Under Armour Drive Pro Clone Golf Shoes

The headline feature is the adaptive, auxetic-style upper: a stretch-mesh construction that flexes and moulds around the foot during play rather than staying rigid. In practice, that translates to a genuinely "locked-in" feel without the pressure points you sometimes get from a shoe that's simply built narrow.

Underneath, Under Armour has gone with dual-density cushioning: a softer foam against the foot for comfort, wrapped in a firmer foam on the outside for stability and energy transfer back into the swing. It's a sensible split, and it's noticeable on longer days, as the cushioning doesn't collapse or feel dead by the back nine.

This is an athletic, sporty silhouette rather than a traditional golf shoe, closer in spirit to a performance trainer than to classic leather. Four colourways are available across both variants (Black/Anthracite/Metallic Gold, White/White/Metallic Gun Metal, Stone/Gridiron Brown/Metallic Gun Metal, and Distant Gray/Midnight Navy/Metallic Silver), which gives you room to pick something understated or something with a bit more presence. If you're the sort of golfer who wants leather brogue-style shoes on course, this isn't going to convert you, and that's fine, it's clearly not who it's built for. If you already lean toward performance footwear, it fits right in.

This is where the shoe is clearly aimed at a specific type of golfer: anyone with an aggressive, high-speed swing who's felt their foot slide or roll inside a shoe at the top of the backswing or through impact. The support structure around the midfoot and heel is doing real work to keep the foot locked down through rotation, and it shows: there's noticeably less lateral movement than in a standard trainer-style golf shoe. Long days on course are exactly the scenario this shoe is built for.

Grip is consistently the standout in third-party testing, and that tracked with what we saw across dry fairways and properly wet, damp conditions. The engineered outsole pattern bites into the turf without feeling like it's fighting your swing rotation. Worth noting the spiked and spikeless versions behave slightly differently here:

• Spiked (metal/soft-spike outsole): the more secure option in wet, hilly, or inconsistent terrain; if you play a course with real elevation change or you're often out in damp conditions, this is the safer pick.
• Spikeless (TPU/rubber-nub outsole): still grips impressively well for a spikeless shoe, and it's the more versatile option if you want a shoe you can also wear off the course or travel with. The trade-off is a marginally firmer feel underfoot on very hard, dry ground.

At £139.99 (spikeless) and £159.99 (spiked), the Drive Pro Clone sits in the mainstream premium bracket for performance golf shoes, not the cheapest option on the market, but priced in line with equivalent stability-focused shoes from other major brands, and with a materials story (the new adaptive upper) that's genuinely new rather than a repackaged update. Given the no-break-in comfort and how well the traction has held up, we think it earns its price point rather than just matching it.

If you're a mid-to-high handicap golfer with an aggressive swing looking for a shoe that locks your foot down, grips in all conditions, and doesn't need a breaking-in period, the Under Armour Drive Pro Clone is one of the strongest options at this price point right now. It won't convert die-hard traditionalists who want a leather look, but if you're after performance over classic styling, it's easy to recommend.