Yeah, the Maxfli’s are a decent deal at only twice the cost of the Kirkland’s (I’m not being sarcastic here… it’s still SHOCKING to me how much cheaper the Kirkland balls are). I bought two dozen and liked them just fine.
In my opinion there are a couple of categories of Urethane balls:
Kirkland - Huge outlier… I think the quality is pretty good, and the price is unbeatable. I’m really curious to see if the 4 piece balls are any good. The more I talk about them the more I regret not waiting on their release… Oh well.
Snell / Maxfli - I think these are the “value” brands that make sense… They get there different ways, but both started with industry experience and have the chops to produce a competitive golf ball and the resources to sell them at a discount… $25-30 a dozen, and probably the best price to value there is if Coscto didn’t exist.
Vice / Cut / DTC that isn’t Snell: No real R&D or control over manufacturing… they have lower price points and make an OK ball. I haven’t actually played any of these and thus probably shouldn’t bad mouth them, but here we are… I think they are fine. Cheaper than the Snell but it seems like they are a drop in quality. Once again, Costco blows the curve… if you just want cheap urethane golf balls, buy Costco balls.
OEM golf balls: I’m not sure there is ever going to be a ProV2, but it seems like it would come from these guys… They have far greater control over the quality (though that doesn’t mean all their balls are good!) and they are all grouped in price… The 3 for 4 deals and the 3 dozen packs can get you some slight discounts, but these are going to be the most expensive… I think it’s worth testing them occasionally, and I’ve always gotten along well with the Bridgestone balls.
I decided today between spending $90ish on 3 dozen Snell and 116 on 3 dozen Bridgestone… for $26, I figured it was worth it and went with the major OEM… I’m going to give it a number of rounds (hopefully more than 36) and see how I like the balls.
I’m focused on lowering my handicap this season, so spending some extra money on a ball that I think will perform better for me makes sense… i’m chasing any incremental improvement I can find.