Vice Golf has just dropped the Vice Pro Cosmic Collection and while I won’t go so far as to say it’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, it’s definitely unlike anything we’ve seen in a urethane ball from a company with any measurable market share.
The Vice Pro Cosmic Collection features what Vice describes as the first translucent urethane cover. The company says the design maintains full transparency without compromising performance, opening new possibilities for future ball design.
On the surface (and, I suppose, just beneath it), the Vice Cosmic balls are reminiscent of Chromax or Volvik Crystal designs although neither one of those comes with what’s generally described as Tour Construction—both lack a urethane cover, translucent or otherwise.
A Vice Labs initiative
The Cosmic Collection falls under the Vice Labs initiative which the company describes thusly:
“Vice Labs is Vice Golf’s innovation engine focused on exploring new materials, unconventional constructions, and fresh design directions. Its purpose is simple: challenge long-standing golf-ball conventions and turn experimental ideas into performance-ready products.
This isn’t just a fancy name for our R&D team, this is a specialist and secretive unit, tasked with pushing the boundaries of what high-performance golf equipment can be.”
Cool.
That’s all well and good, but I think it’s fair to say that what we’re looking at doesn’t have much to do with performance breakthroughs. And that’s fine. 2025 has been the year of limited edition and other one-off stuff in the golf ball category, and it should go without saying there’s been plenty that isn’t half as cool as what Vice has done with the Cosmic Collection.
As with a lot of limited edition stuff, Vice’s take on cool comes at a cost. Cosmic Collection golf balls are single-unit priced at $20 more a dozen than the standard Vice Pro offering. That pushes past Pro V1, taking Vice to the wrong side of the value line. According to Vice, that’s the cost of investing R&D dollars in things like clear urethane, glowing mantles, limited production, and advanced materials research.
Performance
The Vice Cosmic Collection has just launched, so we haven’t tested it, but given what we’ve seen from different colored models, it’s reasonable to expect there will be differences. In the golf ball world, paint isn’t just a splash of color, it’s chemistry at multiple layers of the ball, and given the apparently radical nature of what Vice is doing, differences are to be expected.
Given the departure from standard materials, I’m also incredibly curious about spin retention in wet conditions.
That said, this really isn’t a performance story. Vice’s premium balls are generally strong performers, but the Cosmic Collection has more to do with making something different, arguably cool. And so, whatever performance differences might exist probably won’t matter to the target golfer—even at $60 a pop.
A word of caution
A quick note for the serious/competitive golfers among you; the Vice Pro Cosmic Collection golf ball is not currently listed on the USGA Conforming List, so technically, it’s not legal for tournament play. I suppose that could change, but given the limited nature of the production run, it may never be. And again, that wouldn’t be unreasonable given that the initial incarnation is limited. Who knows if Vice will continue down this path, but this may end up being every bit as much a collectable as it is a serious ball for serious golfers.
The Vice Cosmic Collection is available now while (limited) supplies last.
The post Translucent Urethane? Vice Golf Drops Pro Cosmic Collection Golf Balls appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
