You sound so similar to me. I wear 11 4E and was buying only New Balance (really in everything but also golf shoes) until I couldn’t find them anymore. It seemed that they stopped making golf shoes. I heard that Footjoy had wide golf shoes too, so my last two buys were 11 XW Footjoy. I still wear both on the course, alternating, but the first pair are really wearing out now, the soles are coming apart in the middle. The other pair is better, but its soles are starting to split from the upper. I just ordered glue in hopes of fixing that, but I’m not really optimistic. All these shoes I mention were black and totally leather, basically. I like that because it’s easier to keep them looking decent. Kiwi shoe polish!
Now, I went online looking for new golf shoes the other day and saw great reviews for a Footjoy shoe, the Premier Wilcox at $220. Received them a couple days ago and am really disappointed and am going to return them to Amazon (Footjoy sells them for the same price). They are obviously inferior to the Footjoys I bought before. The insoles are junk whereas the ones I got before had really well made long-lasting insoles. Also, the bottom of the shoe is a disappointment. They will be hard to clean, the soft spikes look proprietary and Footjoy didn’t supply a spike removal tool, which they did before. To top it off, the uppers aren’t pure leather. They have plastic plating over most of the surface. Sprucing them up looks like it would be frustrating. So, I’m on the hunt for really two pairs of quality golf shoes. I typically go out at the break of dawn when the grass is super wet, so water proofing is probably basically necessary for me. Edit: Oh, and I ALWAYS walk (my home course is hilly!)!