Ventus Blue vs Ventus Black vs Ventus Blue tipped

[Summit]

I thought I would start a new thread on this one since some may not dive back into the old thread to see the results, and we can keep them separate for those that don't really care for the testing. This can be a continuing thing if people are interested. I'll continue to gather data and provide that as we go. I'll get more detailed as we go including strike locations, ball flights and dispersion charts etc.

It was stated in the other thread the the Tour Reps for Fujikura were giving word that the Ventus Blue tipped 1"-1.5" was producing some fairly special numbers and more players were gravitating towards that over the newer Black. Here are my findings.

Alright everyone... the results are in. I want to preface all of this with a few things.

1. I was not swinging at my top speeds due to my rib injury. I'm still quite sore, so I was topping out at 110 with averages at 108-109
2. I hit 15 shots with each shaft and used the top 5
3. This is by no means a scientific study. Hitting 45 total shots does give us a good sample size to make any conclusive decisions.
4. I used a Ping G410 LST 9 turned down 1 and flat and played it at 45" right around D2-D3

Here are my feels throughout this test.

Ventus Blue 6X (untipped) - this felt the most "unstable" to me. My strike pattern was more sporadic and found it hard to find the middle

Ventus Black 6X - this felt the most "natural" to me. I am the most used to this shaft as I played it for a little while. It was the lowest launching and lowest flight out of all of them.

Ventus Blue 6X tipped 1.5" - this felt very different and took me 8 swings to finally get results. Once I found a groove with it, I was impressed by the numbers. However, it felt the most difficult to swing. I felt like when I went at it, I was hitting it great, but once I started to try and hit "fairway finding" shots, I struggled a little. I would not hold that against the shaft though, because I am not swinging my best at the moment.


Final Thoughts

I can definitely see where players would go for the Ventus Blue tipped over the others if you don't need a lower launch/flight. If you're a high launch/high flight player, the Ventus Black would probably produce better results. I am going to get a Ventus Blue 6X installed in my gamer to keep testing on the course. If anyone has more questions, please feel free to message me or tag me on this thread and I'll answer when possible.

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[NoShanks]

Interesting results. I’m curious why the blue tipped 1-1.5” produces this result. I play the black 7x untipped and love it. Super stable. I have the blue 7x in my 3 wood and I like the feel as well and love the flight

might have to try a blue 7x (maybe 6x?) tipped an inch to compare with the black7x one day.

 

[radiman]

Just bumping this so it shows up on my feed

 

[jin_xianjun]

Just bumping this so it shows up on my feed

ditto

 

[davo32683]

Do you have tip to graphic measurements you can share? Trying to figure out if one I am looking at is tip trimmed

 

[Realmfg]

Looking forward to following this discussion. I have a Black 6X untipped on my Mavrik and I am hitting the most consistent drives of my life. Its been awesome. Seeing the huge distance gain with the Blue tipped has me interested, that's for sure. Wondering if using a Blue Stiff tipped over the X tipped would make it feel not as broady or hard to swing. Decision decisions.....

I noticed a low launch with the Black, so the Blue should work fine for me. Although, last time out I teed the ball just a hair higher and got much higher ball flight but lost some dispersion.

 

[Summit]

Interesting results. I’m curious why the blue tipped 1-1.5” produces this result. I play the black 7x untipped and love it. Super stable. I have the blue 7x in my 3 wood and I like the feel as well and love the flight

might have to try a blue 7x (maybe 6x?) tipped an inch to compare with the black7x one day.

Fujikura trimming guide says to go straight in on driver shafts. The Blue feels a little loose to me straight in, so I had previously tipped one .5” when it first came out. Once the Black came out, I felt much more at home with it. However, the launch/flight tended to be just a shade too low for my liking. The Blue tipped 1.5” seems to really stabilize it and maintain its launch characteristics. It’s a good shaft, but I don’t think I have spent enough time with it to conclusively say tipping it 1.5” unlocks magic.

 

[Summit]

Looking forward to following this discussion. I have a Black 6X untipped on my Mavrik and I am hitting the most consistent drives of my life. Its been awesome. Seeing the huge distance gain with the Blue tipped has me interested, that's for sure. Wondering if using a Blue Stiff tipped over the X tipped would make it feel not as broady or hard to swing. Decision decisions.....

I noticed a low launch with the Black, so the Blue should work fine for me. Although, last time out I teed the ball just a hair higher and got much higher ball flight but lost some dispersion.

The downside of this “experiment” is it doesn’t really prove anything to anyone other than myself. I had these results, yours may be completely different. You could spend time and money getting the Blue, tip it and then find out you hate it or it doesn’t work for you.

As time goes on I’ll try to have some different golfers test it out to see if they produce similar results. The reason I don’t think people will see similar results is my output didn’t change much in terms of ball speed. The shaft just put my launch/spin into a better window.

 

[jfrigo1003]

Very interesting and thanks for your results! In the limited time Ive had with the 6x Black I dont think its as amazing as I hoped. Its definitely extremely stable without feeling boardy, but my ball speed is down, launch is down, spin is up. Its been accurate in testing and its a great fairway finding shaft (which is obviously important) but for me there are better options.

