This High-Top Golf Shoe Surprised Me

There is a lot of cool gear in the golf equipment world that doesn’t always fit neatly into Most Wanted Tests or Buyer’s Guides. You still want to know how it performs. In our We Tried It series, we put gear to the test and let you know if it works as advertised.

What We Tried:

NIKE’s Infinity Tour 2 GORE-TEX. A winterized version of the Swoosh’s flagship spiked shoe (aka the Koepka).

Who Tried It:

Connor. Director of Content and resident sneakerhead. The Infinity Tour 2 GORE-TEX reminds me of the first ever LeBron James signature basketball shoe from NIKE, the Air Zoom Generation.

By sharing this information with my wife, I was able to bore her enough that she didn’t notice me smashing the “add to cart” button on these winterized golf kicks.

Who knew that having an unhealthy obsession with basketball shoes and would pay dividends in the future.

But why?

I haven’t written a review of the NIKE Infinity Tour 2 but I have worn them a time or two. I’ll be honest. I wasn’t very impressed. That said, the winterized GORE-TEX version is slightly different, at least on paper.

Normally, I wouldn’t bother but something about that blue-and-pink South Beach colorway spoke to me, almost as if it were to say, “You need me!”

How can you say no to something like that? (Is it weird that I have dreams about talking shoes?)

I’m a little messed up. The NIKE Infinity Tour 2 GORE-TEX, however, is not.

I was pleasantly surprised by this tantalizingly – shoe. It’s most definitely not the best shoe I’ve ever worn nor the best NIKE shoe I’ve ever worn (that belongs to the TW ’13, respectfully). But the Infinity Tour 2 GORE-TEX does a few things that I really enjoyed.

The good

Let’s start with the good. My first wearing of the shoe started out bad. Even though I went up half a size (that’s standard procedure for NIKE golf shoes, even for someone with a narrow foot like me), the Infinity Tour 2 GORE-TEX felt very narrow and stiff.

Not the hot start I was hoping for.

But, within a few minutes, the engineered mesh and GORE-TEX upper stretched and left my toes feeling much more comfortable. That was a good sign.

Another good sign? The added traction spikes. NIKE has still yet to offer interchangeable spikes on the Infinity Tour line (they do on the Victory Tour) but they did add two more non-replaceable spikes to the Infinity Tour 2.

This was a big gripe with the last iteration so the added spikes make a substantial difference for traction. The winterized Infinity Tour 2 GORE-TEX is made for wet conditions so the traction better hold up.

Let’s talk cushioning. This was the most interesting part of my time with the shoes. When I initially wore the non-winterized pair this summer, I felt like the Air Zoom units in the forefoot of the shoe were too bulky. They seemingly “poked” through the insole and into my foot.

This was not the case with the winterized pair. I was pleasantly surprised with how smooth the cushion felt even if it’s not the most comfortable shoe I’ve ever worn.

I wouldn’t call them uncomfortable but they were good enough that I wasn’t itching to take them off by the end of the day.

The bad

That did happen, though, for another reason that you can probably surmise from the name of the shoe. While GORE-TEX is a great addition to make the shoe waterproof, in turn, it makes the shoe very hot.

I run pretty hot in any case. That said, you gotta let the dogs breath, so to speak, and the Infinity Tour 2 GORE-TEX does not. Like, at all.

On a cold, rainy day that might be fine. But on an even mild rainy day, it’s just too much. At least we know the shoe is waterproof! The high-top collar (which is pretty comfortable, by the way) and GORE-TEX treatment definitely do their job on that front.

The verdict

Overall, I was surprised by the NIKE Infinity Tour 2 GORE-TEX golf shoe. In some ways, I really enjoyed my time in the shoe. In others, I couldn’t get them off fast enough.

In summary, the shoe is pretty OK. It’s nowhere near the best I’ve ever worn but it’s mostly definitely not bad enough that I’ll be getting rid of them. (Sorry, honey.)

If anything, the Infinity Tour 2 GORE-TEX is one of those once-in-a-while pairs. It’s no daily driver but certainly holds up for the occasional rainy round.