Vice Golf Irons - 2024 Forum Review

[Agent Hendry]

16 hours ago, Off Map Oscar said:

Received my tracking number today. Labels just printed fedex doesn't have it yet. So 10 days from order to label. 

I’ve changed my order so been pushed back two weeks but better to have them correct eh! 

[Bad Golfer]

Congratulations @Tom the Golf Nut!

One heck of a round and a true testament on how good the Vice irons are in the right hands.

[Off Map Oscar]

1 hour ago, Agent Hendry said:

I’ve changed my order so been pushed back two weeks but better to have them correct eh! 

What did you need to change? And how did the communication go

[Off Map Oscar]

 

Fedex has them. No delivery date yet. Probably won't till thet clear customs 

[JohnSmalls]

On 8/17/2024 at 4:19 PM, Tom the Golf Nut said:

I just hope the stars align again some day and I can do it again. It’s hard to even explain what that even felt like. If I didn’t take the time to take some pictures for the testing thread I wouldn’t even believe it myself. 
They took my score card but I duplicated it to put in my golf memories book.

 

There's always Saturday!

[Tom the Golf Nut]

15 minutes ago, JohnSmalls said:

There's always Saturday!

See you there. 

[gingerbeast87]

On 8/19/2024 at 3:29 PM, Tom the Golf Nut said:

The Cobra’s were good but after a full season of playing them I found that the Sub 70 699 Pro’s were better performers in the 6, 7,and 8 irons. In the Cobra’s 9, PW, and Gap Wedge were the performers. So by seasons end I had a split set. I was still playing well but I felt there was still something missing that I didn’t have. These were: better ball height, better decent angle, and a touch of forgiveness that the Cobra’s didn’t have.
These are what came with the Vice irons. When you get what you are looking for you gain more confidence. It’s like you are working together rather than fighting to make things work. 

I look at it like driving a car. I can drive any car, but until you get the seat position just right and the steering wheel the correct distance and angle you can’t really DRIVE the car and get good performance.

No way did I expect the outcome of that day. But It was a day that I will never forget. I’m just glad I keep score the way I do because I didn’t realize until someone made a comment on 17 and I looked. 

I can certainly see what you mean with the car analogy, I've found now that I've done a few rounds and spent a good amount of time with the clubs that I am starting to see some improvement to my game, going to do a full post tonight but hit my best solo score round the other day (15 over with 3 birdies) even though it was in high winds!

[gingerbeast87]

Full Solo Round

 

Went to do my first solo full round with the clubs on Tuesday.  We had some strong winds in Bristol so it felt like a good way to really test how much control i have off the face when hitting into cross winds/into the wind.  It was also a good chance to see how used to the clubs are after a week or so of playing short rounds/practicing on the course in the evening/going to the range.

Overall it was a brilliant round, my handicap is listed on here as 20.4 but has been hovering around the 18.6 mark for a while since about March/April.  So to come in 15 over for the round felt like a huge achievement.  This was driven by 3 birdies, 2 pars, and the rest as bogies or doubles (only 4 doubles thankfully).  Managed to only lose 2 balls for the whole round (not the Vice Pro Airs as I haven't started into those as yet), and managed some really good shots.  

 

The clubs themselves felt really good, i finally feel comfortable with them enough to go for the full swing and feel pretty sure about where they will go.  The wind came into play with my 7 iron off of the fairway of the 10th hole when it ended up going a little over 200 yards  really didn't expect that.  The recovery shot was out of the rough with the sand wedge, i miscalculated and duffed the shot.  This did however give me a good chance to to a bump and run with the 9-iron.  I have found the the short irons are really good for bump and runs or pitching within 100 yards when you want to keep it lower.

