CHAMP Spikes Challenge Review Thread

[10YardDraw]

Date-7-8-12
Holes Played-18
Walking or Riding-Riding
Weather- 87* Sunny
Course Condition-Wet

I got out to play 18 this morning and it was just a perfect day for golf, its been over 100* here for 2 weeks now so to be in the mid to high 80's was just amazing! The course was wet once again today and I got to play from varies lie's and the Scorpion Stingers performed perfectly once again. It did not matter if I was in the rough, fairway, bunker, and even on the creek bank. I never once felt like I was off balance or felt like I was going to slip. So out of 6 or 7 rounds however many its been I have had 1 slip, that's amazing compared to how much I was slipping with the Softspike Black Widow Tours. It is starting to get hard to write a review on these because its the same great performance round after round on the course, perfect traction, minimal to no clogging, and they are very comfortable!

There is one shot I do want to touch on and that is the one on the up slope of the creek bank. Hole 18 long par 5 I was just trying to hit nice easy shot over the creek to give me a easy 3rd into the green and I ended up chunking it a little bit and I came up short and ended up about 3 feet down the creek bank on a sever up slope, I said WTH and went for it. I got down in there and really dug my back foot in and this was a shot that required a all arm swing because of how sever the slop was. I hit the shot and I swear my feet did not move a inch, I was amazed to be honest. This was wet, steep, and kinda muddy and the Stingers showed that creek bank who the boss was!

I also want to touch on how comfortable these are on the asphalt, cart paths, cement, tile and really anything I have walked on that is hard. I have not had a slipping issue on my garage floor which is very smooth concrete that draws moisture up through it when the humidity is up like it has been so that is a big win as well. I just have not found a negative thing about these yet. As you will be able to tell from my pictures the only wear I am seeing is some discoloring on the tips, still no legs cracked, or breaking off. The spikes themselves did clog a little bit today but most of the debris is collected on the shoe its self. These pictures are straight off the course, no cleaning, or slapping them together.

I really just can not say enough good things about these, if you need some new spikes go out there and get ya some CHAMP's! I still have not broken a Fly Tee either, another amazing CHAMP product! That is all for now folks as I am clean out of things to say about these lol.

 

[TripleBogieTim]

Nice write ups Duey and 10yard!

I agree it gets tough to come up with new ways to say how well these perform!

 

[10YardDraw]

Nice write ups Duey and 10yard!

I agree it gets tough to come up with new ways to say how well these perform!

Thanks TBT. Yes it is getting very tough to not just repeat myself over and over lol.

 

[thedue]

Thanks TBT and great job 10Yard. Funny how we only expect a few things out of our spikes, yet they those are extremely important things once they don't perform. Nice hearing how comfortable the Stingers are for you 10y, they seem more aggressive towards traction, but seem to get it done all around as well.

 

[DawgDaddy]

Good stuff 10Yard and duey, I know I am loving the Zarmas. I was already a Stinger user before the testing and right now seem to be leaning toward using the Zarmas in all of my shoes as the Stingers wear out. Being an older guy I like the comfort of the Zarma and the fact that they seem to hold less debris in them. We'll see how my thinking goes at the end of the testing.

 

[10YardDraw]

Thanks TBT and great job 10Yard. Funny how we only expect a few things out of our spikes, yet they those are extremely important things once they don't perform. Nice hearing how comfortable the Stingers are for you 10y, they seem more aggressive towards traction, but seem to get it done all around as well.

Good stuff 10Yard and duey, I know I am loving the Zarmas. I was already a Stinger user before the testing and right now seem to be leaning toward using the Zarmas in all of my shoes as the Stingers wear out. Being an older guy I like the comfort of the Zarma and the fact that they seem to hold less debris in them. We'll see how my thinking goes at the end of the testing.

Thanks fellas! Very true Due, once those few things don't perform it can become a serious issue especially with the slipping, good way to get hurt and hit bad shots lol. It does seem like the testers using the Zarmas are having less debris gathering which leads me to think the Stingers are a little more aggressive of a spike. I do love the Stingers though.

 

[Tedfroop]

It does seem like the testers using the Zarmas are having less debris gathering which leads me to think the Stingers are a little more aggressive of a spike. I do love the Stingers though.

