Fujikura Ventus Shafts - 2024 Forum Review

[tdroma98]

Congratulations Testers! 
Enjoy the fitting process and looking forward to hearing how it goes & the results 

[Yaboyjermz]

Can’t wait for the results from the test. Congrats to the testers and good luck!

[TylorJudd]

22 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

The Fujikura VENTUS driver shafts have taken the golfing world by storm, claiming to be more stable and consistent with tighter dispersion and increased ball speeds than its predecessor. The new Fujikura VENTUS shaft, powered by VELOCORE technology, has a lot to live up to.

About The Fujikura VENTUS

A premium driver shaft that has made its way into the bags of many tour professionals and amateurs alike, the Fujikura Ventus with VELOCORE has become a go-to golf shaft since its introduction in 2018. In 2024, Fujikura released a new VENTUS Blue version with VELOCORE+ technology and advanced materials to improve on what was already a very popular choice. A key change in the 2024 version is a simplified bend profile with a re-engineered multi-material bias core claiming to improve stability for more consistent strikes. Additionally, the new VELOCORE+ claims to enhance feel and the overall performance of this high-end driver shaft.

Please welcome and congratulate our testers!

@Preeway 

@Syks7 

@musicalmedicine 

@skraeling

Congrats Testers! I swing this a few weeks back, they’re nice and smooth. Enjoy!!!

[ParFore74x]

Congratulations testers!! Following this one closely. 

[musicalmedicine]

I’m super excited to be a part of this test, and would like to thank the MGS staff for selecting me. I’m looking forward to getting the shaft in hand and bringing all my fellow spies insights on how it plays compared to my Ping Tour Black.

[Swood1994]

Congratulations testers! I’m really looking forward to your reviews. I’m a big ventus fan so I’ll be curious how the new Velocore + does during testing.

[Mike10487]

Congratulations guys! I will follow this one closely.

[GolferXY]

Good luck to the chosen!  I'm really curious about the difference in this versus the previous model and not so much the difference between this and other brands.

[ZackS]

Congrats testers, this seem to be the year of the shaft test. Hope you enjoy your test as much I I enjoyed my TPT shaft testing. 

[Preeway]

4 hours ago, GolferXY said:

Good luck to the chosen!  I'm really curious about the difference in this versus the previous model and not so much the difference between this and other brands.

I’m excited to do just that, my friend!

[3Putt4Double]

Congrats testers! I need 100% honest opinions.. I'm swinging the 6 and need to know if the newer model is worth looking at..@Preeway, I'm rooting for the shaft to be better but my wife is wanting earrings so she's hoping it's not.. Told her u can decide for us

[Josh Parker]

19 minutes ago, Bubba1985 said:

Congrats testers! I need 100% honest opinions.. I'm swinging the 6 and need to know if the newer model is worth looking at..@Preeway, I'm rooting for the shaft to be better but my wife is wanting earrings so she's hoping it's not.. Told her u can decide for us

No pressure @Preeway 

[3Putt4Double]

3 minutes ago, Josh Parker said:

No pressure @Preeway 

Absolutely not.. Wouldn't put pressure on him like that

[Josh Parker]

6 minutes ago, Bubba1985 said:

Absolutely not.. Wouldn't put pressure on him like that

I mean I'll send him the old blue ventus if it's for comparisons and a bet!

[3Putt4Double]

23 minutes ago, Josh Parker said:

I mean I'll send him the old blue ventus if it's for comparisons and a bet!

If I'm betting on it, I bet if my wife doesn't get those earrings, I'm not getting that shaft so I'll end up buying both starting with the earrings! Lol

[Preeway]

1 hour ago, Bubba1985 said:

Congrats testers! I need 100% honest opinions.. I'm swinging the 6 and need to know if the newer model is worth looking at..@Preeway, I'm rooting for the shaft to be better but my wife is wanting earrings so she's hoping it's not.. Told her u can decide for us

[Preeway]

I currently have a 6s tipped 1/2” so it fits in between S and XS. 

[jordan1016]

Congrats all! Will be following this one for sure!

[BreakfastBall15]

On 5/14/2024 at 5:59 AM, Preeway said:

Super excited to be chosen as one of the testers for this shaft. I currently play an OG Ventus Blue and will be comparing old tech and new tech head-to-head as part of this test. Going to be fun putting this thing through some rigorous testing which all of you would expect. Intro will be up later this week, if not sooner. 

Really looking forward to your review. I also play the OG blue and got it 2 days before the new one released. Very curious as to how they compare and contrast to each other 

[Syks7]

Did my fitting today.  Its always fascinating what outsized effect small adjustments can make.  Even on a day where I didn't feel like I had my best swing (though there were a few that managed to find their way out).  Should have access to the track man data shortly and I'll get it up to compliment this post as soon as I get it.

