When I first heard about Vice golf balls a couple of years ago, I didn’t give them much thought. My buddy showed me one while we were playing and said he was loving them. He had always played a Titleist ball, and his entire bag from driver to putter were all Titleist. So him playing a completely new ball and loving it should have registered that Vice had something right going on. But at the time I had a different kind of ball problem.
I had a closet full of 6 dozen Kirkland balls from Costco. Which is a fine problem to have. But I had a lot of balls to lose before I could even think about trying a new ball. My family knew I played a lot of golf. When Christmas came around, my wife dropped a hint that Kirkland balls would be a perfect gift. So my parents, my siblings, and my wife all bought me a box. Six dozen balls hit into lakes and the woods later, and I finally now am in the market to try a new ball.
To be honest, I have never been comfortable paying $50 for a dozen balls. I’m sure a lot of people like me have said the same thing: “As soon as I start shooting in the [fill in your target score], I will start playing Pro V1s. Until then it just doesn’t matter.”
I have found my fair share of Pro V1s while looking for my balls. And they do feel great when you hit them. But what if it was possible to play a ball that performed just as well as a Pro V1 but at half the cost?
How Vice Sells High Quality Balls for Cheaper
Vice Golf’s promise is appealing to most golfers: “The prices are cheap, but the golf balls aren’t.” By selling their balls directly to consumers through vicegolf.com, they are able to eliminate the middlemen and markups that come with the traditional golf ball brands.
The real savings that come with Vice balls is when you buy them in bulk. Vice uses a tiered pricing structure, as seen in the above table. When you order 5 dozen or more balls of the Pro model, which are the balls in the same class as the Pro V1, they are $24.95 per dozen. So they are about half the cost of a box of Pro V1s. But how do they perform?
Vice Golf Ball Performance on the Course
There is a ball recommender tool on their website. When I did it, the ball I was recommended was the Vice Pro. I wanted to try them before I jumped in head first and bought 5 dozen to get the cost savings. Vice sells a Selected Pack for just this purpose. The Selected Pack is made up of 2 balls from each of the 5 ball lines that they sell, for a total of 10 balls.
I have played three rounds since receiving the Selected Pack. I started with the Vice Pro, then once those were gone, moved on to the Vice Pro Soft and the Vice Tour.
As I mention above, I have primarily been playing the Kirkland 3-piece ball the last season and a half. So I am very familiar with that ball. Compared to it, the Vice balls seem to jump off my club face. This effect seems most dramatic off my driver and mid to high irons.
My spin rates on low irons and wedges has stayed the same as before. The Kirkland ball is known to be very high-spinning, even testing as the highest spinning ball ever by some testers. I obviously don’t generate the huge amount of spin that scratch golfers or low handicappers do. But, when I strike my 9 iron or lower well, I am able to stop it on a dime. I can even back it up some times. And while playing with the Vice balls, I noticed this same thing happening. When I struck my low irons and wedges well, the Vice balls stopped very close to my ball marks just as I’m used to.
The ball feels amazing on short chips and pitches around the green. I noticed the difference there almost immediately. Contact with the club feels solid and makes more of a heavier, ‘thud’ sound. The Kirkland ball I’m used to makes more of a ‘crack’ sound on short chips and pitches.
Testing the Vice Pro with the Pro V1
I tested the ball on the course to get a feel for how it performs with my game. But I was still curious how it performs when hit by more talented ball strikers on launch monitors. So, I went to Youtube to see what I could find.
If you aren’t familiar with Peter Finch, he is a Golf Monthly Top 25 coach and has a popular Youtube channel where he provides coaching, does challenges with his friends, and tests golf equipment. When I saw he tested the Vice Pro Plus versus the Pro V1 I was immediately intrigued.
As you can see from his testing, the Vice ball performed nearly identical to the Pro V1. As Peter says, it was, “exceptionally similar” across all the different wedge shots he hit and through the irons and driver. Seeing this made me feel better about my evaluation of the ball on the course.
Cons of the Vice Balls
The consistent knock against Vice balls is that they are not as durable as other premium balls. Peter Finch even notes that this is a common complaint about the ball in his review. And on Amazon, most of the 1 and 2 star reviews note that the ball scuffs and can get cut by wedges.
In my experience with the Vice Pro, I did not have any balls that scuffed any more than I expected. The one ball I hit off of the cart path did scuff. But it didn’t scuff any more than I would expect a ball to that skipped off the cart path. I didn’t cut any balls in my testing. But it is something to keep an eye out for if you try them out.
The other con about the balls is that you need to buy in bulk in order to realize the cost savings. The tiered pricing structure that Vice uses means that the balls really become affordable when you buy 5 dozen or more. So if you need to stock up for the season and know you like the ball, it is perfect for you. If you’re just buying a dozen or so at a time, or just wanting to try the ball out, the cost starts to approach Pro V1 levels once you factor in shipping costs.
Final Verdict
Vice does deliver on their promise that the prices are cheap, but the balls aren’t. Based on my testing on the course, and many video tests on Youtube, the ball does perform like a pro-level ball. As Peter Finch says in his testing, it is “exceptionally similar” to the Pro V1. If you want to try them out, head to Amazon and pick up a dozen. Or if you’re ready to stock up, head to their website and pick up a few dozen.
