Spike publicity about golf (5)
I believe the answer is:
prong
'spike' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'publicity about golf' is the wordplay.
'publicity' becomes 'pr'.
'about' becomes 'on' (**).
'golf' becomes 'g' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'pr'+'on'+'g'='PRONG'
(Other definitions for prong that I've seen before include "Tine of a fork" , "Fork part" , "tip?" , "Something piercing" , "Point of a fork" .)