Volvik makes the best, highest-performing golf balls with a matte finish. Or at least, this is what they claim. We are already in the process of having the tour-level Volvik Condor and Condor X golf balls tested, but not all golfers want or need a tour-level golf ball. This is where the Volvik Vivid golf ball enters the market.
The newest version of the Vivid series was released in February of this year and is available in seven colors, all of which are sure to catch the attention of playing partners.
The Volvik Vivid golf ball is a 3-piece golf ball designed to be longer and more accurate with better visibility. It features a patented Nano Bi Core blend that adjusts in different temperatures to provide maximum energy transfer. The mid-layer is made of ionomer construction to further enhance ball speeds and reduce side spin. Then there is the infamous cover: a patented SF Matte surface finish that is highly visible and offers improved spin and durability. The last feature on these golf balls is their V-Focus alignment aid. Featuring a triple-line design, Volvik states the narrow line works as a multidirectional visual key system to better help golfers with alignment.
The Testing Opportunity
We are looking for four golfers to test, review, and keep two dozen Volvik Vivid golf balls in a color of their choice. Are you a golfer who uses matte or colored golf balls? We want to see how these compare to others in the same market space to determine if these are really the best-performing golf balls with a matte or colored finish.
Please welcome and congratulate our testers!
@MNUte
@jlofgren22
@Hindsy1987
@schooner44
Introduction:
Hi, my name is Tracy and I've been playing golf for about 10 years but before last year I never really played with any seriousness or very often (usually 5 times it less per year at scramble tournaments through work or charities). I currently have a 24 handicap although that's been steadily improving. I'm 49 years old with a slow swing speed for my age and just recently switched to senior shafts. I live in New Mexico which is very dry and high altitude.
Current ball:
My current ball is the Srixon Q Star Divide. I'm pretty anal about stuff so I really try to have everything consistent as I believe that golf is more a mental game than anything else. I also will play Srixon Softfeel or Callaway Supersoft. I always play colored balls as I can never track white golf balls in the air. I use the lines on a golf ball for lining up tee shots and putting so I'm very intrigued by the 3 lines the Vivid balls have on them vs a single line like anything I currently use.
Things I'll be focusing on:
Visibility - I've never really been able to track white golf balls in the air which is why I always plays colors. On the course, I will compare these to the other I normally play (Srixon SoftFeel, Srixon Divide & Callaway Supersoft) in terms of tracking in the air and finding them in less than ideal lies.
Feel - I love a golf ball that feels good coming off the face which is why, as a slow swinger, I gravitate towards softer balls.
Durability - EVERY golf ball should have the ability to withstand a certain amount of wear and tear. None of use get brand new balls all the time so getting your money's worth is important.
Things to take note of:
I'm not a great golfer...heck, I don't even consider myself an average golfer
I've been taking lessons and really trying to improve my consistency so this should be taken into account for some of the performance ratings
FIRST IMPRESSIONS (9/10):
Arrival/Unboxing:
I was pretty impressed with how fast I received the shipment. The balls came packed in a bubble mailer envelope inside of another bubble mailer envelope. I would imagine most companies would ship in actual boxes but the golf balls are inside boxes which are inside of other boxes already. If a golf ball gets damaged through those 4 layers, either Fedex or Volvik has something bigger going on. Minus -2 for not shipping in a proper box. SCORE (8/10)
The balls came in their boxes in a very aesthetically pleasing presentation that matched the "Vivid" ideal. I know its just packaging but it matters to me and a lot of other people. Good packaging tells me that a company cares about people's first impressions of their products. SCORE (9/10)
Appearance/Colors:
Up to this point, I really only had one complaint and it was about the colors. I requested some "assorted" colors which they did send however I was disappointed that one of the assorted "colors" was white. I would assume that a company promoting vivid colored golf balls would be just that. Also, the yellow golf balls are not as nearly fluorescent as many other yellow golf balls are. They seem to be more pale by comparison. I would be remiss if I didn't mention how fantastic and brilliant the colors of the orange, red and green balls are. Minus -1 for the yellow and minus -2 for the white (edited to remove the ding for white as mentioned by another tester this is likely that the whites were swapped out in place of the orange in the assorted pack because the other dozen was all orange) but plus 1 for the other colors. SCORE (10/10)
Alignment:
This is what I was most excited to see and it DID NOT disappoint! I immediately fell in love with the 3 line alignment these balls have. Extremely easy to see and use. Just looking down the line, I feel like there's no way I could miss a putt! I will follow up more on this once I get into the performance portion of the review but right now, this portion is getting a definite SCORE (10/10).
