"Give me an 'E'! Give me an 'S'! What's it spell...? SPIKES! Goooo Spikes!" 

Steve Elkington, PGA Champ and purveyor of one of the sweetest swings in golf, withdrew from the U.S. Open Championship sectional qualifier at Lakeside Country Club because he wasn't allowed to wear metal-spiked shoes. He refused to change footwear and the Houston Chronicle reports that he is considering legal action.

Steve claims that the spikes are important to him, they're "an integral part of my equipment." 

The USGA allows the host course to determine the ruling on footwear. However, Elkington claims that  golfers at other qualifying sites, with different policies, may have an unfair advantage. The Texas Golf Blog makes the following point:

"Our man Steve doesn't reason very well - the players at any other qualifying site were playing against each other, not against the golfers at Lakeside. Nobody at Lakeside was at a disadvantage to anybody else in the field ... except for the one who wasn't smart enough to follow the rules he'd been told about and showed up wearing softspikes."
 

It turns out that Steve signed a document that listed the rules of qualifying at Lakeside, mandating the use of soft spikes. 

We'll miss you Steve. Better luck next year.