Here’s the story:
Golfers used to wear metal spikes, but they did too much damage to the greens. The golf industry then switched to soft spikes, still in use today. The soft spikes of today, however, do even more damage then the metal spikes of the past, and still don’t give you the same stability as metal. That’s why 70% of the PGA touring pros still don the metal spikes. Because of the metal spikes, they are missing putts in the excess of $250 000 because of the metal spike marks left from the golfers that have been there before them.

The Kickspike is a set of metal spikes that fully retract into the sole of your shoe with the click of a button on the back of the shoe. “Golfers will be able to wear spikes from tee to green, and slippers on the green,” explains Bachmann, “which in turn will save every golf course in the world $20 000 to $30 000 per year in fertilizer and fungicide costs, not to mention water.”

“We had naysayers at our booth when they saw the metal spikes. Once they discovered they were retractable, we won them over hands down. We were inundated with people asking to order the shoe, to manufacture it, and just even to invest. The response was overwhelming.” “If none of the major shoe manufacturers want to take this on, we definitely have more than enough investment capital to get this going ourselves.”

So how is this 'green' you may ask?

Courses need to use fungicides, insecticides and fertilizers to keep their greens in good condition, largely because of the damage caused by spiked shoes. With the retractable spikes, there will be less damage, so fewer chemicals will be needed to maintain the greens, not to mention far less water. And water as we all know is a resource at a premium. “It will also prevent all of those chemicals from entering streams and other water sources nearby,” Bachmann states. Sure the golf courses say that none of the chemicals they use to repair their greens are hazardous to humans, but without long-range studies examining the effects of
intermingled chemical run-off most citizens will raise an eyebrow. In this age of global warming and broken Kyoto promises, golf courses need to face the inconvenient truth too: they are a luxury. But they are a luxury made more affordable if they use less water, less fertilizer and less fungicide. All this AND better greens? Why not? That’s what Bachmann thought too. And so the Kickspike revolution begins.

by Mike Lane