In my almost constant quest to find the right golf ball, I tried out the new for ’09 Nike One Vapor and I really like this golf ball. First the Vapor is a 3 piece ball aimed at the average hacker like myself. It is designed to give folks with average 85+ MPH swing speeds a boost in distance while at the same time have a soft feel around the greens.
In my totally non-scientific study I found that, yes these do tend to fly off the clubface, and they do feel very soft and I do get a much better stop on the green too. They feel about as soft as the Wilson Zip balls I reviewed last year, but I do notice a measurable distance increase and as I said they do stop better than the Zips too.
OK, that would have been my review if I wrote this last summer but it is February, and the Vapor in winter is a different ball. To be fair, I played a round in what could only be described as “slurpee-like” with periods of wet sleet (slurpee) and temperatures in the low 40s F. I also played a few rounds in the low 50s and I found the Vapor becomes anything but soft though it still had a good amount of spin with my wedges. With the driver what was a buttery soft and highly elastic ball off the face when it is 85 degrees, became a crispy ball that never feels like it fully compresses when it is cold. To be fair, none of my other summer soft golf balls did any better.
Overall, I love this ball in the summer and I will definitely recommend it to all my buddies, but in the cold be prepared to need another club or two.
Pluses:
- Super elastic off the driver with low to average spin feels very fast off the face
- Good spin with wedges for a non-urethane ball
- Good price and excellent availability (TGW, Walmart)
Minuses:
- Not good in the cold
Overall:
4 out of 5