 

Had a good pitch shot from 80 yards on the 9th.  Good low tee shot with the 3 wood (teed low, hands kept low, drove through the ball), but completely topped the second shot and it only went 43 yards, guess the old rule of golf that you can't have two good shots in a row still rings true  .  Grabbed the 8 iron which if I were to use for a full swing would currently be going up towards the 155 yard carry mark, I instead kept my swing from elbow to hip for a low pitch onto the green as there was a tree overhanging about 2-3m and i still have no idea how to draw the ball (natural slicer), unfortunately it is a horrible green and i was trying to putt across the break, ended up walking off with a double bogey courtesy of a topped shot, a putt that sailed past the hole down the slope, and a putt that stopped just short of the hole.  All that aside, bloody good low pitch shot onto the green  

 

Managed to pull of a really good recovery shot on the 13th hole.  Hooked the living heck out of my driver onto the 14th hole and ended up with a horrible lie with the ball in the rough a good 6 inches below my feet on the back side of a hill.  Had to rely on my watch to be able to get a direction of the flag from my position and a rough idea of the distance to the hole.  Took the pitching wedge out as i figured that i would be able to control the stroke better and if all failed it would end up short of the green for a chip in.  Managed a complete hail Mary of a shot and got it onto the center of the green from a blind 120 yard shot followed by a two putt to walk off with a par.

 

18th hole was the toughest as it was directly into the wind without any cover from trees.  The drive off the tee was good but it went a little high and got completely killed by the wind meaning i only got 197 yards from the tee.  I'm a big fan of watching Zac Radford's stinger videos and thought if ever there was a time to give it a whip it was into the wind that was blowing.  As i have previously said my Cobra 5 iron used to be my last ditch club, but i feel so comfortable using the Vice 5 iron that it has come into play a lot more of late.  I managed a brilliant shot and got a fantastic bounce off of the cart path for a generous 243 yard shot into the wind (thanks cart path!), nice chip across with the gap wedge and walked off of the course with a par on the 18th.

 

So overall a really good round of golf, I feel like i am extremely comfortable with the clubs now and find them to be a lot better than the Cobra clubs i used previously.  

 

I have a few days off coming up next week so the plan is driving range on Sunday where i will be aiming to get the comparison of sound off the club face between my cobras and the Vice clubs as requested by one of the chaps on the thread.  Then Tuesday will be a round of golf with the wife, and Wednesday will be a scramble with a buddy from work and the missus (just got to convince her to play both days).

 

Stay safe folks, speak soon.  Next upload will be Sunday evening/Monday morning.  As usual if anyone has anything they would like highlighted on the test please drop a message, I'm happy to oblige.

[dback]

It’s just iPhone video so sound isn’t great but I know it’s popped up once or twice wondering about the sound of the irons.

I think the sound comes through a bit more clearly in the second video. The three irons in order for each video are:

Vice vgI01 (forged face w/cavity back)- Apex 2014(?) (forged) - Adams xtd (cast cavity/game improvement tech)

 

 

 

[Tom the Golf Nut]

The tale of two rounds. Yesterday @JohnSmalls and I played at a course in terrible condition. Like extremely terrible. I had to resort to more of a range mat swing in order not to hurt myself or the clubs. So it was a sweeping swing. I found that the VGI01’s didn’t perform as well hitting the lower grooves.

Today I was back at my home course and the first couple of iron shots were a carry over from yesterday. I had to have a talk with myself. “Hit down on the ball stupid”

It worked. Back to a nice higher ball flight and hitting greens. Yesterday 77 barely taking a divot and today 70 taking dollar sized slivers of turf. Seems these clubs really perform better with a more aggressive swing. 

 

[Off Map Oscar]

Tracking says I'll have them Tuesday!

[Randall Robbins]

1 hour ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

The tale of two rounds. Yesterday @JohnSmalls and I played at a course in terrible condition. Like extremely terrible. I had to resort to more of a range mat swing in order not to hurt myself or the clubs. So it was a sweeping swing. I found that the VGI01’s didn’t perform as well hitting the lower grooves.

Today I was back at my home course and the first couple of iron shots were a carry over from yesterday. I had to have a talk with myself. “Hit down on the ball stupid”

It worked. Back to a nice higher ball flight and hitting greens. Yesterday 77 barely taking a divot and today 70 taking dollar sized slivers of turf. Seems these clubs really perform better with a more aggressive swing. 

