Titleist Pro V1 vs Vice Pro: Our Test Helps You Choose

Vice Pro is about $20 per dozen cheaper than the Titleist Pro V1.

On paper, the two balls are pretty much identical: three-piece, urethane-covered balls marketed to serious golfers chasing premium performance.

So is Pro V1 actually worth paying 40% more, or have golfers been paying a brand tax for decades?

A quick high-level comparison between Titleist Pro V1 and Vice Pro doesn’t reveal many differences. They’re both three-piece balls with cast urethane covers. In other words, they’re made for golfers who prioritize greenside spin and control.

Vice Golf is one of the original direct-to-consumer golf brands. Cutting out the middle man allows Vice to offer premium performance and significant savings, especially when you buy in bulk. 

Titleist, of course, has been the gold standard of golf balls for as long as most of us can remember. Pro V1 consistently ranks as one of the most-played balls among tour professionals. Players whose careers depend on squeezing every fraction of a stroke out of every part of their games trust it more than virtually any other ball. It’s hard to overstate that fact.

We’re here to see what performance differences live in that price gap, and help you decide whether or not they might impact your game.

Titleist Pro V1 and Vice Pro showed us different ball flight patterns across our testing. With the full-swing clubs – driver and 7-iron – Pro V1 launched and peaked higher and landed steeper. Those differences were more subtle with the driver, where Vice Pro eked out about four more yards of distance compared to Pro V1. 

Those differences became more pronounced as we moved into our 7-iron test. Vice Pro launched about two degrees lower than Pro V1, and carried about eight yards farther. Vice Pro’s flatter ball flight benefits players seeking longer distance with woods and irons – which backs up Vice’s claims – but players who prioritize maximum stopping power will get an advantage by opting for Pro V1.

Check out how the Pro V1 and Vice Pro’s launch and spin profiles compare across our testing.

Our driver test between Titleist Pro V1 and Vice Pro was fascinating.

The two balls actually produced identical ball speed and launch angles, both clocking 136 MPH and launching at 14.1 degrees.

The distance gap came down to spin. Vice Pro spun 342 RPM less in our test, which created one extra yard of carry distance and four more yards of total distance.

If your swing produces low spin already, that gap narrows. Pro V1 isn’t a short ball, it just spins more. Whether that hurts or helps your distance depends on where your current spin numbers already live.

In a word, Pro V1’s stopping power is dominant.

For better players, stopping power equals control, and this category demonstrates exactly why pros choose Pro V1 more than any other ball.

In our testing, Titleist Pro V1 stopped quicker than Vice Pro thanks to convincing advantages in each of the areas that determine stopping power: spin, apex and descent angle.

In our 7-iron test, Pro V1 generated about 1,000 RPM more spin, peaked nearly 12 feet higher, and landed more than five degrees steeper.

This alone is enough to explain why Pro V1 is so popular on tour. It didn’t just destroy Vice Pro in the stopping power competition, it’s among the (if not the) very best in this category overall.

The other side of that coin is distance. Vice touts the Pro for longer distance with irons. Less stopping power equals more distance, and for the average 12-handicapper, that decision isn’t so black and white. Yes, Pro V1’s stopping power is elite, but it’s not free, and not every golfer needs to pay for it.

Our overall performance score is a combination of each ball’s Distance, Stopping Power, Wedge Control and Accuracy scores.

When you add it all up, Vice Pro makes a strong case, but Titleist Pro V1 comes out ahead.

Titleist Pro V1’s dominant stopping power and well-rounded overall performance are not only why it was successful in our testing, but why it’s a stalwart among the world’s best players.