When Jason Day appeared at last year’s Masters in a pair of as-then-unreleased Payntr golf shoes, my interest was piqued. Up to now, Panytr’s Tour presence has been rather understated with the brand instead of focussing its investments on R&D as a fairly new player. Until today, that decision has been working in Payntr’s favor and the brand, young though it is, has been developing some of the best golf shoes that go toe-to-toe (pardon the pun) with golf shoe brands twice its size.
With Jason Day on board, however, the brand has taken everything up a notch with the introduction of the Eight Seven SC. The Eighty Seven is named as such as it’s the Australian’s lucky number and you’ll notice the perforated section around the heel and tongue is made up of 87 holes specifically. A small detail though this is, it tells the story of a golf shoe where every minor detail has been carefully considered. Day was walking into a manufacturer already renowned for making high-level performance shoes like the Payntr X 004 RS and X 003 F spikeless and the Eighty Seven SC has built on what was already a platform designed for elite performance.
(Image credit: Future)
The carbon fibre propulsion plate situated just above the outsole is the real stand-out performer of this shoe. It runs the full length of the shoe and allows you to more effectively harness ground reaction forces. We’ve seen the use of carbon in the likes of the FootJoy HyperFlex Carbon as well as in Tiger Woods’ new Sun Day Red shoes and each time I’ve worn a shoe with this material in, you can feel the difference. Will the average golfer with a sub 95mph driver swing speed benefit greatly from it? Probably not. But any 105mph+ golfers out there will feel a difference underfoot through the swing.
These things are nearly impossible to measure quantifiably, but I can attest to the amount of rebound I felt through the sole of my foot, both while walking and swinging the club. That this outsole also uses seven of the Soft Spikes Tour Flex Pro spikes makes for a shoe that breathes confidence in how powerfully you can swing the club. The foot locks closely but comfortably in place across the tongue area and the heel, giving that classic locked-in sensation you’d expect from a shoe of this type while plenty of foam in the midsole and a 3D moulded footbed offer the comfort needed to walk 18 holes.
As for the looks, I think this has been a huge step up…
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