We started with my my gamer PXG Gen 5 0311 9º (turned to 10º) w/ Tensei CK Orange 65S to establish a baseline.  Unfortunately they did not have the 2024 model so we worked through the OG Ventus lineup and Black Ops heads to find a good combo.  Not my best contact today and I found myself hitting higher on the face than I liked but the results were still pretty favorable.  Hard to argue with misses still making the fairway.  I'm pretty dialed with my driver/shaft combo right now so the numbers with the Ventus were not earth shatteringly better but I was seeing consistent numbers in the 230-240 carry range w/ a lot of high face contact.   Something interesting I noticed was that I had to adjust my lineup slightly for each combo to find the center of the face.  Whatever deflection each shaft/head combo had at impact meant I had to line up the ball on the head in small increments toward the center   My gamer always looks to me like I'm lining up on the toe, but contact is always toward the middle.  

Here's the combos we worked through (not including variations in the weighting).  Luckily, I was already in the right weight class so we just bounced around in the 60-70 gram weight zone.  They were all very close to one another and in the end the winning combo was more about consistency of strike than blowing the others away with dispersion and distance.

Black Ops 9º Ventus Blue 6S (Solid, but not quite as dialed as we would like)

Black Ops 9º Ventus Blue 6S Turned up to 10 (Easy to hit but a bit floaty and a little more prone to me pulling)

Black Ops 9º Tensei AV Raw Orange 65S (Felt just like my gamer, a touch boardy without a huge kick, but very consistent.)

Black Ops 9º Ventus Blue 6X (Really liked this one from an accuracy perspective but we sacrificed some ball speed)

Black Ops 9º Ventus Black 6S (Pretty much exactly like the Blue 6X with a more stable feel.)  Truth be told it felt a lot like the Raw Orange & CK Orange.  They have very similar flex profiles, pretty uniform without much kick.

Black Ops 8º Ventus Blue6S (This was turned up to 9º and it was immediately one of the favorites, something about the combo of the steeper face turned a touch open.  It worked really well.

Black Ops 10.5º Ventus Blue 6S (Turned down to 9.5º.  Worst one of the bunch closing down the face even a little was a big nono, we did not spend much time with this combo as it was immediately apparent it wasn't going to work.  This is kind of a known quantity for me -- decreasing loft in any of the PXG heads I've played from Hybrid to Driver has not had the desired effect.

Black Ops Tour 9º Ventus Blue 6S (The winner, immediately, and even better after we adjusted weighting.)  This was late in the fitting and I was definitely tiring out after a lot of driver swings in an hour.  It was just better. Unfortunately no 8º head to try out so we played with the loft sleeve and weighting ending  up on standard loft and a 2.5 gram bump in head weight with 2.5 gram weights in the heel and toe and a 12.5 Gram weight in the back.

Obviously this isn't the exact combo I'm going to end up with, as much as I'd love to I'm not going to be able to buy the black ops tour for this test, but it did identify that I should be playing with a 60-70 gram shaft in the S or X flex.   As much as I'm tempted to go for the X for some added stability I think the S is probably the way to go, also I hit so many balls with it today that I'm going to have pretty solid comparison baseline and data between the OG blue, the 2024, and my gamer (which seems pretty comparable to the 6X & Black 6S)  It should be really fun refitting to my gen 5 head in the simulator when the 2024 Ventus gets here.  

A couple final thoughts from the fitting: 

My current shaft is 1/2" shorter than the 45 1/2" Standard for PXG shafts.  For consistency sake I'm probably going to install a 1/2" extension for the duration of the test so that we're apples to apples on length and I'm not trying to play the game of x length of shaft = x mph ball speed lost.   

I have a full size AV raw blue that I'll be adding to testing as well, but I did not hit it today.

The fitting was outside on grass and it was exceptionally helpful to see the actual ball flight off the club.  It's not a particularly long range so I didn't get to see all of it (Its oddly gratifying to hit halfway up the end the range screen) but it was enough for me to be happy with what I was seeing.  The Ventus blue produced the same fade that I play off the tee but I just liked the shape of it better than I do with my Orange.  It just seemed like it left in a better launch window and was going to land with a little more control.    (or I could just be totally enamored.)

We had a bit of extra time so I revisited the 0317T's I liked with the C-Taper lites instead of the Modus 105.  Love the C-Taper lights in my ZX7s, did not care for them in the 0317Ts.  Its funny how one combo of head and shaft works and another just doesn't.  We also played around with 3 Wood and tried some off the wall stuff since I wasn't getting along with the Tensei Blue 3W head.  Long story short apparently I should be playing a Graphite Designs TP7S in my woods high launch, low spin...  Not in production anymore, but still really expensive.  So I've got that going for me now.   

 

Edited May 16 by Syks7

[Bearlyscratch]

Honestly never been more jealous than this test. Congrats!

[skraeling]

On 5/16/2024 at 12:08 AM, Syks7 said:

My current shaft is 1/2" shorter than the 45 1/2" Standard for PXG shafts.  For consistency sake I'm probably going to install a 1/2" extension for the duration of the test so that we're apples to apples on length and I'm not trying to play the game of x length of shaft = x mph ball speed lost.  

