GolfGators: uptight golfers beware! (The guys in the next foursome may actually be having fun.)

Other than a couple of rounds of mini-golf each year, I've never played golf, and I certainly have no intention of taking it up now.

So, I'll never get to be a CEO of anything but my own life.

Hey, that die was cast long ago.

No, I've really never had any inclination to take up the game.

But my father was a golfer. Both of my brothers golf. One of my sisters took it up a year or so ago. My brothers-in-laws all pay golf. I have two young nieces who play a bit. Not to mention oodles of cousins and friends. My husband's family is part owner of a golf course in the western part of Massachusetts, having long ago converted their tobacco farm to a course 40+ years ago.

So while I just don't have the concentrated mindset for it, or any interest in it whatsoever, I do understand the plot.

When we were kids, one of the big outings was going out with my father to watch him hit a bucket of balls. (We all got an ice cream cone out of it.)

I don't recall if he put on his golf shoes to hit a bucket of balls, but I do remember exactly what his golf shoes were: they were a pair of his not-quite-the-best-but-still-with-some-life-in-them brown, Florsheim wingtips to which he had had affixed a set of spikes.

Did purpose-driven golf shoes even exist in the sixties, or did everyone roll - make that spike - their own?

I don't usually think much about golf - let alone about golf shoes. (If I gave them any thought at all it would be filed in there with boring, uptight golf-clothing.)  But I was talking with my friend and colleague Jeff-the-PR-guy the other day, and he told me that he'd been to a big golf trade show in Las Vegas.

And he was there with a friend who's the founder of a company called Golf Gators, which bills itself as "the ultra casual golf shoe company."

Let's hear it for ultra casual.

The designs that CEO/founder Michael Ray has come up with include flip-flops with spikes and mock-Crocs with spikes. (I couldn't pull a shot of the Croc-like spikes off the web - darn that Flash - but I did snag a shot of the flip-flops, here posed pedal-to-the-metal of a golf cart.

As you can see, these aren't just any old flip-flops, but are the sturdy, quasi-shoe-ish type with actual heft and arch support. (I guess the spikes would go right for the kind of flip-flops you get at the beach variety store for 59 cents.

They also feature - shades of the flip-flops with the built-in church key I posted about on Opinionated Marketers a while back - have a golf tee in the heel.

Ergonomically designed from space age anti-microbial materials, the whole spring line-up from Golf Gators offers the support, stability, and traction needed to get around even the toughest course with ease, style and just a hint of attitude.

These flip-flops, called the Spackler (whatever) will sell for around $40, and from a Golf Gators press release I found online, we learn:

“There have been some novelty golf flip flops, and a few that were designed for 19th hole, but only Golf Gators’ Spackler’s will take you through the first 18 in comfort and style.” said Michael Ray, CEO of Golf Gators.

Surprisingly - given that they look like more shoe to me - the mock-Crocs will retail for $29.99. They, too, have the built in tee caddy in the heel.

“We're not talking about the PGA tour here, and we're not looking to replace anyone’s golf shoes, but if you go out to your muni at 6:30 on a weeknight, you’ll likely see more than a few guys wearing flip flops. We’re just trying to make that guy more comfortable,” said Ray.

I'm guessing 'that guy' will bear more resemblance to Bill Murray in Caddy Shack than he will to the guy in the Tiger Wood's gear swinging a Callaway. I'm picturing baggy shorts and the type of shirt a parrot-head would wear to a Jimmy Buffett concert maybe.

Anyway, they look like fun - and (support and stability questions aside) they sure look like they'd be practical for a duffer who spends any time in sand traps or water hazards.

And what's even more fun that just looking at them is that thought that golfers wearing them will probably annoy the heck out of those serious golf types who have everything Phil Mickelson does - accept his game.

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Having posted about cowboy shirts two days ago, so concludes Pink Slip's Fall Fashion Week.