Welcome to I Tried It, a GOLF.com series about golf items — apparel, gear, accessories and more — that we’ve recently taken out for a spin. We’re here to give our honest, no-frills takes on the latest and greatest golf or golf-adjacent items. Keep scrolling to read about what we love about golf’s newest (or new to us) products.
The Fujikura Ventus family of golf shafts has dominated on Tour for the last couple of seasons, and earlier this year the company released an updated version to the Ventus TR Blue, adding Velocore+ technology. Fujikura also has changed the way it lays its Spread Tow fabric in the handle section, opting for a 90º layout rather than an angled layout. This increases torsional stability in the handle, while maintaining feel throughout the swing. (For more on the differences between the OG TR Blue and the new Velocore+ TR Blue, check out this piece by my colleague Jack Hirsh.)
If you’ve been keeping up with our Fully Fit series, you may have noticed that I got fit into the OG TR Blue during several driver fittings; Cobra, Callaway and TaylorMade all opted for the Velocore version of the TR Blue. Thing is, though I’ve have had lots of success with the TR Blue in my driver, opting to play it for the end of the season last year in a Qi35 head before switching things up this year with the same Velocore TR Blue in my Qi4D, I haven’t had much success with the TR Blue in my fairway woods or a mini driver. I’ve always had to search for a different solution. So I was excited to try the new TR Blue with Velocore+, because it was described to me as offering more feel paired with more stiffness in the handle. Boy, was that an understatement.
Fujikura turned the TR Blue Velocore+ into a speed-hungry powerhouse. The handle section is significantly stiffer to me than the OG version was. Because of that I find myself a bit faster with the new version, but it doesn’t really match my transition. So although I was consistently hitting the same spot on the face, the head wasn’t delivering exactly what I needed. While the OG TR Blue Velocore helped me produce a nice tight draw, I found the TR Blue with Velocore+ much harder to turn over. It’s got a lot more “anti-left” in it. It still sits as a nice offering between Velocore+ Blue and TR Black, but with an upgraded feel. For me, it’s not the best option for a driver, but you know what it might be great for? Building a new fairway wood.
Fujikura 2026 Ventus TR Blue Wood Shaft (Velocore+)
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Because of the differences in how shafts deliver, I’ve always found that something that doesn’t work well for me in a driver seems to work well in a fairway wood. I try to stay steep with my fairway woods, as if I am hitting my irons. I also produce a bit more of a violent swing. While I prefer a softer handle in my driver, I usually opt for something with a stiffer handle in the rest of the bag. The only problem? I hate 3-woods. With a burning passion. I’m not good at hitting them, they don’t do what I need them do to and they own me mentally. Enter the TR Blue with Velocore+.
The numbers you see above are really good for me: 260 yards off the deck is perfect for what I need, and the best part was the new TR Blue Velo+ wants to be swung fast. The more I pulled on the handle in the top of the swing, the faster the club got and the more consistent it felt. It’s almost as if speed unlocks the profile. Getting more neutral in attack to the ball also seemed to help the profile perform better for me, and contact on the face was in the same spot every time. The dispersion on that chart above may seem wide, but I promise you, for me and my cruddy fairway-wood play, it’s close to a miracle. It got even better when I put the ball on a short tee.
Look at that dispersion! This was with a 16.5º fairway wood (a 4-wood), and these numbers off the tee were perfect. A straight to controlled draw that never took off left on me, a nice spin window at 3,000 RPMs and ball speed that’s a tick higher than I usually generate with a fairway wood of this loft off the tee. You’ll also notice there’s a ball in there that carried past the others in the group. That one went about 270 in the air and rolled out to 290. It was my last swing, and I gave it everything I had in transition — proving, again, that the profile likes speed. The faster you can go, the more the shaft will help, and the more stable the profile is through the swing.
All in all, there’s hope here. I’m on a long journey to find a fairway wood I can play consistently, and a major part of that search is going to be finding the right shaft to give me confidence in the swing I need to produce. So far, the new TR Blue has passed all the tests, and knowing that I can swing hard and stick with my more neutral to down attack angle on the fairways is a big confidence booster. Honestly, I’m a little bit bummed that the profile changed so much from the OG, but the game is growing, players are getting stronger and faster, and it was time to get the stronger players a more confidence-inspiring mid-launch profile. So, while the TR Blue with Velcore+ won’t make it into the driver for me, it’s the leader in the clubhouse for a fairway wood build.