Overall first impressions are that while some of the colors leave something to be desired, I am very impressed and pleased with them overall. I'm looking forward to hitting them in my simulator and on the course.
THE NUMBERS (Skytrak Data) (10/20):
I want to wait until I have more than just one round on the course before posting my thoughts from that aspect however I did want to show some data from my home simulator. My launch monitor is a Skytrak (not a Skytrak+). There's a couple claims that Volvik makes but they never say what these claims are compared to...older Vivid models, competitor matte balls, non-matte/urethane balls? Golf ball claims in general seem ambiguous and these seem no different. Volvik claims "straight ball flight, higher trajectory, low driver spin and great wedge spin".
I normally hit Callaway Chromesoft Truvis golf balls (urethane cover, 75 compression) in my simulator because the soccer ball style pattern gets picked up well by the Skytrak. I hit about 30 shots with the Callaways and the same with the Vovlik Vivids (85 compression) and picked the 10 best shots. These are with my 8 iron and keep in mind that I don't swing fast nor hit far but I like to think I'm fairly consistent.
Callaway Chromesoft:
Volvik Vivid:
Conclusion:
The averages are the bottom line on each picture and as far as I'm concerned, there is basically no difference in the numbers between these golf balls. Maybe someone who hits a lot further might see a little more discrepancy but even then I think it would be minimal. I will say that the Volvik Vivid balls sounded weird (almost hollow sounding) when hitting in my garage but when on the course I didn't notice it. This may be a deterrent for some as I know the sound is a big deal to some golfers. Also, someone with a higher swing speed may get better distance from the Vivids simply due to the slightly higher compression. Weird sound but otherwise no real difference for better or worse. Average rating here. (10/20)
ON THE COURSE (13/20):
First time out on a course, the pro shop actually had a display of these. A little ironic lol.
Visibility (14/20):
I typically gravitate towards orange golf balls however I absolutely fell in love with the red balls. The pop on the course! I really do like the orange and green but conversely I dislike the yellow even more than expected. Since the only reason I got whites in the assorted box was because I had already gotten an entire box of oranges. My regular partner is a retired guy who's 69 and he always says that he has a hard time seeing the colored balls but he was able to spot these as often as I could which says a lot. Of the four colors, I am going to award the following scores purely based on visibility...
orange - 4/5
red - 5/5
green - 4/5
yellow - 1/5
average - 3.5/5
The red is so bright, it almost looks like its glowing in the picture!
The orange, red & green really pop in direct sunlight
Pretty easy to spot in some rough lies
Distance (5/20):
I did not see any improvement in the distance of any shots while using these golf balls. Since this is one of Volvik's biggest claims, I have to ding this one fairly big. I also didn't notice them going any shorter either (some credit there) but I'm looking at this more from the standpoint that they did NOT live up to the claim at all. (5/20)
Accuracy (18/20):
I did see an improvement in the number of fairways hit by a decent margin. I struggle off the tee with accuracy and I would say I came close to almost doubling the number of fairways hit while using these balls. Considering I usually only hit 35-40% of fairways, doubling that number is quite significant for me. I have been working a lot on my driver swing so this may have helped out but I feel like a lot of the credit goes to the ball. (18/20)
This is the 18th hole and I usually struggle with my driver the last few holes of a round from being a bit tired. I typically never hit this fairway but as you can see, I had probably my best tee shot ever. This duck came out of a pond as soon as my ball landed and walked right up to it...bonus points for appearing to be a tasty treat lol!
Another nice fairway tee shot
Spin(3/20):
I don't feel like I'm a good enough or consistent enough player to gauge spin on a drive so I'm not going to include that in my scoring but I will focus on the spin around the green. As pictured below, the ball does have some very nice bite on high wedge shots coming onto the green. The big downfall came when using a bump n' run shot. I felt like there was no consistency or control in these shots and more often than not, the ball slid across the green like it was an air hockey puck covered in baby oil. While half the shots performed as Volvik claims the other half were dreadfully bad. I have to consider that the inability to at least perform at an average level on both is a huge letdown as the ability of your ball shouldn't dictate what kind of shots you can take while playing. (3/20)
This was from 73 yards out with a nice, easy gap wedge shot
Durability:
I usually don't use balls long enough to see any durability issues. I did have one bad shot that caused a scuff but that was at no fault of the ball. It did get a little scuff on it but I think any ball would've had the same. My last round, I managed to hit 2 consecutive shots into a tree. These were not glancing blows but rather direct shots that went smack into the trunk of the tree and actually bounced back towards the direction the came from. I checked the ball and saw no indication of any marks or imperfections which was not only a surprise but also impressive. (17/20)
Putting/Alignment:
I always line up my ball using some sort of line on the ball (I never draw lines on them as I find that distracting). Having the triple alignment lines was a game changer. I gained a lot of confidence in my putting while using these golf balls and the misses were far more often speed control issues than poorly aligned putts. I also really reduced my number of triple putts. (20/20)
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE INBETEEEN (12/20):
I really liked the orange and red colors but disliked the yellow which is no different than my typical preferences for ball colors but I LOVED the red. The triple alignment lines were everything i hoped for and I felt that they improved my putting aim. I didn't believe that the 2 big claims of distance and spin help up but I do feel like the accuracy was a nice improvement. I also noticed that the balls not only got dirty easy but weren't the easiest to clean by won't them off. I do like the balls but I don't think it's enough to replace my normal balls. I also feel I should mention that even though these are a slightly higher compression than I normally play, I did like the feel of the ball coming off the club.