Id try the Blue 6x tipped only 1" and would bet its a great fit

 

[Summit]

Very interesting and thanks for your results! In the limited time Ive had with the 6x Black I dont think its as amazing as I hoped. Its definitely extremely stable without feeling boardy, but my ball speed is down, launch is down, spin is up. Its been accurate in testing and its a great fairway finding shaft (which is obviously important) but for me there are better options.

Id try the Blue 6x tipped only 1" and would bet its a great fit

Low launch and high spin typically indicate a low strike. I have had a similar result with the Black in the G410 head and the Sim Max head. My strike tended to be lower. I don’t think that’s due to the Ventus Black as much as it is the Black is going to fit a smaller group of golfers. It also is a testament to Fujikura for bringing the Blue our first and then adding to their line. All 3 are very different and touch a wide demographic.


I’ll be adding the Ventus Blue tipped 1.5” into my fitting matrix for sure.

 

[jfrigo1003]

Low launch and high spin typically indicate a low strike. I have had a similar result with the Black in the G410 head and the Sim Max head. My strike tended to be lower. I don’t think that’s due to the Ventus Black as much as it is the Black is going to fit a smaller group of golfers. It also is a testament to Fujikura for bringing the Blue our first and then adding to their line. All 3 are very different and touch a wide demographic.


I’ll be adding the Ventus Blue tipped 1.5” into my fitting matrix for sure.

so have you decided to game any of the shafts you tried? I took the Ventus Black out of my SIM Max and putting in in the Cobra SZ Xtreme. Ive tried 3 shafts in the SIM Max and never hit it as well as I did the m5 all last year. I naturally always go for the new TM drivers but m5 was better in every way for me. Even during testing both the SIM and SIM max for a month back in February I couldn't hit either model. Bought the Max thinking eventually id figured it out but still cant hit it

Maybe the Ventus Black has something to do with it but like mentioned ive tried 3 shafts in the SIM Max and struggle with it. Confidence is much higher in the Cobra so ill try that out. Get to play the first round with it tomorrow!

 

[Jmk202]

This is a cool topic and @Summit did an awesome job writing this up and putting the data together. Looks like the attack angle was significantly lower for the Black, my understanding is that is mostly a swing technique, not shaft mechanics, do others agree? If so that may put those numbers on a low side. Another question, aside from playing around would most of us play a driver that gave us 6 more yards if it felt hard to swing?

 

[GolfMT36]

This is a cool topic and @Summit did an awesome job writing this up and putting the data together. Looks like the attack angle was significantly lower for the Black, my understanding is that is mostly a swing technique, not shaft mechanics, do others agree? If so that may put those numbers on a low side. Another question, aside from playing around would most of us play a driver that gave us 6 more yards if it felt hard to swing?

AoA can be influenced by either the bend profile of the shaft or how the shaft influences the golfer swinging it, or both. The numbers are right where you would assume they should be when looking at a low vs. mid launch shaft. The blue gives a little more and allows the head to lead the shaft more at impact giving higher launch numbers. Of course how much was the shaft vs. the feel of the shaft influencing the golfer's mechanics is extremely difficult to say. Also depends on what the golfers is used to both in his current driver shaft and the profile of the other shafts in his bag.

 

[Summit]

This is a cool topic and @Summit did an awesome job writing this up and putting the data together. Looks like the attack angle was significantly lower for the Black, my understanding is that is mostly a swing technique, not shaft mechanics, do others agree? If so that may put those numbers on a low side. Another question, aside from playing around would most of us play a driver that gave us 6 more yards if it felt hard to swing?

Swing mechanics can be heavily influenced by shafts and their profiles/weights etc. Also, as I said in the original post, this is not scientific by any means. It's an extremely small sample size, I wasn't feeling the best and I was switching between the three shafts with not much time in between. It also only shows how I personally reacted to the shafts but means almost nothing for how you'll react to them. The shaft that felt "hard to swing" would most likely not feel that way on another day and with time spent with it.

 

[Summit]

so have you decided to game any of the shafts you tried? I took the Ventus Black out of my SIM Max and putting in in the Cobra SZ Xtreme. Ive tried 3 shafts in the SIM Max and never hit it as well as I did the m5 all last year. I naturally always go for the new TM drivers but m5 was better in every way for me. Even during testing both the SIM and SIM max for a month back in February I couldn't hit either model. Bought the Max thinking eventually id figured it out but still cant hit it

Maybe the Ventus Black has something to do with it but like mentioned ive tried 3 shafts in the SIM Max and struggle with it. Confidence is much higher in the Cobra so ill try that out. Get to play the first round with it tomorrow!

I am not gaming any of the Ventus line currently. I can't really help guide you with the SIM vs Cobra without knowing some more information. The Ventus line is really good, but most people will gravitate towards the Black when they should be looking at the Blue or even the Red.

