Vice Drive Golf Ball Review (After 6 Rounds)

The Drive is an entry-level ball from Vice and is built for average players with mid to low swing speed. It has a 2 piece design and a very reasonable price tag, which makes it a solid choice for beginners and high handicaps, potentially.

We’ve tested and reviewed many budget balls, and even though the price point is reasonable, a lot of them didn’t perform. After testing the Drive over 6 rounds, I’m going to be giving some pros and cons as well as who might want to use it.


In This Review

Product Details | Intro | Feel | Quality | Short Game | Long Game | Bottom Line | Alternatives


Vice Drive Product Details

The Intro

Vice has a range of balls for different types of golfers. The Drive is their entry-level model, designed for people with low to mid swing speeds (under 95 MPH).

It’s the only 2 piece design that Vice offers. The main benefit of this type of ball is that it’s long and straight off the tee. It’s not going to spin much and the cover won’t be as high quality as a premium ball.

With all that said, average hackers don’t really need to worry about that.

Average players struggle to hit the fairway, so a straighter ball could help scores. Focus on the basics first, then worry about spin and shot shaping later on.

A lot of balls are lost throughout the round, so cheaper balls are better for the wallet. You can get these balls for $15 bucks per dozen if you buy 5+ boxes.

You can see how the Pro Soft compares to the other Vice balls HERE.

The Feel

The Drive has a compression rating of around 50, which is considered to be low. It also has a surlyn cover, which isn’t going to be as soft as urethane (see the differences between them HERE).

When you put those together, you’ll get a ball that has a soft-to-mid feel.

On and around the green, the Drive feels pretty nice. It’s not overly soft like the Callaway Supersoft. It’s nowhere near as firm as the Vice Pro Zero either.

Off the tee, the lower compression rating was more noticeable (for me). My swing is a bit faster than what’s recommended (around 100 MPH), so I didn’t get the same explosive response as the Vice Pro.

For golfers with slower swing speeds, I think the Drive would feel much better than the Tour and Pro. The Vice Pro Soft would feel solid as well, but it’s designed for better players.

The Quality

The main knock with Vice in the past has been the quality of the cover. Compared to the well-known brands, they’ve lacked when it came to durability, but it’s something they’ve been working on.

The last few boxes of balls that I’ve purchased have been much better. Not as good as they could be, but good enough for the price.

After testing the Drive (short-game & long-game below) and finishing the round, my ball had a few minor cuts and scratches. It wouldn’t be enough to impact the performance, but I think I could get 9 more holes with it.

The Short Game

One of the main things to look for when it comes to balls is how much the ball spins around the green. If you’re able to land the ball on the green and have it stop right away, you’ll improve your distance control.

Cheaper balls usually spin less than premium balls. That said, premium balls aren’t the best choice for a lot of golfers. The best choice for high handicappers is a ball that flies long and straight, for a good price.

To test the Drive, I took 10 shots with my sand wedge and recorded how much the ball rolled out or rolled back. A negative number means the ball landed and rolled back. A positive number means it landed and rolled away. Here are the results:

Shot #Distance
12
24
35
44
56
65
77
87
95
108
Average5.3 Yards

On average, the ball landed on the green and rolled out 5.3 yards. Out of all the balls we’ve tested, the Drive was lower on the spin chart. Pretty much all 2 piece balls are at the lower end.

Compared to the other Vice models, the Drive had the least amount of short-game spin. Just a note, I shot my best round with a cheaper 2 piece ball. You’d be surprised how much easier the game gets when you hit more fairways and greens.

The Long Game

The other thing to look for is how the ball performs off the tee. For me, I look at how far the ball goes and how many fairways I hit. Anything else, I don’t really care about.

To test the Drive, I took 10 shots and recorded the distances and number of fairways hit. Here are the results:

Shot #Distance
1248
2244
3251
4239
5238
6244
7247
8246
9251
10249
Average245 Yards
5/10 Fairways

On average, I hit the Drive 245 yards and hit 50% of the fairways. Compared to the other Vice balls, the Drive was the shortest ball.

The reason it was shorter was that it was not designed for my swing speed. My speed is a bit faster than recommended, so I lost a bit of distance. If my speed was slower, I think the average distance would be closer to the other balls.

The main thing I noticed was that the ball spun too much and didn’t go as straight as I’d like. If you have a slow swing, you’ll likely get better results. If you’re faster than 90 MPH, you’ll probably get similar results.

You can see how far the average golfer hits their clubs HERE.

The Bottom Line

Overall, if you’re an average weekend golfer who doesn’t want to spend a fortune on balls, you have a slower swing speed, and you don’t care about spinning or shaping the ball, these could be perfect for you.

Are they the best golf balls out there? No, definitely not, but they’re a really solid entry-level ball that still offers a good balance of distance and forgiveness.

If you have a slower swing speed and want a bit more greenside spin, you could check out the Pro Soft (review HERE). If you have a faster swing speed, you could check out the Tour or Pro.

If you have any questions or want to share your experience with the Drive, make sure to leave a comment below.

Where To Buy

Check the current price here on Amazon

Other Balls To Consider

If you’re wondering how the Drive compares to other balls on the market or want to make sure it’s the right option for you, we have a couple of options for you.

The first is to check out one of our “best of” guides that talk about our favorite options. You can read those here:

The second is to get a personalized recommendation from us. If you’re interested, head down to the comments section below and answer a few simple questions. We’ll give you a couple of good options.


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About Jon Webber

Jon Webber is Out Of Bounds Golf's main product tester and editor. He's been in the golf world for 10+ years and has personally tested over 100 products, from balls to clubs to bags. He started this site for the average player, to make the game a little easier to understand.

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