Cut Golf Balls
Here on Driving Range Heroes DOT COM, I feel like we do a pretty decent job covering “alternative” golf ball brands. “Bill, what the heck are alternative golf ball brands?” I don’t know if that’s an industry term, but I’m using it to categorize brands outside of the major household names. Don’t get me wrong, I’d say we’ve barely even scratched the surface in this category, but we try! Anyway, many of these brands make claims of delivering a high quality golf ball at a fraction of the price of their big name competitors. Some of these brands do a really really good job and provide great “bang for your buck” options. Other brands don’t exactly make the cut. Speaking of making the cut, I’m going to share a precautionary tale of a foray into Cut Golf balls.
Nice to Meet You, Cut Golf Balls
Cut Golf balls have been on my radar for years, but I’d never actually played any. No real reason other than plenty of other balls to keep me busy and just never crossing paths. Well, one of my new hobbies in 2022 has been thrifting weird golf stuff. I love it because you never know what weird things you’ll find in the sporting goods section of your local thrift store. One trip, you might find some whacky training aid from the 60s. On another trip, maybe you find a full set of Don White MacGregors with matching persimmon woods. And sometimes you stumble upon sleeves of brand new balls. I usually look at these for either A) low compression options to play with vintage clubs, or B) to put in my practice shag bag.
On one particular trip, I came across two sleeves of Cuts and two sleeves of Vice balls. For $2 a sleeve, I figured why not? Now, usually I have my bag stocked with my trusty Bridgestone Tour B X or Tour B XS, but for some reason I decided to throw a sleeve of Cuts in my bag as backup to try them out my during my next round.
Putting the Cuts Into Play
With my Cut Golf balls in the bag, I played the first nine holes with my usual Bridgestones. I can’t remember if I lost a bunch of balls or what (I probably did), but I decided at the turn to give the Cuts a try. The tenth hole at my local course is a fun small to medium length par 4 with a couple of water carries off the tree and some sneaky tree trouble. On days with the wind, the green can be reachable for the big hitters. On this particular day, the wind was hurting, but I absolutely piped my drive right off the middle of the face. Like, it was one of the two on the day that might trick people into thinking I was a good golfer.
My drive landed dead center of the fairway leaving 112 yards from the pin. I pulled my trusty Sub 70 JB wedge, took a nice and easy swing, and stuck my shot to about 12 feet. Feeling pretty good about myself, I walked up to the green, marked my ball to clean it, and that’s when I saw it. Just a massive tear in the side of the ball like I smashed a cart path. The thing is, I only struck the ball twice – once with a clean drive and once with a smooth wedge. Don’t get me wrong, I know a wedge can beat up a golf ball, but a modern ball should be able to survive more than one wedge shot without destroying the ball.
I swapped my usual Bridgestone back in and missed the birdie putt by a mile if…you were wondering.
Confirmed: These Do NOT Make the Cut
Disgusted with the experience, I threw the ball in the trash at the next tee box. I can’t totally remember what happened to the other two. I just know I didn’t use them and I wasn’t smart enough at the time to keep the damaged ball for this blog post. Of course, one bad ball isn’t proof of bad quality, right? Fortunately, as I mentioned, I bought two sleeves so I had a fresh brand new trio of Cut balls waiting for me. To somewhat recreate the scenario, I went in my backyard, setup my net, put a small practice mat down, and tested each ball with about a 2/3 swing. Enough to put some bite into it, but not trying to kill the ball.
Sure enough, each ball resulted in the same thing from one strike of the wedge. Big scraped in the golf ball. I even flipped a couple so the club would strike a clean portion of the ball, and sure enough, immediate cuts. This was all I needed to see. In a completely different sleeve of balls than I brought out on the course, all three balls experienced the same fate.
I don’t know, maybe it was just a bad batch out of the factory. Or maybe the Cut Blue is known for this problematic durability issue. Regardless, my experience with Cut Golf balls was less than stellar and proved to me that you still have to be smart about golf ball selection. For now, I’ll be sticking to my Bridgestones.
If you’ve had similar experiences OR have had a Cut model that’s held up well for you, let me know in the comments!
The Cut Blues and the older “color” named Cuts were known to have serious durability issues. The issues have been vastly improved in the newer models like the DC for instance.
Very interesting. I wonder how much that durability issue turned people off from trying the improved generation to realize that?
Cut changed the cover maybe 4-5 years ago. Prior to that change they were amazing. Purchased in bulk because I really liked them. Once I tried the new version. Same issue. Went through 18 balls in 18 holes. Called cut and returned all of the rest of the golf balls. Disgusted with what they did because it was a great ball for a while
Apparently they addressed this issue with more recent balls? I might have to pick some up and find out to report here on the site!
I got a dozen of the Cut Gray a while back, and they were nothing like the Blues, durability was very good, and I really enjoyed playing them. At the time I felt that the Cut Gray was one of the best bang-for-the-buck balls I’s ever tried, but the Blues were huge disappointment. I tried the Blues after having such good results with the Grays, and my experience with the Blues was much like yours. Everyone I’ve talked to has had similar issues with the Cut Blue, and even though I had really good results with the Gray, the Blues have just soured me on Cut, enough that I won’t likely buy any again.
I played the grey and was hoping it would bite more than it did, so I found two blue and since that’s a four piece ball I thought it would bite more, it didn’t. I don’t like the look because of cursive lettering but a ball made by one under bites like crazy so now I have decisions to make. I like vice and on core.
I have used the Cut Blue and Cut DC and have had no problems.
The Cut balls I have used (Blue and Grey) have been garbage. No durability compared to Seed, Vice and Snell (all Direct-To-Consumer balls). My favorite DTC ball has been the Seed golf ball (from Ireland).
I have played everything but the DC and have had great success. My favorite is actually the Cut Orange and it’s a 2 piece ball.
I’ve used the Cut Orange and they’ve held up well. I like the soft feel and distance has been good. Good price for what I think is a quality ball. Until I loose a lot less balls each round I need to stay with inexpensive balls.
I bought a dozen of them to try (cut blue) to have a cheaper ball to play when not in a tournament instead of my usual Pro v
Actually they are very durable but quite a bit shorter. I avg about 240 could only get about 220 from these. Going to try Vice the next time
Cut matte orange are the only ball I use now. Love the feel and seem to travel further than I’m used to hitting.
Okay, I have used the Cut Blue almost all summer until I started noticing splits in the cover from normal play that made the ball flutter in flight and fall well short of when I first took them out of the sleeve to play. I am not a high swing speed person so this should not happen. I even tried the DC ball but the compression was way too high for me a mere mortal. Think I’ll just play a nice VICE Pro or Pro + for a few more dollars a dozen….