 

A bad course in North Carolina?  Hard to imagine!  At least you were able to muddle through!

[Tom the Golf Nut]

6 minutes ago, Randall Robbins said:

A bad course in North Carolina?  Hard to imagine!  At least you were able to muddle through!

It was so bad I didn’t even want to take pictures. Take note. Cross off Twin Valley Golf Club as a place to play in NC. It’s a shame that a Ross/ Player course could get so far out of shape. The layout was so good though. 

 

[Off Map Oscar]

Nooooo they were a day early and no one was home. 

[Off Map Oscar]

Well I was able to go to the fedex this afternoon and grab them. Them proceeded to put them directly into the bag and go play 18. I'll type up a full review properly tomorrow but let's just say I'm not worried about the 60 day return policy. 

[Leonvdwesthuizen]

5 hours ago, Off Map Oscar said:

Well I was able to go to the fedex this afternoon and grab them. Them proceeded to put them directly into the bag and go play 18. I'll type up a full review properly tomorrow but let's just say I'm not worried about the 60 day return policy. 

They look amazing!

Love the white shafts and the shocking green grips!

Good choice!

[Splatt]

Hey guys,

New update with comparison data between the Vice irons and my old set on a golf sim

 

[Off Map Oscar]

13 hours ago, Leonvdwesthuizen said:

They look amazing!

Love the white shafts and the shocking green grips!

Good choice!

Thanks. I'm stoked with how they turned out for sure. 

 

And I promised a better review today but instead I'm gonna go play another 18 holes. Got a buddy in town and work load was negligible today so why not. 

Till then here are more unboxing pics. 

 

[Hjcarroll]

Congrats to the testers and good luck.  Looking forward to the results.   These are very classy looking irons. 

[Off Map Oscar]

Great day out today. 

So review time. 

Build quality A+. Box was a little dented but packaging kept anything from getting damaged inside.  I didn't micro examin the finish on each iron but all of the paint inlays are perfect. Grips are perfectly aligned. Hosel to shaft and iron connection is perfect. No residual glue on any of them. 

Grip quality. Poor. The vice brand Grips are cheap. While decent rubber the black ink fills are running almost immediately. They ran and smudged just in the few swings I took on my sim before heading out.  After two rounds the ink around the butt of the grips on all of them have have smudged/ran. I'm not gonna replace them right away but just know that's not ideal. 

 

Feel is subjective.  My old gamers are the PXG 2022 0211 Xcor2. 115 grain gold dynamics. This build is lie matched to those (-.5*) but standard length and lofts. I went to a graphite for this build for no other reason than I wanted to give them a run. 95 grain whiz in white. So compared to cast head steal shafts these are butter. Even a thin strike that would ring my hands real bad with my old irons still gave a the feel of being bladed but it was muted and didn't hurt. I've hit plenty of forged irons and bladed all of them. It's a decidedly different softer feel with the graphite. 

On a good contact I absolutely love the way they feel and my distances seem fairly close to my 0211s which are loft jacked game improvements where these are more in the players distance variety.  For comparison my old 7 iron is 28* and this one is at 31*.

I went this route for lack of spin and after two rounds I'm getting the one or two hop stop I was chasing. I shorted several shots today and yesterday as I need to work on my tempo and then get my distance card updated to match but I have high confidence I'll get there quickly.  With my old clubs I would hit the green and frequently run off the other side on approach shots. The ones I caught the green with in the last two rounds were almost always within a club length of their impact mark. Pin chasing is going to be an option finally

 

So far. Very happy.  The grip ink is annoying but it happens on every grip built like this. Just not that quickly on golf prides or lamkins that I've ran. 

I've been having a rough go the last few weeks what with taking classes that has my swing all jacked and I tried and failed miserably to adapt to a broomstick.  My round yesterday was an 87 with some decidedly poor drives and zero understanding of these distances.  Today was better and got myself down to an 82. Little time and I will be back to sniffing my first even par and that single digit handicap. Get to play again tomorrow so fingers crossed it keeps on a positive tone. 