 

[rogt]

Great info guys. Have a Blue S Ventus velocore and it feels to lose to me. At first pretty great but lately it feels like a noodle and Dispersion is all over the place, if I jump on it the shaft kicks and thee ball goes left, if I stay back and try to tempo it goes right. Sure might be swing but I’m debating tipping mine or maybe going up to a 6X Blue?? Thoughts? Ball shape trying to be consistent with is a cut. Installed a hazrdus smoke black and it’s doing what I want so wondering j how the two shafts ?

 

[Summit]

Great info guys. Have a Blue S Ventus velocore and it feels to lose to me. At first pretty great but lately it feels like a noodle and Dispersion is all over the place, if I jump on it the shaft kicks and thee ball goes left, if I stay back and try to tempo it goes right. Sure might be swing but I’m debating tipping mine or maybe going up to a 6X Blue?? Thoughts? Ball shape trying to be consistent with is a cut. Installed a hazrdus smoke black and it’s doing what I want so wondering j how the two shafts ?

HZRDUS Smoke Black and Ventus Blue are two different profiles. If you're liking the Smoke Black, the Ventus Black is a more similar match. The Ventus is a lower launching shaft than the Smoke, but the EI curves are more similar than the Ventus Blue and the Smoke Black. Tipping the Blue may help with feel, or it may not. You may just prefer the shaft profile of the Smoke Black over the Ventus Blue and if that's the case, tipping it may not do much for you.

 

[H8tobogie]

Cool writeup! I have the Black 6X coming in a new Cobra SZ Xtreme head - so very interested in seeing some numbers. Your results only make me more excited to get this thing in play! Thanks!

 

[rogt]

HZRDUS Smoke Black and Ventus Blue are two different profiles. If you're liking the Smoke Black, the Ventus Black is a more similar match. The Ventus is a lower launching shaft than the Smoke, but the EI curves are more similar than the Ventus Blue and the Smoke Black. Tipping the Blue may help with feel, or it may not. You may just prefer the shaft profile of the Smoke Black over the Ventus Blue and if that's the case, tipping it may not do much for you.

Thanks for the info. I’m wondering instead of tipping the blue is just looking for a 6X blue any thoughts into that? Not a high swing speed but aggressive downswing

 

[Summit]

Thanks for the info. I’m wondering instead of tipping the blue is just looking for a 6X blue any thoughts into that? Not a high swing speed but aggressive downswing

I wouldn't use flex to "match" your downswing, but rather match shaft profile to your swing characteristics and flex to the swing/speed as a whole. The Ventus Blackb 6S would be a better match from what I'm hearing.

 

[rogt]

Thanks I’ll start looking for one

 

[PGho]

Fujikura trimming guide says to go straight in on driver shafts. The Blue feels a little loose to me straight in, so I had previously tipped one .5” when it first came out. Once the Black came out, I felt much more at home with it. However, the launch/flight tended to be just a shade too low for my liking. The Blue tipped 1.5” seems to really stabilize it and maintain its launch characteristics. It’s a good shaft, but I don’t think I have spent enough time with it to conclusively say tipping it 1.5” unlocks magic.

Aaaah. I really wish I read this thread before ordering the 7x black, coming from an oban black 7x tipped 1" just wanted a bit more height. I hope it works out or back to the drawing board lol

 

[PGho]

I am not gaming any of the Ventus line currently. I can't really help guide you with the SIM vs Cobra without knowing some more information. The Ventus line is really good, but most people will gravitate towards the Black when they should be looking at the Blue or even the Red.

Ya, I totally went with the black. I ordered it without testing it. Now that I'm reading this thread coming from an oban black tipped an inch and wanting a bit more height I might have just bought the exact same shaft. Lol

 

[PGho]

Thanks for the info. I’m wondering instead of tipping the blue is just looking for a 6X blue any thoughts into that? Not a high swing speed but aggressive downswing

I have an aggressive transition as well used do do a bit of long drive competition and training. Now that I'm a bit older I find timing is everything, and finding a shaft that doesn't launch too low without lagging or slowing a swing down to adjust to a higher launch shaft just creates a balloon spinning nightmare. I'm a shaft ho for sure. And besides the heavy oban black tipped a bunch I have been still looking for my unicorn shaft that will perform on a fairway finder swing as well as a all out warmed up bomb. I usually find that the tip stiff and low torque shafts do work the best because they rebound to straight faster, and maybe it's in my head but I can feel it. So I've been searching for 2 years to find a shaft that does 2 different things and its impossible.

 

[DNice26]

I have an aggressive transition as well used do do a bit of long drive competition and training. Now that I'm a bit older I find timing is everything, and finding a shaft that doesn't launch too low without lagging or slowing a swing down to adjust to a higher launch shaft just creates a balloon spinning nightmare. I'm a shaft ho for sure. And besides the heavy oban black tipped a bunch I have been still looking for my unicorn shaft that will perform on a fairway finder swing as well as a all out warmed up bomb. I usually find that the tip stiff and low torque shafts do work the best because they rebound to straight faster, and maybe it's in my head but I can feel it. So I've been searching for 2 years to find a shaft that does 2 different things and its impossible.

Have you tried the TPT shafts? Just curious....