I recently made an "East Coast Swing," touching all of the New England states except Maine. Of course, there was some golf and family time involved, but I also had a chance to spend time with several golf companies. It's amazing how much you can learn by visiting a company's headquarters, and that was especially true in the case of MacNeill Engineering Worldwide, which markets sports products under the brand name Champ. (If you have shoes from FootJoy or many other top brands, you likely walk on their cleats, hopefully often.)

Like amateurgolf.com's official grip sponsor, Lamkin, MacNeill Engineering (let's call them Champ from now on) has a rich history. Established in 1931, the company made shoe dryers at first, then became involved in the plastics at the tip of shoe laces.

Golf spikes came later, in 1958 when Champ made their first metal spike. If you check out their website at www.champspikes.com - you will see they make cleats for almost every sport that requires them, and even provides sharp tip metal spikes for the logging industry!

The "alternative spike" revolution in golf came in 1980, and moved extremely fast throughout the U.S. In the mid 80's as the USGA, and courses at all levels recognized the lessened impact on the greens that alternative spikes provided.

Jessica Georgenes, Champ's Marketing Manager and Tour Coordinator, told me that the  company still makes a 100% metal product, as well as a hybrid soft and metal product that are still widely used in the U.K and Europe.

Most PGA Tour players use alternative spikes, but they are not forced to. Well known players like Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods are among the holdouts.

The Champ Zarma FLYtee

Today, Champ manufactures and markets under their own brand. Their most popular product, the ScorpionSTINGER, is made with two types of plastic to promote excellent traction, stability, and long life. A nice feature of this popular product is that the "C" on the bottom is a wear indicator (who knew?) -- when it turns solid, it's time to replace the spikes.

The Zarma is also a two material spike, but it is softer, and compresses with each step.

Let's touch briefly on attaching spikes to your shoes, because if you're like me at some point or another you've had the wrong spike for your shoes in your hands and probably felt a bit frustrated. Today, after running through several different thread standards, the industry is settling in to the Tri Lock standard, as found on new shoes from FootJoy, Ecco, and Nike (adidas has its own pin system, and Champ has a spike for it too). The small and large thread standards are almost a thing of the past.

Champ also manufactures golf accessories from shoe and club brushes, to of course spike wrenches, divot tools, and a nice selection of ball markers such as the "Metal Online" marker which helps you line up a putt. Their Zarma FLYtee is perfectly-sized (at 3 1/4") biodegradable plastic performance tee with six prongs. You get the benefit of potential extra yardage while promoting the environment. Not bad!

All of Champ's products can be found at major golf retailers.