PAYNTR Eighty Seven SC vs FootJoy Pro/SL: the cricket outsider against the tour default

Buy the FootJoy Pro/SL. For most golfers, most feet and most Saturdays that is the right answer, and the 2026 rebuild makes it easier to say than it was a year ago. The PAYNTR Eighty Seven SC is the more interesting shoe and, for a narrower group, the better one. The gap between those two sentences is where this decision lives.

The FootJoy Pro/SL 2026 is the spikeless shoe more tour professionals actually wear than any other, and this version is a ground-up rebuild rather than a colourway refresh: the new ARCTrax/SL outsole, a ZTEC upper, an OrthoLite X25 FitBed, a roomier Vantage last, a waterproof warranty, and a whole shoe that is 29 percent lighter than the one it replaces. Around $200. The PAYNTR Eighty Seven SC comes from a company that made its name in cricket spikes, was built with Jason Day, hides a CARBITEX carbon fibre plate above the outsole and costs around $250. It is also, and this is the most useful fact in the whole comparison, not a spikeless shoe at all.

They are not answering the same traction question

FootJoy's answer is a spikeless outsole that stopped pretending spikeless means smooth. ARCTrax/SL mixes firm TPU blades, which bite and hold, with softer rubber nubs that keep the ground feel and the walkability. That combination is why the Pro/SL grips on a wet October morning in a way most spikeless shoes simply do not, and it is why the format won the argument in the first place, which we made the case for at length in spikeless won the argument. On a firm links in July it is more grip than you need. On a soft parkland fairway in November it is enough grip for a normal swing.

PAYNTR answers the same question with actual cleats. The Eighty Seven SC runs Softspikes Tour Flex Pro replaceable spikes, which means two things. It will out-grip the FootJoy on genuinely soft, sloping, sodden ground, particularly if you are a fast-hipped player who has felt a shoe let go mid-downswing. And it is a shoe you maintain: cleats wear, cleats get changed, and a shoe with a replaceable contact point has a longer useful life than one whose traction is moulded in and slowly rounds off. Above that sole sits the party trick, a CARBITEX GearFlex carbon fibre propulsion plate with a PMX NITROGEN+ midsole under your foot. Reviewers keep describing the same sensation of energy snapping back through the ball, and Golf Monthly called the plate the stand-out performer. Our full review of the Eighty Seven SC goes into what that plate is doing and why a 2026 favourability study put a cricket brand alongside the majors.

The last matters more than the outsole

Almost every unhappy golf shoe purchase is a fit problem wearing a performance argument. This is where the two genuinely diverge. FootJoy built the 2026 Pro/SL on a new Vantage last with a wider toe box, and that is a deliberate concession to the enormous number of golfers who spent a decade squeezing into a shoe half a width too narrow. If you have a broad forefoot, a high instep, or you have ever finished 18 holes and immediately taken your shoes off in the car park, the Pro/SL is the safer shoe before you have read a single spec.

PAYNTR goes the other way. The CLARINO Trivela microfibre upper is built for lockdown, and the lockdown across the tongue and heel is the thing reviewers praise most consistently after the plate. Lockdown is a narrow-foot virtue. A performance last holds a medium or low-volume foot beautifully and pinches a wide one, and no amount of carbon fibre fixes a shoe that is wrong across the joint of your big toe. If you already know you are a wide fitting, the decision is made and it is made against the challenger.

Weight, waterproofing and what a warranty is worth

Twenty-nine percent lighter is a big number and it is mostly a back-nine number. Shoe weight is the one spec you feel in the last four holes rather than the first four, and the lighter Pro/SL is the more comfortable shoe to walk 36 in. The PAYNTR carries the weight of a plate, a membrane and a cleated sole, and it feels like a piece of equipment rather than a trainer. Some golfers want exactly that.

Both shoes are waterproof and they sell it differently. PAYNTR leads with the hardware, a full WATERPROOF+ breathable membrane. FootJoy leads with the promise, a waterproof warranty included with the shoe. That distinction is worth being clear-eyed about. A membrane is what keeps you dry in year one, when almost any decent shoe does. A warranty is what matters in year two, when the flex crease across the forefoot starts working against the lining, and it converts a soaked sock into a claim rather than a replacement purchase. If you play winter golf every week, the warranty is a real part of the price. If you play twelve rounds a year between April and September, it is close to worthless and you should not pay for it.

What buying the challenger actually costs you

Three things, and none of them appear on a spec sheet. Distribution: you are buying direct or from a short list of retailers, general stock is patchy, and popular sizes sell out and stay out. Sizing: there is almost certainly nowhere near you to try a pair on, so you are ordering blind on a performance last and relying on a returns process. And resale: a FootJoy holds its second-hand value because everybody knows what it is, while a young brand has a thinner market when you come to move a barely-worn pair on. The counter-argument to all of it is a good one. Small brands are where interesting design happens, because they have to be interesting to exist. Just buy the interesting one knowing the admin comes with it.

The verdict, by foot and by frequency

By foot shape: wide, high-volume or swollen-by-the-15th feet, buy the Pro/SL, and it is not close. Medium to narrow feet that like being held, and the PAYNTR is the more satisfying shoe to swing in. By how much golf you play: one or two rounds a month and the FootJoy is the obvious buy, because it is cheaper, easier to get and roomier. Two or more rounds a week on soft ground, add a competitive swing, and the cleats plus the replaceable contact point start earning the difference. If you want the same decision run against a cheaper spikeless rival instead, our adidas S2G SL comparison covers that end of the market. My money, on a normal English winter, goes on the FootJoy, and I would only move to the PAYNTR if I already knew my foot suited it.