Golf Shoe Review: Ecco Tour Hybrid Wingtip
Ecco Tour Hybrid Wingtip Golf Shoes – click to see more
Ecco Golf is constantly impressing me with their great shoes and their new designs. Even more impressive is the comfort. Combining a traditional classic golf shoe design with a hybrid style platform is the uber-cool Ecco Tour Hybrid Wingtip golf shoe. Let’s take a look.
Tour Hybrid Wingtip Overview
The Tour Hybrid is the tale of two halves, the upper and the sole.
The upper is a classicly styled wingtip look with a rich, waterproof leather. Ecco’s treatment for waterproofing is called “Hydromax.” Despite being leather, the shoe is very breathable and soft. Inside the upper is a full leather lining.
The sole of the shoe is spikeless, making walking around feel like walking with a comfortable street shoe. The soft-spikes on the bottom of the shoe have 800 “traction angles” which give them a ton of surface area. More surface area on on the spikes means more traction. Simple physics.
Freedom Fit
Classicly designed golf shoes often have pointed toes. There’s nothing worse than squished toes while walking the five or more miles one might walk during a golf round. Ecco employs “Freedom Fit” to eliminate the squished toes. Freedom Fit allows the toes to spread naturally while walking, producing a much more comfortable walking experience and most importantly no toe friction!
Ecco Tour Hybrid Wingtip Golf Shoes – click to enlarge
Colors
The Tour Hybrid is available in two colors: Lion/Burnt Ochre (pictured in this review) and White/Brick.
On The Course – At The Office
Just like my experience with the fantastic Ecco BIOM golf shoes, the Tour Hybrids are extremely comfortable. Combined with a great golf sock, the comfort and feel of these golf shoes is unmatched.
With the 800 traction angles my spastic golf swing stays firmly planted. A solid base/stance is very important for the golf swing and for generating power. No slippage to date. Full power, Scotty!
My Hybrid Wingtips are possibly the nicest shoes I have, including my dress shoes which also happen to be Ecco. I’ve worn these babies on the course of course, at the office and around town, enjoying the comfort and very hip modern-retro styling.
Critiques
I have an issue with Ecco and their sizing. Ecco uses European sizes which don’t necessarily translate well to USA sizing. I’m a USA size nine on the noze. Ecco’s European sizing comes in either 42 or 43 for my range. 42 translates to 8-8.5 while 43 translates to 9-9.5. So the 43 may run too big while the 42 runs too small.
Ecco: I suggest changing sizes or coming out with half sizes such as 42.5. I’d be a 42.5!
Father’s Day
If you really LOVE dad, the $190 retail Ecco Tour Hybrid Wingtips would be a fantastic Father’s Day golf gift, Christmas gift, birthday, Monday… any day.
Conclusion
Whether wearing the Ecco Tour Hybrids in your club championship or your clubhouse, the looks, comfort and performance are what one expects from Ecco: the BEST.
Related Links
Hooked On Golf Blog Ecco BIOM golf shoe review
New Reader Poll: What is the BEST Airline for Golf Travel?
Written by: Tony Korologos | Monday, June 3rd, 2013
Categories: Golf • Miscellaneous • Site News • Travel
Categories: Golf • Miscellaneous • Site News • Travel
I’ve got a new poll up and running here and I’d love for you to vote!
What is the Best Airline for Golf Travel?
The poll module is in the left column here.
This is a companion poll to the previous reader poll, “What is the WORST Airline for Golf Travel?”
Fantasy Golf – Memorial Tournament Winner
Written by: Tony Korologos | Monday, June 3rd, 2013
Categories: Fantasy Golf • Miscellaneous • Site News
Tags: Fantasy Golf
Categories: Fantasy Golf • Miscellaneous • Site News
Tags: Fantasy Golf
Crowne Plaza Invitational Winner: 3puttpar
2013 Fantasy Golf is brought to you by Hooked On Golf Blog and The Golf Space.
SPONSOR UPDATE
The following four sponsors have been confirmed for 2013!
- Nike Golf – Nike Covert Driver
- FootJoy – Shoes/Apparel
- Bridgestone Golf – Bridgestone Golf Balls
- Tornado Tee – Very cool golf tees (weekly)
I’m still hammering out prizes and arrangements for coupon codes to claim the weekly prizes. Stay tuned!
It is never too late to join HOG Space fantasy golf FREE. Follow the easy instructions below:
1. Go to www.buzzfantasyleagues.com
2. Create an account if you don’t have one
3. Click on “Join an Existing League”
4. Enter League ID 233, and Season ID 335
5. Create your team, enter league password “HOG”
- Nike Covert Driver Grand Prize
Sponsors Wanted
If you wish to sponsor 2013 Fantasy Golf, let me know. Sponsorship would mean providing prizes in exchange for weekly air time, banners and links to your web site via the fantasy golf updates.
