuda Championship on Sunday, holding on in the PGA Tour's lone modified Stableford scoring event for his third tour title.

A realistic Rory McIlroy, who finished two shots behind Australia's Cameron Smith at The Open on Sunday, appeared ready to turn the page after the tournament, saying, "At the end of the day, it's not life or death."

All of Scotland was rooting for Rory McIlroy. Then Cameron Smith went on a tear at the home of golf that will live on for generations.

Australia's Cameron Smith rode a hot final nine holes at St. Andrews to win the 150th Open Championship and his first major title.

Cameron Smith got hot, Rory McIlroy's putter got cold and St. Andrews played easy. A look at what mattered most at the 150th playing of The Open.

Ever wanted to contribute to the data MyGolfSpy collects over the course of the season?

Welcome to Testers Wanted where we recruit readers like you for objective feedback on products that roll into HQ throughout the year!

For those familiar with Precision Pro, you already know that its award-winning rangefinders offer a consumer-friendly balance of technology and price point. With that, the recently released Precision Pro NX10 offers consumers a meaningful upgrade over the NX9 plus a little somethin’ extra.

So now, we need testers like you to assess and report back to us at MyGolfSpy.

jQuery(document).ready(function($) { var slides = $('#mgs_gallery_220875 .mgs-gallery-images .mgs-gallery-image').length; if ( slides 6 ) { slides = 6; } $('#mgs_gallery_220875 .mgs-gallery-images').slick({ slidesToShow: 1, slidesToScroll: 1, fade: true, prevArrow: '', nextArrow: '', asNavFor: '#mgs_gallery_220875 .mgs-gallery-thumbs', swipe: false, }); $('#mgs_gallery_220875 .mgs-gallery-thumbs').slick({ slidesToShow: (slides-1), //less than number of slides, so it always shows infinite scroll (bugfix) slidesToScroll: 1, arrows: false, asNavFor: '#mgs_gallery_220875 .mgs-gallery-images', centerMode: true, focusOnSelect: true, infinite: true, responsive: [ { breakpoint: 1023, settings: { slidesToShow: 3, } }, { breakpoint: 600, settings: { slidesToShow: 1, } }, ] }); $('#mgs_gallery_220875').magnificPopup({ delegate: '.mgs-gallery-trigger', type: 'image', gallery: { enabled:true, arrowMarkup: '', } }); });

TESTERS WANTED

We’re looking for four testers to try the new Precision Pro NX10 and give us your honest feedback.

Co-leaders Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland opened up a four-stroke cushion after surviving a scare at the Road hole. A new pin was tried and I analyze in Saturday’s Quad from the Home of Golf.

Plus, Hovland and The Old Course, Quotables and the Sunday forecast.

 

The post Sights and Sounds of the 150th Open Championship appeared first on Northern California Golf Association.

Chez Reavie doubled his lead to six points Saturday in the Barracuda Championship.

Jennifer Kupcho and Lizette Salas won the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational on Saturday, closing with a 9-under 61 in best-ball play for a 5-stroke victory.

Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland go into the final round at St. Andrews in the lead. Some other big names are chasing. So why will each win? And why won't they? We give the answers.

Rory McIlroy recognizes the enormity of this moment at The Open, while also trying not to let it consume him as he chases his holy grail at St. Andrews.