 

Im still waffling on which shaft length I want to do.  Im getting my current one checked today and it is I *think* 45" as best I can measure.  Im about 6ft tall and I tend to miss off the toe.  Maybe an extra .5" could move it more towards the heel?  Or do I go full goblin and see if I cant hit a 46" shaft haha.

Would an extra inch of shaft length materially hurt me?  I dont know.  Would I like another 2-3mph for free?  mmmmm possibly especially with a supposedly more stable shaft.

My max stack speeds with a 45" driver.

Estimated stack speeds with a 46"

[Syks7]

33 minutes ago, skraeling said:

Im still waffling on which shaft length I want to do.  Im getting my current one checked today and it is I *think* 45" as best I can measure.  Im about 6ft tall and I tend to miss off the toe.  Maybe an extra .5" could move it more towards the heel?  Or do I go full goblin and see if I cant hit a 46" shaft haha.

Would an extra inch of shaft length materially hurt me?  I dont know.  Would I like another 2-3mph for free?  mmmmm possibly especially with a supposedly more stable shaft.

My max stack speeds with a 45" driver.

Estimated stack speeds with a 46"

 It might theoretically add 2-3 mph with the added 1", but it also may end up costing you ball speed because you have less control and aren't hitting center of the face as much.  It's a judgement call on your end about whether or not you think you're consistent enough that the added length will be a benefit.  That said, a bit of added length isn't the end of the world.  It's pretty easy to take it into a shop and have a builder take some length off the butt.  I figure worst case for me is that I don't like either at 45-1/2 so I pop the grips off, cut the extension out of my gamer and take 1/2" off the Ventus.   

[skraeling]

Just now, Syks7 said:

 It might theoretically add 2-3 mph with the added 1", but it also may end up costing you ball speed because you have less control and aren't hitting center of the face as much.  It's a judgement call on your end about whether or not you think you're consistent enough that the added length will be a benefit.  That said, a bit of added length isn't the end of the world.  It's pretty easy to take it into a shop and have a builder take some length off the butt.  I figure worst case for me is that I don't like either at 45-1/2 so I pop the grips off, cut the extension out of my gamer and take 1/2" off the Ventus.   

Im looking through my trackman data and if the stock Ventus TR shafts are 45.5" Im going to do that as it looks like it was overall just better.  looking on TM's website looks like they increased it to 45.75" as stock standard.  Hmmmmm... decisions decisions.  Not like I cant just grip down heh.

[Preeway]

3 minutes ago, Syks7 said:

 It might theoretically add 2-3 mph with the added 1", but it also may end up costing you ball speed because you have less control and aren't hitting center of the face as much.  It's a judgement call on your end about whether or not you think you're consistent enough that the added length will be a benefit.  That said, a bit of added length isn't the end of the world.  It's pretty easy to take it into a shop and have a builder take some length off the butt.  I figure worst case for me is that I don't like either at 45-1/2 so I pop the grips off, cut the extension out of my gamer and take 1/2" off the Ventus.   

This is a good point. I trimmed my current Ventus down to 45” but then added a few grams of weight from 14g to 18g. I’d rather gain ball speed from more center contacts and consistent strikes. 

[skraeling]

Not a ton of difference between my stock 45" and a 45.75" one.  Big blue circle is my stock and so is the blurple (where it intersects the big blue circle up top)  orange and purple are the ventus TR5 I hit (assuming stock length on it he never said otherwise).  These are carry not total.

Edited May 17 by skraeling

[skraeling]

11 hours ago, skraeling said:

Not a ton of difference between my stock 45" and a 45.75" one.  Big blue circle is my stock and so is the blurple (where it intersects the big blue circle up top)  orange and purple are the ventus TR5 I hit (assuming stock length on it he never said otherwise).  These are carry not total.

So actually got the whole setup measured at GG and it’s actually a 46”.  So I think maybe going with the 45.75” play length (default stock length) may be the way to go for me.

[ole gray]

Congrats testers!  I'm hoping one of you boys is a senior as I'm very interested with how this shaft shakes out. 

[ole gray]

On 5/17/2024 at 7:54 AM, skraeling said:

Im still waffling on which shaft length I want to do.  Im getting my current one checked today and it is I *think* 45" as best I can measure.  Im about 6ft tall and I tend to miss off the toe.  Maybe an extra .5" could move it more towards the heel?  Or do I go full goblin and see if I cant hit a 46" shaft haha.

Would an extra inch of shaft length materially hurt me?  I dont know.  Would I like another 2-3mph for free?  mmmmm possibly especially with a supposedly more stable shaft.

My max stack speeds with a 45" driver.

Estimated stack speeds with a 46"

 

I'm 6'2' and play my driver shaft at 44.5 which helps me hit the center more often.

[Preeway]

My Introduction is finally up. I know we are still a couple weeks away from getting the shaft so plenty of time for people to weigh in and share what they want to see us test or measure. 

10 hours ago, ole gray said:

Congrats testers!  I'm hoping one of you boys is a senior as I'm very interested with how this shaft shakes out. 

I'm not technically a senior yet but at the age of 51 I can hear Father Time knocking on the door. I currently play my driver at 45".