PLAY IT OR TRADE IT (15/20):
When I find a product I like, I'm pretty loyal to it. While I do like the Vivids, I didn't think I like them quite enough to replace my typical Srixon Q-Star Divides. That being said, I think they're a close 2nd and considering they are a better value I will likely pick some up and use them to rotate in and out of my bag. I didn't know if they help my game better but I can say that they are not going to hurt it.
CONCLUSION (TL;DR) (69/100):
I have to admit that coming into this, I thought very little of Volvik golf balls and would've never bought them. I was extremely impressed with the first impressions and while the performance I experienced during using them did tamper my excitement a bit, I still came away with a much improved opinion of them. I will say that I like much more about them than I dislike and some of the biggest things I dinged them for in the rating were things that I don't really think any ball would really make a difference with but I had to be objective in what Volvik claimed vs what I found. In just looking at the ratings I have, someone would guess that I didn't like these balls very much but that's not true. The biggest knocks on these were the fact that some of the claims didn't pan out.
Q&A:
Am I going to change my regular balls to these?
Probably not but I will consider them the next time I need to buy golf balls
Will I continue to use the balls I have or give them away?
I will definitely use them until I lose them
What was my biggest disappointment?
The sound coming off the club and the yellow color
What was I most impressed with?
Accuracy and the red & orange colors
Scoring:
First Impressions (19/20)
The Numbers (10/20)
On the Course (13/20)
The Good, the bad and the InBetween (12/20)
Play it or trade it (15/20)
Total (69/100)
I am grateful for the opportunity to have been able to test these out and hope folks can gain something from my review and perspective. I would like to thank MyGolfSpy for the opportunity and Volvik for sending these out for me to try.
Good grief! Does @GolfSpy_BEN even need to tee it up?
I think we should have him pee in the cup and tested for performance enhancing substances…🤣
great round @tw1ns !
Date
07/22/2024
Course Name
Wingate Park Country Club (South Africa)
Gross Score
85
Course Rating
69.8
Course Slope
130
Gross Strokes over/under par
13
Birdies or better
1
Longest Drive
349
Our SAGES Senior Golfers Northern Regionals Tournament.
124 Senior Players (>50 years)
9 Regions
Two rounds of Better Ball over 2 days.
My wife and I participated in this tournament at Wingate Park Country Club (South Africa) https://wingateparkcountryclub.co.za/, representing our region.
Again, to have so many senior players at a tournament is a fine experience. I am not sure what the oldest person's age was, but would estimate that the average age of all the players would calculate to about 68 years.
Anyway, the course was in a pristine winter condition, providing exceptionally long shots on drives and long irons. I hit my longest drive ever on this course.
On the first day, I had a good game, coming in on 36 points. Wifey came in on 38 points (beating me again). As a pair we made BB 48 points for the first day (50 points for the leaders on day 1). My drives were very good and the short game was acceptable. My first drive.......I put it on the green!!!!! 349 yds!!!!! (Scotty, you may book some lessons...I will give you some discount)
Having a fantastic 1st day, the 2nd day was disappointing. My drives did not work, my short game was attached to my head which kept on looking up on each shot. I am sure our opponents switched my glasses as I could not read any greens. Both my wife and I only made 29 points each giving BB 40 points for the 2nd day. (Scotty, may I book some lessons... do I qualify for pensioners discount?)
Our total for the 2 days came to 88 points.
I am not sure what our final standing was as a BB team and Regional Team position as we missed the prize giving as we had to leave early to miss the afternoon peak traffic on our 100km trip home.
