Vice Pro Plus Review

After going through nearly 200 dollars in Pro V1Xs this past month, I decided to look elsewhere for balls. I wanted something that had the performance of Titleists, but as a college student I can’t afford dropping that much on balls every month when they hardly last more than 9 holes. That brought me to Vice golf. For half the price per dozen I’d been paying for my usual balls, I bought 5 dozen Vice Pro Plus golf balls and so far I’m really impressed with them.

About me:

I probably play 30 rounds a month and typically shoot under par. My driver swing speed is 130-133 so I am a very high speed player and the strength of my game is wedge play. Current bag is 913D3, S55 irons, Vokey Wedges, and Nike Method 001.

Driver:

Off the driver this ball is really incredible for me. I found the flight to be a touch lower than Pro V1Xs and the spin a bit less. This overall gave me about 5-10 yards more distance. In addition, the Vice ball sounded phenomenal coming off of my 913D3. Whereas I typically consider Titleist balls to be almost sound neutral in that they’ll sound like whatever the driver’s acoustics were manufactured as, the Vice ball gave a much stronger “thwack” and a feel of slightly less compression and more response off the face. My feeling’s are that higher swing speed player’s will like this ball more than typical tour balls, it feels just a touch hotter and firmer than your average ball, almost like the old RZN Black but without the clicky sound.

Irons:

To be honest, I didn’t hit a ton of iron shots over the last few rounds, but the performance between the Vice and Pro V1Xs was nearly identical here for me. Vice may have flown a little further but overall these two were about dead on in this department.

Full wedge shots:

Hitting full wedge shots with the two balls provided very similar characteristics. The trajectories and spin were consistent with one another but I’d give the edge to Titleist for feel as they are just a touch softer at this distance, though it really depends on what type of feel you’re used to. The best comparison I could give between the two balls with this shot would be to say hitting the Vice versus the Titleist is a similar difference in feeling as hitting a Titleist with a cast versus forged wedge. Just a touch firmer but overall very similar.

Half wedge shots:

For my game, I actually preferred the Vice balls over Titleist for half wedge shots as the trajectory was lower and spin was a tad less. This let me hit the low and controlled spinning wedge a bit easier than with Pro V1Xs where the flight would typically be higher and spin back a bit too much for my liking. If you’re a player who already spins the ball a ton, I imagine you’ll like the playability of the Vice ball in this category over the excess spin which Titleist can sometimes give.

Chips:

Around the green and very short wedge shots definitely go to Titleist. With Titleist balls I can typically one hop and stop a shot from very close to the green whereas I found the Vice would check but roll out a couple feet. Definitely a very playable shot with both, but the extra spin around the greens with the Titleist is helpful in certain situations. After getting used to the characteristics of the Vice balls I imagine this won’t be a huge issue.

Putter:

I’ve used the Nike Method 001 for about 6 years now with almost exclusively Pro V1Xs so I’m very used to that feel. Honestly switching to the Vice balls I found it almost impossible to tell a difference in sound or feel. I can attribute a lot of that to having a putter with an insert and I would guess that if you’re using a putter with any sort of insert you’re going to have a hard time differentiating between the two balls. That’s a strong point for the Vice balls as a lot of the different balls I’ve tried in the past have failed at the putter test when they were either too clicky (RZN) or too rubbery (Chrome Soft). I will try these two again when I get my new putter (something special that I’m very excited about) to see how the two perform against each other on a non-insert putter.

Durability and other factors:

The durability of the Vice balls was about the same as Titleists, minor scuffing after 5-6 holes but very playable. I played one ball for a whole 18 and a second ball for another 9. As far as the WRX factor goes, these balls are really damn cool. The packaging is just incredible with the subtle but beautiful Vice logo adorning a navy/black box with the tiger print on the individual sleeves. Plus if you play with these balls I can tell you you’re never going to be confused about which one is yours if you’re looking through rough or fescue.

Final thoughts:

This golf ball is a phenomenal option to players who play a lot and those who want a cheaper alternative to mainstream tour balls. If you’re a high to very high swing speed player it might even prove to be a better option than your current ball as it was for me. That being said these balls might not be for the once a week or twice a month player. Ordering 5 dozen at a time might not make the most sense and since they ship from Germany you really have to know when you’re going to be playing ahead of time and plan out when you’re going to order more of these balls. Additionally, if you’re a slower swing speed player or your bread and butter is spinning short game shots and incredibly soft responsive feel off baby wedges, these balls might not beat out Pro V1s or Chrome Softs or whatever you play.

Overall the Vice Pro Plus is an incredible golf ball. It’s responsive, playable, and feels great as you’d expect from a tour caliper ball. At half the price of typical tour models, I honestly feel that it’s one of the best deals in all of golf coming from one of the coolest and most modern golf companies. Looking down at the beautiful Vice logo and being a part of a relatively unknown brand is very exciting and I look forward to trying more of their product in the future.

Nice review, got mine coming this week. We will see how they fly, they have killer branding!

That's good to hear about this spin. I really wanted to like the Vice balls but I ordered a dozen of the Pro and the amount of spin was crazy. I was having green side chips take a hop and stop when I wanted a good amount of rollout, and full shots were spinning back uncontrollably. I knew the Plus would be a better option after playing the regular Pro, but I didn't want to spend another $40 on a chance.

