Vice Golf Balls Review: A Top Contender and Excellent Partner on the Green

​Vice Golf is a newcomer to the US golf market. The company was founded in Germany in 2012 and made its US debut in 2015. Since then, the company and its products have stirred up the market quite a lot. You can order from them online, and they ship everything right to your door. This process often reduces the cost for consumers.

We took a look at the golf balls Vice Golf offers and compared them to the leading golf balls in the industry. The final results may surprise you, especially since many consider Vice Golf’s ball economy golf balls. They’re far from it, and we found that the balls use high-quality materials and perform well off the tee and on the green.

It takes a lot to impress us. We examined all the crucial features a golf ball needs to be competitive including speed, spin, bounce, control, distance, and cover material. We didn't focus on the core material unless it was essential to one of the other stats. The core mainly controls compression, and the compression of most of the balls on our list is the same.

We included Callaway Golf’s Chrome Soft balls in the comparisons just so that it wouldn’t seem like we were comparing the same balls with different names. All the golf balls except the soft ones are similar and perform roughly the same if hit by the same golfer with a consistent swing. So, we threw a wildcard in the mix.

We couldn’t include every famous golf ball in the list of comparisons, but we hope you've used some of these balls or currently use them. If so, you have something to consider when you read our review which may compel you to try the Vice Golf balls, or you may decide to stick with your current brand. We urge you to try the Vice Golf balls. We know you’ll like their price tag.

Vice Golf offers several versions of their golf balls for every player level. If you’re a basketball fan, you can get the Vice Pro All-Star golf balls as of this writing for $39.95. You may want to skip the All-Star golf balls and get some with your favorite team logo on them. We jumped over the novelty golf balls and focused on the regular and tour balls for this review.

We included the prices for each type of golf ball in the mini-reviews of each one in the previous section. The prices we included are what the balls cost on Amazon at the time of this writing. If you try the balls and like them, you can save money by buying them in bulk on the Vice Golf website. You may be surprised by how much you can save.

For instance, the Vice Pro Plus golf balls are listed for $​$$ per dozen on the company’s website. However, if you buy three dozen, the price drops to $​$ per dozen. If you purchase five dozen golf balls, the price drops again to $​ per dozen balls. The price doesn't sink any lower after five dozen but the price per dozen if you order five is only about a third of the cost of a dozen Titleist Pro V1s.

We aren’t suggesting you buy five dozen golf balls for testing, but it is nice to know you can get a significant discount if you choose to adopt these balls as your main ones. It may also make gift shopping for golfing buddies a little cheaper as well.

It’s hard to come up with a list of pros and cons for a golf ball without something to compare it to for reference. Arguably, the Titleist Pro V1 is one of the best balls on the market and a leader according to many golfers. So, we compared the Vice Golf Pro Plus balls to the Titleist Pro V1 golf balls in this section as well. The comparison was mostly to establish a baseline since Vice Golf is relatively new to the US market.

Let’s start with the pros which include:

White and neon green are the two favored colors for golf balls. However, we’ve been spoiled by some golf ball makers because they offer several colors. Urethane covers have more rubber in them than ionomer plastic covers which may increase ball speed off the tee but lower control slightly. You may find that you’re a few yards off target until you learn the ball a little better.

The pros for the Vice Golf Pro series balls are excellent. The cons are more about personal feelings and playstyle. The urethane covers are a little bouncier, but Vice Golf helps us out by adding larger dimples to the ball’s cover which reduces spin and helps with ball control. In our opinion, Vice Golf saw some minor flaws and took steps to correct them before selling the golf balls.

You absolutely can’t go wrong with these golf balls. They offer everything we consider excellent qualities for a golf ball. It may prove challenging to find a difference between the Vice Golf Pro series golf balls and the balls most golfers consider the best on the market. Overall, these are the rating we chose for the Vice Golf balls and their competitors:

In our opinion, the Titleist Pro V1 and the Vice Golf Pro Plus balls are nearly equal. The Titleist balls lost the top spot because they cost more than the Vice Golf balls. The other two contenders lacked the control necessary to rank any higher. That said, these are all excellent golf balls, and you need to test them against your game before you make a final decision.

If you plan to try the Vice Golf balls, you can use their handy golf ball chooser to help you pick the best balls for your game. It will walk you through several steps and ask questions to narrow down the choices. In our opinion and after a few tests, their ball chooser is pretty accurate, so give it a try if you want to find the best Vice Golf balls for your needs.

If you're not convinced you need to try them or you want to compare your favorite golf balls to the Vice Golf ones, you need to test all the balls equally. That means buying a few sleeves and hitting the balls with the same swing and the same club. Play a round and see if your score improves. You may finally stick the green on that water hole that keeps stealing your golf balls.

Don’t rely on your tee shot to judge the golf balls. We all do it before we think about it; hit a new ball five yards further and we’re sold on that ball forever. It just doesn't work that way in reality. Play the ball in weakest part of your game. If that happens to be the tee shot, then let that be the judge. However, if your approach or short game is weaker, test the ball thoroughly there before deciding.

Most golf balls similar to the Vice Golf ones may play about the same off the tee but will they give you the backspin you need? Can you draw or fade them well? Do they feel good coming off your putter on a long putt? You need to test each scenario and find the right ball for each one. The ball that plays well in most of the conditions you usually experience is the right golf ball for your game.

Compression is essential, and you shouldn't overlook it. However, unless you're swinging the club head at 100 mph or more, the real test of a golf ball is the chip shot, the bunker escape, and the putt. Focus your compression and energy transfer tests on how well you can control the ball on your drive. Can you control the ball to avoid bunkers or lay up well on a dog-legged fairway?

Consider the cover material before you make the final decision. Ionomer materials absorb more energy from your golf club which means less spin on high compression shots like your tee shot. That means you get more control and possibly more carry on balls covered in this material. Except for the Vice Golf Tour and Drive series balls, Vice Golf balls are covered in urethane.

Urethane covered golf balls tend to give you more distance on your drive because the ball is bouncier, so it comes off the club head faster. The problem with this type of cover is the balls tend to be harder to control. However, the large dimples on the Vice Golf balls help alleviate this problem. That said, you need to hit a bunch of balls before you decide. Test your control with both cover materials.

Vice Golf’s balls are budget-friendly, and they are durable. You get spin when you need it and excellent carry from these balls. However, we realize your golf game and your swing may differ from ours. Statistically speaking, the Vice Golf balls are an excellent choice, and you will probably love them. However, the best way to find out is to get a sleeve or a dozen and put them to the test yourself

Featured ​Image via ​Pexels