 

[gingerbeast87]

Had a hell of a few days off so I'm going to slap up a couple of posts in a row.

 

1) Driving range

 

Went to the local range with the missus for a casual hour or so. I got a short video of the sound of the range balls off the faces of the Vice 7 iron and my Cobra 7 iron. The sound difference between the two is noticeable. Off of the face of the vice is sounds more crisp, but off the face of the cobra clubs it sounds sharper, more of a thwack as opposed to a snick/thwap.

 

Personally prefer the sound of the ball off of the Vice irons.  The feel is also a bit softer than that of the cobra irons. I don't know if perhaps it might be because the shaft of the Vice being graphite takes some of the snap away but it feels a lot nicer.

 

Overall we spent out time playing a shrinking target game so we could both focus on our irons, and worked together to get one of our best scores so far.

 

 

[gingerbeast87]

 

2) Tuesday went and played a scramble with the missus. She doesn't play very often and has a short, but very accurate drive.  This meant that when I sent mine into the great wide yonder and landed out of bounds, we had hers to save the score.  Working together we ended up coming in 10 over, showing that team work can help both averages. She took care of the saving drives and the putts, I did the iron and wedge work.

Gave me a good time of using the irons as well, I have found that I am extremely comfortable using my 5-iron for more shots than I ever have before.

I used the vice balls and the vice glove I received from the folks over at Vice early on in the test.  The balls felt good off the face, seemed fairly robust, but 5 got lost over the course of the round which hurt a little.

 

So ten over for the round, clubs performed brilliantly, and felt really good.  I have so far found that they work really well for me.  The whip from the graphite shafts has helped give a little more distance, and the whole set up seems to be helping me control the ball so I have less of a fade and seem to be bringing it more into the centre of where I am aiming.

 

[gingerbeast87]

3) played a scramble with a buddy from work today. We shot perhaps the best score I will see in my life when I am playing, 3 over. 3 OVER!!!!!!

The irons were on point, his drives and chips combined with my irons and putting gave us a phenomenal round 

 

Out of the rough my long irons were just powering through. We had one bunker shot which we managed to get out of despite it being tucked against the back edge. Only went about 20 yards but out of the bunker in one is always and achievement.

Playing again on Sunday so will give some more feedback Sunday/Monday.

 

Stay safe folks speak soon.

[Tom the Golf Nut]

I got on the community call from the golf course. Then played 6 holes before my board meeting at the club.

They just dryjected our greens on Monday so they are a mess. Well at least they look like a mess. They actually putted ok and quick.

The irons are still making me giggle like a little kid. Here were a few approaches from today.

I was 2 under after 6 holes.  Darn board meetings. Right when I was on a roll. I should have a few more rounds in over the next few days. But these irons are so much fun.

[Hook DeLoft]

On 6/24/2024 at 2:01 PM, Tom the Golf Nut said:

 Tom the Golf Nut checking in.

 First a special thank you to Vice Golf for affording this opportunity for testing. PS: I really like the Vice Logo. Total class right there. Thank you, MGS Forum Staff, for selecting me for testing, and the MGS logo is also top notch.

 I have a supportive family that lets me indulge in my passion. We live in middle South Carolina between Pinehurst and Myrtle Beach so golfing opportunities are abundant. Of my three children, two are still home, with my youngest about to enter her senior year of college. My son and daughter (when she is not away at school) work at my golf club and if things work out my wife will work there as well someday. I was just elected to the board of directors for the club, so it is turning into a family affair. I can’t sneak out to get away from the family when they all work there. LOL

Family fun time with my wife, son, daughter (front) and my son’s girlfriend.

I am pretty much a self-taught golfer and have been playing for over thirty-five years. I never stop building things or tinkering on golf related stuff to help improve my game.  I build most things at home. I’m the son of a carpenter and I was a machinist then an engineer in my early days. If I can dream it I can build it.  My biggest improvements in my game came from installing my simulator in conjunction with a MEVO several years ago. I got to see my swing path and ball flight info from the comfort of home. Which will come in handy for testing. I play a decent amount of golf. At least twice a week at my club, playing with customers when I’m on the road, as well as golf outings for charities. I am able to play year-round in my area of the country.

