Soft Spikes versus Metal Spikes

When I first started playing golf as a young 16 year old some 40 years ago every golfer wore shoes with metal spikes. If you had enough money you had shoes with leather uppers and leather soles and while you looked the ‘bees knees’ in these when new, polished and ‘dubinned’ if they got wet and you put them in the airing cupboard to dry out the toes used to curl up so you looked like the wicked witch of the west from the Wizard of Oz. Whether you wore top of the range leather shoes or cheap plastic shoes they all had one thing in common which was METAL spikes to which you religiously applied petroleum jelly to the threads so that you could get them out again when they were worn. Now of course metal spikes are virtually outlawed in the game of golf (although some pro’s such as Miguel Angel Jimenez still wear them to this day) as the EXPERTS say that they cause more damage to greens that the new fangled claw like plastic and rubber spikes. Before we go any further please remember that and ‘EX’ is a has been and a ‘SPURT’ is a drip under pressure so take much of what they say with a pinch of salt. Metal spikes are supposed to cause more damage to the greens and to ‘carry’ more diseases that can damage the grasses but while I may wish to look through rose tinted glasses I never RECALL such damage to the greens. On the other hand I regularly see damage to the surface of the greens caused by ‘CLAW’ like spikes more suited to ice climbing rather than golfing. A few days ago I played the excellent course at Bonalba and the greens had been heavily watered and were ‘SOFT’ on the top and the marks on the green from spikes were more than a little worrying. To add to this the latest fashion are the soft pimple soles but from what I can see they just make the greens resemble a ‘waffle’. I guess that we are in the hands of these experts and fashion but from my experience and from what I see on the golf course day to day bring back metal spikes sooner rather than later.