Having used both I would say you are correct, not that the Zarma's don't offer a lot of grip. The Zarma's seem more comfortable to me for walking but I can't quantify that because they are on two different pairs of shoes.
I sure wish they made Stingers for Pins bases, I would be all over them in a second.

 

[10YardDraw]

Having used both I would say you are correct, not that the Zarma's don't offer a lot of grip. The Zarma's seem more comfortable to me for walking but I can't quantify that because they are on two different pairs of shoes.
I sure wish they made Stingers for Pins bases, I would be all over them in a second.

It sounds to me like the Zarmas offer more than enough grip so far, just wondering if that will last once that spring is gone in them.

 

[pmoa]

Good stuff 10Yard and duey, I know I am loving the Zarmas. I was already a Stinger user before the testing and right now seem to be leaning toward using the Zarmas in all of my shoes as the Stingers wear out. Being an older guy I like the comfort of the Zarma and the fact that they seem to hold less debris in them. We'll see how my thinking goes at the end of the testing.

My sentiments exactly DD. The zarmas are just a tad bit more comfortable. In the beginning they were amazingly soft, but as the rounds wore on they were still cushy, but not stinger hard. Both provide great grip in all conditions I have played. Debris is scarce for sure!

 

[royalwulff]

Testing: Champ Zarma spikes
Shoes: FootJoy Streets
Conditions yesterday: cool and spinkles and rain
Ok I have been slacking but I have not been able to get on the course for a couple of weeks. I was able to get out yesterday and with the ground going from soft to mushy as the round progressed I was really liking that I had the Champ spikes in. On the practice range it was just a fine mist so the ground had not gotten soft yet and the Zarmas held up great. I even purposely set up in a couple of spots so my feet were on dirt and not grass and I could not tell any difference between the two. As the round progressed it kept sprinkling and then raining and even as the ground went from hard to soft to mushy I still felt connected with the ground and not once felt like my feet were slipping. I had more than a few ball above or below my feet shots and even on the wet ground i was comfortable and confident that my feet were not going anywhere other than what I intended.

Testing: Champ Zarma spikes
Shoes: FootJoy Streets
Conditions yesterday: cool humid


Here are a couple of pictures from the end of the round today and then my thoughts on todays round.

Well the ground dried up a bit from yesterdays raind but was still a bit soft. Once again some range time then off to the course. Once again the Zarmas held up and gripped like expected, but over the course of the round i did notice a couple of times some sand was buliding up on and around the spikes. I figure this was due to the ground being wet and not much would have stopped that from happening. The good thing about it was that after about 5 or 6 steps the sand was gone. I never had any grass or weeds build up in or around the spikes and this is even with the clipping being damp from getting mowed yesterday or today. My buddies noticed that even after i walked off the green, there were still spike marks on the green. On the next hole i paid a bit more attention to thisw and it did seem that the spike markes stayed in the grass a bit longer than I would have expected. This may have been due to it still not being dry out but i am not sure about that.
I forgot to mention that I did change out the spikes from my FootJoy Tours to my FootJoy streets the other day and they are just as comfortable in these shoes as they were in the Tours.

 

[jarret8x]

Just ordered two packs of the champ zarmas to replace my soft spikes because this thread.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[Mr. Satchmo]

Just ordered two packs of the champ zarmas to replace my soft spikes because this thread.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

That's awesome, I hope you like them, I bet they will work well, champ makes a durable, high quality spike.

 

[10YardDraw]

Just ordered two packs of the champ zarmas to replace my soft spikes because this thread.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

That's awesome, enjoy them!

 

[thedue]

Great job Wulff, glad you were able to get out, but sorry about the wet conditions. These things are the real deal, (I almost feel funny saying that about a spike but its true).

 

[Wake]

I'm loving reading the reviews. I hate that I haven't been able to post anything for the past week. I really hate when life gets in the way of golf (and testing). I think I can get out on the course on Wednesday.

 

[ddxu]

Just ordered two packs of the champ zarmas to replace my soft spikes because this thread.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

Glad to hear we could help in your search for new spikes. Let us know your thoughts and how they treat you.