My GHIN handicap is currently 0.5, I have a mid-ball flight and a one hop and stop on the greens. I enjoy playing and do not get upset with a bad shot. Swing tempo is smooth with an average driver swing speed in the mid to upper 90’s. My average ball flight is straight with a middle flight trajectory. I am hoping to increase my iron trajectory a little bit more. Switching to graphite shafts in my irons has helped already. My strengths are finding the fairway with my drive and my short game.

I moved here about a year and a half ago and the courses are generally very different here than my hilly and mountainous courses of Northeast TN. Here it is flatter but requires more placement shots. Being in the sand belt region we have much softer fairways and approach areas (No bounce and roll out here) Lots of dog legs, streams, and waste areas that come into play. The rough is very playable but anything past that is in pine straw or unplayable.     

So, what do I want to accomplish during this test?  

I am hoping to gain a little more forgiveness with these irons. The King Tour's I was using last year has little room for error and I’m a decent ball striker. I have actually been moving them out of the bag one at a time and putting in my older irons which were a DTC brand. I plan on evaluating the data, and my on-course play. On course is where it matters most. If I can get a little more forgiveness on slightly off-center hits, maintain accuracy, and potentially get a little more ball height these will stay in the bag. A little more distance wouldn’t hurt either, but I don’t want to sound greedy. I have seen a lot of good things come from the direct-to-consumer brands and am looking forward to seeing what these clubs can do.

 

The Clubs:

I have been selected to test the VGI 01’s. Vice golf is getting with the times right off the bat with different head color trims, shaft, ferrule, and grip color options. So now we get the opportunity to customize the look. Make it yours.

I had my fitting this morning which was very pleasant and informative. I was probably the easiest to fit as I knew all my specs from previous fittings. After discussions with their team and Jamie on the call as well we decided to keep the same shaft weights, flex, lie angles, and length that I was already fit into.  Then it came to making them mine in terms of colors. 

Decisions, decisions, decisions. I went with the red trim which has the club numbers in red as well. I also selected a Whiz Graphite 60g Mitsubishi black shaft.

  

I added a black ferrule and went with the red Vice Mid-size grip. I was tempted to go with the gray but a little color in my life would be good. I wasn’t sure if they would be a distraction to me.  

I have been a fan of the GP CP2 Pro for years now. We will see how these grips go, but I have a set of the CP 2’s waiting in the wings if needed. 

Clubs are on order and now comes the hard part. Waiting for delivery. I'm sure everything will go according to plan. I'm super excited to test these out. The Vice team is top notch. They even asked for periodic check ins with the team to see if I have any issues, concerns, comments, and just to see how I like them. I'll be honest this is the first time a manufacturer really cared about the product and my relationship with the product once it shipped. They get a five-star rating on a scale of 1 to 5  

Thinking about the testing:

I compared the lofts from my other sets of irons and there isn’t much difference. So really all in all they should compare quite nicely. With the scoring clubs a little weaker they should give me a little more height and stopping power. But we will find out. That’s what the testing is all about right.

The actual lofts are:

I’m interested in the sound and feel. Since these are hollow body and not filled with foam or neoprene, will they sound pingy, dull, or crisp? Without the fill material the clubs should have a little more rebound in the face as well. 

Key characteristic claims:

Developed with insights from millions of data sets from normal golfers; An Iron Set that delivers forgiveness without compromising on performance.

- Triple forged head + milled finish

·      Lighter head weight design to increase swing speed and improve shaft-head-balance

·      Low offset and thin topline with increased face length for improved forgiveness

·      2-piece hollow body construction to create one of the hottest faces in golf

I like to start my testing from the green and work backwards just like I would test a ball. Chipping, pitching, then move back to full shots and then longer irons. The chipping part will be a little harder to test. Most of my chipping is with a Gap Wedge and this set stops at the PW. I’m going to work on using the PW from now until the Vice clubs arrive. My goal is 10 shots per task and remove any outliers. I will use the Mevo to gather the data once I get into the full shots. Data is great for those data junkies out there but I’m more of a performance in the field kind of guy. Hitting off a mat in the simulator or at the range is different than playing conditions. How will these perform out of the rough, tight lies, normal lies, divots, and so on.

