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are they really necessary? what do they do for you?

They aren't necessary in the sense that you can play golf without them but you can't really putt without a putter. Golf shoes help with your balance. If your feet have a good grip on the ground, there's less of a chance you'll be off balance on your swing and this will give you a better chance of hitting a good shot. For me, I find golf gloves useful because it makes it easier on my left hand. If I didn't wear one, I think my callouses would be worse than they already are. I'm sure they help with grip, too but I use them for my callouses.

Personally, I don't use golf shoes. I'm sure I would be able to balance better, especially in the sand but I think I'll wait until I become a better golfer before I invest in some golf shoes. I do wear a golf glove though.

I think golf shoes are optional, especially if you have a smooth tempo/swing, if not then the golf shoes will help your balance. However, if you like to play early in the morning when the dew is on the grass you will find golf shoes will keep your feet from slipping in the down swing. This can be critical if you have a hard fast swing.

As for golf gloves their is a little history behind them that most golfers today are not aware of. Years ago nobody wore a glove because the golf glove didn't exist. The reason was all golf clubs came with leather grips. The leather grip was easy on the hands and provided tremendous feel, no gloves needed. The drawback to the leather grips was high maintenance and high cost. In an attempt to lower the cost synthetic grips were introduced, originally rubber, and along came a loss of feel and blisters. The golf glove was introduced to provide the "lost" feel with the synthetic grips and to ease the pain of blisters. Having said that, I still play with leather grips on my clubs and I use a golf glove so go figure, when I started this wonderful game I had rubber grips and used a glove, just a comfort zone thing for me. If you don't wan to spend money on a golf glove, think of this, leather grips, unless you do them yourself will run $20-$25 per club. The glove is a bargin. Hope all this rambling helps.

And the wheel turns still further... Winn grips now markets their V-17 AVS (forget what that means) grip to provide the feel and tackiness of a leather grip. I have these grips on my irons and love their softness and tackiness in all conditions. Installed, they run about 7 to 8 bucks per club; I bought mine on eBay and installed them myself for about $3.50 per club. You absolutely would not need to use a glove with these grips, but like the previous poster, I wear one anyway, out of habit. I really thin cabretta glove with good soft feel, combined with a tacky AVS grip, makes me feel that the club absolutely cannot slip at all--even with the lightest grip pressure. I've seen a lot of other players' grips have big grooves in them where the player's thumb or forefinger rests. Guess what? If your clubs don't have soft, tacky grips, you'll hold the club too tight, which will kill your release through the impact zone. Baddddd.