Date
07/23/2024
Course Name
Forest City - Classic Course
Gross Score
86
Course Rating
69
Course Slope
131
Gross Strokes over/under par
14
Birdies or better
8
Longest Drive
288
69.0/131
Played the other 18-hole at Forest City Golf Resort up in Malaysia this week. Haven't played this 18 in over two years, so it was refreshing to jump on it again. Driver and putter were generally cooperating, but I still found myself out of sorts with my approach, only hitting 3 GIRs 🤦♂️.
Generally happy with how my game is trending. Still can't quite control the blow ups (4 double bogeys this round!), but now, even WITH the blow ups, the scores are reasonable.
(That longest drive was downhill, downwind and likely multiple hops on the cart path! 🤣 )
Congratulations, testers!
I had a bad experience with these balls in my tropical environment here. I bought a box for myself and my buddy back in 2019, just before covid lockdowns started. Long story short, it was almost 2 years before we could play again. And in those 2 years, the matte covering oxidised and turned into this weird sticky goo that was really hard to wash off my hands and clothes and stuff. That turned me off these matte coloured balls, even though I love how easy it is to spot them on the course.
Look forward to hearing the testers feedback on these balls!
Congratulations, testers!
I had a bad experience with these balls in my tropical environment here. I bought a box for myself and my buddy back in 2019, just before covid lockdowns started. Long story short, it was almost 2 years before we could play again. And in those 2 years, the matte covering oxidised and turned into this weird sticky goo that was really hard to wash off my hands and clothes and stuff. That turned me off these matte coloured balls, even though I love how easy it is to spot them on the course.
Look forward to hearing the testers feedback on these balls!
Date
07/23/2024
Course Name
Forest City - Classic Course
Gross Score
86
Course Rating
69
Course Slope
131
Gross Strokes over/under par
14
Birdies or better
8
Longest Drive
288
69.0/131
Played the other 18-hole at Forest City Golf Resort up in Malaysia this week. Haven't played this 18 in over two years, so it was refreshing to jump on it again. Driver and putter were generally cooperating, but I still found myself out of sorts with my approach, only hitting 3 GIRs 🤦♂️.
Generally happy with how my game is trending. Still can't quite control the blow ups (4 double bogeys this round!), but now, even WITH the blow ups, the scores are reasonable.
(That longest drive was downhill, downwind and likely multiple hops on the cart path! 🤣 )
Date
07/07/2024
Course Name
Tanah Merah CC - Tampines
Gross Score
91
Course Rating
73
Course Slope
136
Gross Strokes over/under par
19
Net Score to Par
19
Birdies or better
8
Longest Drive
247
73.3/136
Was invited to a new course today - the Tampines Course at Tanah Merah Country Club. It's located alongside one if the runways at the international airport here in Singapore, so lots of planespotting while playing.
The course was playing 6,423m (7,065yds) from the blues today, making it extra challenging. Between rain, threatening lightning and the beating sun, we managed to complete 18 on a relatively quiet day - I think everyone else bailed assuming it would be a washout.
Can't really complain about my play today - some silly mistakes that should have been avoided if I didn't go for the hero shots. Putting was pretty good today - only 28 putts needed to get home.
Week 8 Flight Recap
Week 8 was another prolific week for the VCT! A lot of great rounds were posted and a few members have played well enough to earn promotion to the next flight up, details to come! Here are the recaps from each flight:
Date
06/14/2024
Course Name
Forest City Golf Resort - Legacy
Gross Score
88
Course Handicap
14
Gross Strokes over/under par
16
Net Score to Par
2
Net Score
74
Net Birdies or better
Longest Drive
(Rating/Slope for the course is 69.2/117.)
Great to finally get back onto the course after an unintended hiatus. Work and life got quite busy and just didn't have time to play a round.
Drove across the border to Malaysia to play a round at Forest City Golf Resort - Legacy course. It's a beautiful Nicklaus layout that is fairly generous at the landing areas and greens. After a rough start (we arrived late due to a jam at immigration and customs), so effectively went from car straight to the first tee, I managed to get my driver and irons to behave properly. However, the wedge and putter didn't want to cooperate until the back nine, so there were quite a few frustration misses.
Happy to report I got my first birdie in 7 months (now THAT is a depressing stat), from a random 21 footer from the fringe. But I'll TAKE IT!
Can't wait for my next round!
Personally, I've been dealing with a relocation & the end of a long-term relationship 💔
This is the kick-in-the-ass I needed to get back to playing again.
I'll try to get a score posted by this end of this weekend & get back to playing regularly.
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