I will set up certain distances and hit into a green doing some head-to-head testing with a few different clubs. Distance variance, trajectory, and dispersion will be what I’m looking for. Then try off of different type of lies. (rough, tight lies, wet grass) 

We did get notified that our orders are getting ready to ship. So, the excitement is escalating.  
 

The clubs have arrived and here is a little unboxing for your viewing pleasure.
 

Great pics!

[Lefty11]

14 hours ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

I got on the community call from the golf course. Then played 6 holes before my board meeting at the club.

They just dryjected our greens on Monday so they are a mess. Well at least they look like a mess. They actually putted ok and quick.

The irons are still making me giggle like a little kid. Here were a few approaches from today.

I was 2 under after 6 holes.  Darn board meetings. Right when I was on a roll. I should have a few more rounds in over the next few days. But these irons are so much fun.

@Tom the Golf Nutyou’re firing darts out there!   was it a big adjustment to get adjusted to the irons?

[Tom the Golf Nut]

3 hours ago, Lefty11 said:

@Tom the Golf Nutyou’re firing darts out there!   was it a big adjustment to get adjusted to the irons?

Not really a big adjustment. They played well right out of the box and into the bag. I did find that they really started to perform when I started taking more of a divot.

Edited August 30 by Tom the Golf Nut

[GolfSpy_KFT]

16 hours ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

I got on the community call from the golf course. Then played 6 holes before my board meeting at the club.

They just dryjected our greens on Monday so they are a mess. Well at least they look like a mess. They actually putted ok and quick.

The irons are still making me giggle like a little kid. Here were a few approaches from today.

I was 2 under after 6 holes.  Darn board meetings. Right when I was on a roll. I should have a few more rounds in over the next few days. But these irons are so much fun.

I'm sure you've already stated it and I've just missed it, Tom, but how is the feel and turf interaction compared to the King Tours? Looks like they are performing incredibly well for you!

[Tom the Golf Nut]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy_KFT said:

I'm sure you've already stated it and I've just missed it, Tom, but how is the feel and turf interaction compared to the King Tours? Looks like they are performing incredibly well for you!

Feel is always subjective but on slightly off center hits you can feel it but the forgiveness they built into the clubs still result in straight shots but just a little short. The King tours don’t have as much forgiveness, the head is smaller and the sweet spot is smaller. Missing the sweet spot would result in shorter distance but almost double than the Vice. So let’s say 20 yards versus 10 yards short. Direction wise the Vice were much better.

Turf interaction is different between the two. As an example I pulled an 8-iron from each set. The face thickness on the King Tours behind the sweet spot measures 0.865 and the VGI01’s measured 0.760

The vice clubs seemed to be able to go down and get the ball out of the rough easier. It also felt like it had less twisting. 

The VGI01’s are freaking awesome.

Hint see next post!!

Edited August 30 by Tom the Golf Nut

[Tom the Golf Nut]

Crap, another 5 minutes of typing and it’s gone.

Another good round today. I was four under on the front and then another two under on the back up until the 16th hole. Hit a tree branch off the drive. Then hit a long 5 hybrid into the greenside bunker. Out nicely but two putted for the bogey.

I was running out of gas. The temp was 95 and high humidity. 17’s tee shot on the par three went in the bunker left but I got up and down. 18’s par 5 was just let me finish. Had to stop under a tree after the drive to drink more gatorade. Managed to par out. Laid up to the rivers edge. Then a sand wedge over onto the green with a two putt for par.

In the end it was a solid 67. I almost got out of the aceless thread twice with these shots into the green. One from 160 and the second from 145

Have I mentioned I really like these clubs.