 

[mikedean441]

Update***

Played 36 holes on Sunday with fellow THPer Bullfrog. IM up to about 12 rounds with these spikes and they are still holding up as well as they did from day 1. While we continue to not have any rain, we did manage to play a few holes that either had the sprinkers on, or just fnished up watering. For the first time with these, I had to hit shots from pretty wet lies in the fairways. I ran into no issues at all, these held up very well in the wet conditions with no slippage issues or leading to any off balance shots (wish I could say the same for Bullfrog, he was spinning all over the place).

After the round, I did have to do my first "cleat bang" with these. But it was very minimal grass buildup and it didnt take much effort at all to get the clumps of grass out of the spikes.

 

[10YardDraw]

I am hoping to get out on Thursday or Friday, if not then it will be this weekend. Nice update RW and Mike.

 

[Mr. Satchmo]

I went to play another round yesterday and it began nicely, the ground was dry when it started and the wind was pretty calm and so my feet were able to make solid contact with the ground which really helped my game. The shoes were previously cleaned before the round so the spikes didn't have any mud or grass. All of a sudden thunderstorms moved into the area which caused rain to start, the ground quickly became soggy but I decided to keep on playing. The next tee box was really soft and soggy but I was able push my feet into ground and swing and know that I wouldn't slip. As I continued to play the sand and fairway became soaked and the lighting started. I then continued to play the last hole and I saw no change in stability and traction.

I recently bought new golf shoes and I made sure to buy champ spikes and installed them so that I can have champ spikes after the spikes I'm testing wear down!

One note, I have tri lok on my current shoes that have the spikes I am testing and I found that the tri lok adapter has more user error in the sense that installing the threads a bit crooked can result in a lost spike.

My new shoes have the champ q lok adapter which I notice are easier to install and the margin of error for installation is much lower than the tri lok, I was interested in this observation. I also noticed that the q lok requires only one turn and the tri lock requires about 2-3 turns to lock.

Left:Q lok Right: Tri lok

Left: Q lok Right: Tri Lok

 

[Mr. Satchmo]

Another I want to add, I've been using the champ fly tees and have had great luck with them with my driver, woods and irons off the tee. The only interesting thing that I found was that the tee broke off clean in half when I used my irons from the tee. I really like that I can remember the exact height of the tee I used the time before.

 

[10YardDraw]

Nice updates leiruagetro! Any long tee is going to break when you push it 99% of the way down in the ground and use it for a iron. That is why they make short tee's is for irons, FW, hybrids etc.

 

[Mr. Satchmo]

Nice updates leiruagetro! Any long tee is going to break when you push it 99% of the way down in the ground and use it for a iron. That is why they make short tee's is for irons, FW, hybrids etc.

Thanks man! Yeah I was just intrigued at how clean the break is when hit like that. I also notice that the tees don't bend easily after being hit a lot unlike other plastic tees that I have use. I also have used the sam tee for an entire nine, I left it on the last hole when I was hurrying after the rain started pouring in.

I really like these spikes and tees that champ set out, and I will continue to buy them!

 

[Buckjob]

played again today and had no issues. getting out tomorrow for 18 or 36 depending on how long the first round takes. should have a better write up after then. really nothing new to report. still not slipping and they are still staying clean. today was really dry had to hit off of some hard pan and didn't have any issues with that though which was nice.

 

[10YardDraw]

Thanks man! Yeah I was just intrigued at how clean the break is when hit like that. I also notice that the tees don't bend easily after being hit a lot unlike other plastic tees that I have use. I also have used the sam tee for an entire nine, I left it on the last hole when I was hurrying after the rain started pouring in.

I really like these spikes and tees that champ set out, and I will continue to buy them!

You can use that broken one for the iron shots now lol. I have used the same tee since starting this testing. I have like 6 or 7 rounds on 1 FLY Tee. It is still strong, and like you said not bending or loosing up.

 

[10YardDraw]

played again today and had no issues. getting out tomorrow for 18 or 36 depending on how long the first round takes. should have a better write up after then. really nothing new to report. still not slipping and they are still staying clean. today was really dry had to hit off of some hard pan and didn't have any issues with that though which was nice.

That's great to hear Buckjob. Im finding the same thing with the Stingers.