I have a code for online orders that will give you a free sleeve with your order of a dozen. If interested, just send me a pm. Just not allowed to post the code in a public forum.

Love the balls and they have been the only ball I'll play for close to a year now.

Great review and agree with you almost 100% across the board - beyond impressed.

i'll have to give these a try, been seeing them everywhere.

Just order the Pro+ for me and some Tours for my wife. We'll see how they compare to my standard ball - ProV1X.

I finally got a chance to try out a Pro+. My normal gamer is the Pro V1x. The Pro+ feels great! It's soft on every shot. Distance-wise, it's a tiny bit shorter, but not enough to make me worried. Spin-wise, it spins as much if not more than the V1x.

But it's the least durable premium ball that I've used since the days of the Titleist Professional/Prestige. Full shots with any of my Vokey wedges tend to shear off a tiny bit of a Pro V1/V1x, I can get a full 18 holes in with those with a normal amount of wedge shots before the ball is questionable. The Pro+ didn't last 7 holes for me, and I only hit 2 full (Vokey) wedges in that span. I didn't hit any trees or cart paths or anything harder than fairways, rough, and greens. The ball just got beat up really quickly, and I ended up with 2 cuts in the cover. 1 of those cuts was from my cast PW (Ping iE1). All shots were flush or close to flush; nothing thin.

I wanted to like the ball, mostly because of the price and the feel, but there's no way these things are durable enough for me.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I'll grab some pics of the ball and post them up later today. The 2 cuts I made really baffled me.

I finally got a chance to try out a Pro+. My normal gamer is the Pro V1x. The Pro+ feels great! It's soft on every shot. Distance-wise, it's a tiny bit shorter, but not enough to make me worried. Spin-wise, it spins as much if not more than the V1x.

 

But it's the least durable premium ball that I've used since the days of the Titleist Professional/Prestige. Full shots with any of my Vokey wedges tend to shear off a tiny bit of a Pro V1/V1x, I can get a full 18 holes in with those with a normal amount of wedge shots before the ball is questionable. The Pro+ didn't last 7 holes for me, and I only hit 2 full (Vokey) wedges in that span. I didn't hit any trees or cart paths or anything harder than fairways, rough, and greens. The ball just got beat up really quickly, and I ended up with 2 cuts in the cover. 1 of those cuts was from my cast PW (Ping iE1). All shots were flush or close to flush; nothing thin.

 

I wanted to like the ball, mostly because of the price and the feel, but there's no way these things are durable enough for me.

 

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I'll grab some pics of the ball and post them up later today. The 2 cuts I made really baffled me.

toomaso05 - Same thing here. Some buddies and I got together and ordered 16 dozen in a bulk order to split (4 dzn each). (By the way - VERY fast shipping from Europe!) Took them on a trip to Scottsdale and they didn't last me more than 3 holes each. My other 3 friends were fine and played the whole round with them (or at least until they lost them!) with no issues.

My guess is that it is because I come down so steep on the ball. I take some sizeable divots and the angle of attack is the only significant difference between the 4 of us. My Cally MD3's took a real toll on these balls and I ended up trading my buddies dozen for dozen for some of what they had (Chrome Softs for the most part).

The ball itself was well constructed, with outstanding stopping power on the greens, my only complaint was the cuts that would appear on the cover of the ball, which I do not experience with my usual Chrome Softs.

Nice ball, and worked out well for the other 3 in our group, but be cautious if you have new / milled wedges and come in steep on the ball!

I have been playing the Vice Pro Plus for a few weeks now and must say it is a fantastic ball.

It spins well of irons & wedges, is long of the tee. Except for being picky I can't tell the difference from a ProV1x (I used to play the ProV1 and switched to Pro Plus to get more spin)

Now, I might have noticed something different, but I'm trying to see if anyone else did :

When chipping on greens, I'm not sure the stopping power is due to spin but might be something else like the cover being sticky.

Let me explain further : whenever I'm chipping, the ball seems to release less than the V1 & V1x. I can't really explain why, since there's not more spin (this is documented on various website based on radar & measured by devices). So I came to the conclusion this could be the cover that differs and would have a velcro effect on the greens... I would agree it sounds odd and very unlikely, so that's why I'm coming to you folks to check if anyone had a similar experience... ?

I have been playing the Vice Pro Plus for a few weeks now and must say it is a fantastic ball.

 

It spins well of irons & wedges, is long of the tee. Except for being picky I can't tell the difference from a ProV1x (I used to play the ProV1 and switched to Pro Plus to get more spin)

 

 

 

Now, I might have noticed something different, but I'm trying to see if anyone else did :

When chipping on greens, I'm not sure the stopping power is due to spin but might be something else like the cover being sticky.

 

Let me explain further : whenever I'm chipping, the ball seems to release less than the V1 & V1x. I can't really explain why, since there's not more spin (this is documented on various website based on radar & measured by devices). So I came to the conclusion this could be the cover that differs and would have a velcro effect on the greens... I would agree it sounds odd and very unlikely, so that's why I'm coming to you folks to check if anyone had a similar experience... ?

Sure did. It is extremely sticky and stops on a dime. My assumption was that it was due to the sticky cover. Once you adjust to it, it is not an issue, just takes some time on the chipping green to nail down your distances.