Golf Shoe Review: Adidas AdiPure

For some reason, a lot of people think these shoes are hype, but I don't. The idea is that the shoe keeps the feet closer to the ground. Indeed, the soles are thinner (especially in the heel area). I've always wondered why most golf shoes were modeled after dress shoes. When was the last time you walked 5 miles in your wing tips or swung a golf club over 100 MPH while wearing your Ferragamos?

Not recently, I'll guess.

As bad as dress shoes impersonating golf shoes were, the whole tennis shoe as golf shoe era was rather dreary (and apparently over). Wait a minute, I'm getting away from the Adidas AdiPure, which is not my intent. The AdiPures are very well made shoes and they strike a fine balance between a typical sporty looking golf shoe and one with a certain feel of seriousness. The quality of the leather is glorious, easily the best I have seen and felt in a contemporary golf shoe. It's the kind of leather you can imagine will break-in rather than wear out. And, that's a good thing because the AdiPure cost no less than $250 a pair.

Look at it this way: $250 is still a lot less than your driver cost and if you take care of your AdiPures they'll last for years. Your driver will be in the used bin at your local golf shop by the time you're done reading this review.

My fear was that the AdiPure would be too narrow since that's been my experience with Adidas shoes in the past. Thankfully, the AdiPure are available in a wide width and I was able to find a pair of 9.5 W without too much trouble.

I think Adidas is really onto something. Having your feet closer to the ground makes your stance feel more solid and your posture less perched over the ball. It gets even better when you swing hard. There's simply much less of a tendency for the feet to roll over. This is easy to anticipate, really. Which shoe rolls over more easily, one with a 4" stiletto heel (not that I've ever worn one) or a cross-trainer? Well, that's a no brainer.

Even though the AdiPure is a relatively heavy shoe, it flexes nicely right out of the box. I am always surprised by how many golf shoes have forefoot areas that are far too stiff. The AdiPures feel athletic and ready for action immediately.

The story goes that Sam Snead liked to play golf with bare feet. You've gotta figure Snead didn't do it for the extra traction, it had to be for the sense of being closer to the ground. The Adidas AdiPure get me closer to that feeling than any golf shoe I have ever worn. The shoes let me feel more settled over the ball and more well balance when I swing.

Not much more you can ask from a golf shoe. My only slight complaint is that the AdiPure seem to use a cleat for which there's no 3rd party option. Hopefully, that will change by the time I need to replace mine.

What should you do? Go buy a pair. You'll be happy you did.

The Golf Channel's Pipedream: Off to an Odd Start

I have to admit I looked forward to the Golf Channel's new reality series, Pipedream.

The setup was good: Old golf pro is homeless. Watch as he claws his way back to his profession. The first problem is that it's abundantly clear that, at age 53, Mark Burk never had a profession in golf.

The guy's timeline is pretty ragged, so let's stick to the basics.

He's 53 and said that the money from his family ran out when he was 40. He and his then-supermodel girlfriend moved to the desert in 1995. From then until 2008 we are led to believe the two lived in a kind of golf heaven. But wait a minute. That 13 year period between 1995 and 2008 should have been Burk's glory years as a player. He was 38 when it started and 51 when it ended. Why wasn't he winning big on some tour, any tour, during that time?

Answer? He never had the game or the head to play golf for a living.

Let's give Burk the temporary benefit of the doubt and assume that the domestic abuse issues were false or at least overstated. Why, when he was evicted in 2008, was he penniless? It would seem that he'd had every opportunity attain some level of professional viability, yet he never did.

Finally, this guy's a golf pro in the desert. Why isn't he trying to teach, or seeking work at one of the hundreds of area courses and clubs? Ben Hogan slept in a bunker so he could be closer to the course where he caddied as a boy. Burk sleeps in a pipe so he can what?

It has been over two years since the police dropped him off at Highway 111 & Jefferson.

If Mark Burk is still living his pipedream he has only himself to blame.