The Ryder Cup is no time to tinker. Once you’re there, you’re locked in with your equipment and looking to grind practice days focusing on more important things like how to approach each hole, who is going to pair up and against best with who, and making sure that the clubs in your bag are performing EXACTLY the way that they should be. Some players will even go as far as to put older trusted equipment in the bag that they know they are 100% confident with rather than take the slightly higher performing option that they may be just 5% less confident in. This is the world stage. Leave nothing to chance. Let’s take a look at the driver shafts of the 2025 Ryder Cup.
Driver Shafts at the 2025 Ryder Cup
One of the most personal decisions a player can make for their bag is what driver set-up and more specifically what driver shaft they are going to put in play. This year at the 2025 Ryder Cup we already have a tie. Mitsubishi and Fujikura both have 10 driver shafts in play, with Graphite Design, Project X, UST Mamiya, and LA GOLF each in a singular bag.
The more interesting discovery here is that the Mitsubishi side is dominated by their Diamana family, while the Fujikura side is dominated by their Ventus family. The intriguing aspect here is that these wouldn’t necessarily be competing families. Diamana tends to be for players with a little bit more deliberate action in their swing and provides a bit more feel, more similar to Fujikura’s Speeder family. Fujikura’s Ventus is geared towards the “hitter” — the players who unleash everything they have at the golf ball, typically less worried about feel and more worried about raw power, which would be more similar to the Mitsubishi Tensei lineup.
Keep in mind here that when we talk about shaft profile we’re talking about the structure of the golf swing from transition to impact. Speed is not a relevant factor. These guys all swing really hard. What matters to them is how the shaft behaves during their golf swing, and that’s where profile comes into play. If you look at the players in Diamana and Ventus, it makes sense pretty quickly. Here’s the list on the Diamana side.
Team Diamana
Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay are in the Gen4 Diamana ZF
Shane Lowry and Colin Morikawa are in the Diamana D+ Limited
Tyrell Hatton is in the Gen5 Diamana TB
Xander Schauffele is in the Gen5 Diamana PD
Justin Rose is in the Gen6 Diamana WB
Mitsubishi Chemical Diamana WB Wood Shaft
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The first thing you’ll notice with Team Diamana is that most of them are in profiles that they have been playing for a long time. Colin and Shane have been in Diamana D+ Limited for as long as I can remember equipment stories of their bags, JT went BACK into his trusted ZF from years ago even after working with the Mitsubishi team for the better part of the season on a Diamana JT Prototype (which he won with), and Cantlay has never wavered. If Tyrell Hatton ever leaves the Diamana TB I think that’s the day he retires, and Justin Rose’s classic swing was basically made for the Diamana Whiteboard profile. And then finally, the Diamana PD has an incredibly soft handle section leading into a super stiff tip section that helps to create tons of lag in Xander’s powerful swing. Mark Immelman did a fantastic job breaking down his swing at last year’s Traveler’s Championship
Team Ventus
On the Ventus side, we have a bunch of guys who just go after the golf ball on every single tee box. RAW power, less deliberate in their golf swings.
Rory McIllroy, Scottie Scheffler, John Rahm, Ludvig Aberg, and JJ Spaun (Velo+) are all in the Ventus Black.
Tommy Fleetwood and Harris English are in Ventus TR Blue
Sam Burns, Sepp Straka (Velo+), and Sam Burns are all in Ventus Blue.
Fujikura Ventus Black Wood Shaft (Velocore+)
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Again, these are shafts that have been in these bags for a while. The OG Ventus Black was released in 2019, but you’ll have to pry that shaft out of McIllroy’s cold dead hands. Even the TR profiles are already 4 years old now. Only Spaun and Straka have gotten into the newer Velo+ profiles.
Immelman also broke down Rory’s swing. Pay attention to the different ways that he describes their transition and the midpoint of their golf swings. Xander lets the profile of the Diamana shaft help him generate lag and speed. Rory on the flip side of the coin rips his hands down to the ball, and needs a more linear profile to stick with him during the course of that aggression. Two different types of aggression, built for different profiles.
Driver shafts get me goin’. Excited to watch both teams this week and in my head I’ll be counting up the points here for Diamana v Ventus just like I will for the actual leaderboard. In case you were wondering the ONLY other Fujikura shaft in the field is Viktor Hovland’s Speeder TR, and the three other Mitusbishi shafts are all Tensei products. Fitzpatrick is in an older AV RAW Orange, Cam Young is in the new 1k Pro Orange, and Rasmus is in a 1k Pro Blue.
Are you Team Diamana or Team Ventus? Find out today with a True Spec fitting.