Discussion
HOG Space fantasy golf is a dual effort between Hooked On Golf Blog and The Golf Space. Official fantasy golf forum discussion thread is in The Golf Space Forum here.
2013 Salt Lake Amateur – In contention for 27 of the 36 holes
Another Salt Lake City Amateur is in the books. This week was a tough one. I had two pretty bad falls hiking on a volcano in southern Utah on Monday, Memorial Day. My right shoulder was tweaked pretty bad, to the point where I couldn’t move my right arm for a few hours. Starting Wednesday my bad back started to seize up. I babied the back, took lots of ibuprofen and slept on the floor. That got me into good enough shape to play the tournament.
I look forward to this tourney more than any other during the year because it is so challenging. The pressure, mostly self imposed, is high. I didn’t want to be coming in to the tournament with a bum arm and bad back…
I decided the best way to stay loose was to walk, but I though pushing my golf cart would be a problem on those steep hills at Bonneville Golf Club. I dug out a battery powered push cart called the Go-Kart, which I reviewed a couple of years ago. That was a great choice and the cart made the effort of walking much easier. I couldn’t ride a golf cart because sitting makes the back tighten up.
Other than my really bad short game I played well on the first day. I had three birdies, the most notable on the very difficult 9th. That hole is rated one of the toughest par-3’s in the state and it is nearly impossible to hit the green. I knocked a 6-iron to about two feet and made a birdie. As mentioned, my bad short game hurt me. On about three holes I had to chip twice and on several other missed greens I failed to get up and down. Final score was a +4 76. In my flight that was only two shots off the lead.
Day two started out very well and my putting, the best part of my game, was saving my ass. I made it clear to the 8th hole with seven pars in a row. On #8 I misjudged the carry to the elevated green and ended up short on an upslope. As bad as the short game was, it was a guaranteed bogey. Fortunately on the front I actually bettered the tee shot from the day before, knocking my ball to ONE FOOT. I’ve never even made par on this damn difficult hole in the Salt Lake Amateur and this weekend I made birdie, twice. Unreal.
Walking to the 11th tee I felt a twinge in my back. Uh oh. Not good. I then hooked a hybrid so badly that it went out of bounds. I couldn’t get my back into the swing and the all-arm swing hooked it. I had to tee up a 2nd ball. That was the beginning of a very bad back, and back nine. Double on 11. On 12 I had 185 pin from the right rough. I hit an 8-iron which went over the green to deep rough. How the hell I hit a 210 yard 8-iron is beyond me. Several times that sort of long clubbing happened. The ground was hard and I didn’t read the bounces or flyer-lies right.
I made two more doubles on the back. One due to a smother-hooked drive (the back again) and one due to reaaaaalllly bad chipping. I threw a birdie in on the par-5 16th, putting from about 25 feet off the green. No chip and made birdie. I hit two straight drives on the back, but getting through the ball was very hard. The 2nd good drive on the back was the 18th. I made a par to limp home with a 43 on the back after shooting an even-par 36 on the front.
My back, and subsequently the rest of my game, melted on the final nine today. I’m a bit gutted. I may not have won the tournament today (would have had to shoot 70 to tie the leader), but I’d hoped to be very competitive. The fall and subsequent back issues from the hike, and my fragile short game confidence did me in.
I had a blast with my buddies and won’t forget the cumulative three feet from the pin I was for both rounds on the par-3 9th hole. I also won’t forget my short game issues. I’m going to get some short game lessons, PRONTO.
First Look: Datrek Go-Lite 14 Golf Stand Bag
Written by: Tony Korologos | Friday, May 31st, 2013
Categories: Golf Accessories • Golf Equipment • Golf Gear
Categories: Golf Accessories • Golf Equipment • Golf Gear
I’m excited to start testing the Datrek Go-Lite 14 stand bag. My current bag is cool, but does not have 14 individual full-length dividers. So my clubs keep bunching up in the bag making it hard to pull them out or put them back in.
Datrek Go-Lite 14 Golf Stand Bag – click for more images
This five pound bag has a lot of great storage on board as well, great for my upcoming trip to St. Andrews, where I’m going to need plenty of rain gear.
I’ll be putting this unit into play shortly and running the extensive Hooked On Golf Blog test battery on it. Until then, check out some images of the bag by going to the HOG Datrek image gallery or clicking the image above.
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