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Mizuno MP-54 Preview

SuperStroke
TC44 said:
Thanks. Just want to make sure I get this right! My gut tells me to go with the manufacturer's specs, but I know that tons of guys bend irons a bit stronger so it shouldn't be a big issue, ...... Mainly a mental thing either way....
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I wouldn't sweat it man.

DufferToo said:
Come on guys, a little Mizuno nip now and then helps to make you a better player.:D

Hawk,
Being a "combo" set I was curious if you notice a logical progression of distances and corresponding ball flights or is there a noticable change (higher/lower) at the transition irons?

I'm glad that you haven't noticed a huge difference in sound between the CB's and the MB's in the set.
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I've not really noticed much difference at this point. My peak height is pretty similar across the board, from 5-PW. Really, I don't even think I'd notice one portion of the set had a cavity and the rest didn't if you handed them to me and didn't tell me.


Played some pretty ok golf with these today and will get around to an update later tonight or tomorrow. Windy, windy day.
 
I somehow missed this thread until now but I will echo what has already been said many times...these are BEAUTIFUL! Looking forward to your review sir.
 
Ok, the 54's are next up on my list to update. I'm going to refer you to this post in the Adam's Idea thread, because there is some relevant information there as well. If you read that, or have read it, then you'll see that I played two balls yesterday, one with each set of irons using the same tee ball (for consistency's sake).

Conditions were temps in the 40's, with winds at 18mph, regular gust to 30mph and I was playing right next to the might Mississippi. Definitely had some concerns going in about my ability to get the ball to the green into the wind, since I have seen a little distance loss with these in the mid/long irons. In the end, that was mostly not an issue, though it did crop up a time or two.

As mentioned in the other thread, I ended up with identical scores and identical number of GIR's among the two sets, though I didn't always hit the same greens. Played the same brand/model of golf ball with both.

First, I know some have had questions about turf interaction and I know I'm not always the best guy to answer that question. Typically will take a smallish divot with scoring irons and basically none with mid/long irons. First shot of the day was with a PW and I carved a pretty nice one by my standards. Ball here hooked a bit on thanks to the ball being above my feet. Cut through the soft bent grass very easily and as you can see, not much digging.

udady4eq.jpg


The irons cut nicely through the rough. Posted this picture in the other thread, but worth posting here. The divot-ish looking thing is the result of my shot with a 5 iron that came out with a solid mid trajectory and gave me a little 50 yard pitch as an approach on a par 5. Ball is there to give some perspective.

ge3aruju.jpg



Had the unique opportunity to get an up close look at forgiveness yesterday and I will say that these offer pretty much exactly what they advertise. A little help for the guy that needs a little, but bigger misses are going to be penalized a bit. Closer into the heel (but not far off) proved to be very close, if not almost the same, as center contact. Not unusal for irons of this type to have CG a little heel side though. Slight heavy shots are noticeably less forgiving with the thinner sole as expected. While I didn't dig any trenches, the club doesn't exactly have that slide that a wide sole offers. Saw that come into play on the third hole when I missed a bit behind on a partial swing PW from 100 yards. Ball bounced in front of the green and didn't quite make it on the putting surface.

Accuracy was typical, to above average for me. 5 greens in 12 holes is pretty good for me, though I missed my first few chances. Never by much, but still misses. As the round progressed I started hitting some very good shots though and saw exactly what the MP-54's can offer. Gave myself a few very makeable birdie putts from 130-165 yards.

I've decided not to talk about feel much this time around. To be perfectly honest I'm so confused about that right now that I don't feel like saying much. I hate the old foot in the mouth with a passion, so will politely ask for more time to gather thoughts and conclusions there. However, they still felt very nice on center impact and no stingers yesterday.

Distance was just as I stated before, though today I was actually able to prove it. Shots with the scoring irons were neck and neck with the other irons, but I did notice what amount to a progression of less distance from the 8 iron down to the 5 iron. Again though - this is expected and I'm not complaining about it. If you're looking at these irons you should be well aware that they are not marketed for distance. I posted some thoughts about that in the other thread and will copy/paste here...

Consistently a club further than the 54's in the mid irons, with that gap closing up as it got closer to the scoring irons. A few examples...

-On the first hole I had 130 yards and hit PW's with both sets, with both covering almost the exact same distance. Good contact on both.

-Layup shot on the second hole and hit 7 irons with both sets. Had 10 yards less (lasered) with the ball hit with the Idea iron.

-Approach on the 6th hole from 160 and the Idea 8 iron stopped about 5 yards closer to the hole.

-Approach on the last hole dead into the 30mph wind coming off the river. 7 iron was almost the exact same distance as the MP-54 6 iron. I hit another ball to see if I got the same result and it was within a few feet of the first. (pictured below)
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e2uzuga6.jpg



Wind performance was interesting. It was freaking windy. 30 mph gusts coming off the river are no joke. Saw some help on the few holes it was behind me, but I also saw some balls get knocked down. Into the wind with full shots I saw big high balls that lost a ton of steam. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect. I was regularly clubbing up 3+ clubs to get the green, but that did actually work out fine, with 2/5 of my GIR being that type of shot. I also dropped balls and tried flighting the ball down by clubbing up, moving the ball back, and taking less of a swing and that worked for distance, though I do draw that shot more and the wind did exaggerate that. In all, I thought I hung in there very very well for the conditions and never felt like I was intimidated by the fact that I might have a 6 iron in hand when normally it would be a 9 iron. As you can see from the picture above, it was something that I was able to pull off.


Let me know if you have questions. For now, I'll leave it at that.
 
Hawk,
Thanks for your response. I presumed that Mizuno would have ensured that there would be a seemless transition in ball flight across the set.

Some people would question "if they have the game" for these irons. Your latest update seems to confirm that those with fairly decent swings shouldn't be afraid at all.
 
DufferToo said:
Hawk,
Thanks for your response. I presumed that Mizuno would have ensured that there would be a seemless transition in ball flight across the set.

Some people would question "if they have the game" for these irons. Your latest update seems to confirm that those with fairly decent swings shouldn't be afraid at all.
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Nah, I think most could get along fine with them. There will definitely be some loss of yardage in certain spots and a smaller level of forgiveness, but they are quite playable for an iron in this class.
 
Thanks. Love the reviews!
I have been hitting the MP54 6 iron with KBS Tour Stiff shaft and find that it is easy to find the middle of the face and launch the ball with a powerful trajectory. I am hitting it straighter and producing a draw more easily than with my R11s with KBS Tour 90 shafts. I would describe the 54s as forgiving on slight mishits and the R11s or other more GI style irons as more forgiving on more major mishits.
 
TC44 said:
Thanks. Love the reviews!
I have been hitting the MP54 6 iron with KBS Tour Stiff shaft and find that it is easy to find the middle of the face and launch the ball with a powerful trajectory. I am hitting it straighter and producing a draw more easily than with my R11s with KBS Tour 90 shafts. I would describe the 54s as forgiving on slight mishits and the R11s or other more GI style irons as more forgiving on more major mishits.
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Definitely would agree with that. I love the way the ball comes off the face when you hit it well. Just a nice pleasing trajectory for me. Not overly high, but more than high enough to work well into greens.
 
One last thing.

The weight of the shafts and the irons in general was quite apparent while playing the lighter shafted irons next to them, as you'd expect with a good 50g difference. It wasn't all that noticable to me when playing the MP 54's on their own. I'm not sure if I can say I liked that or disliked it, but it was there.
 
Hawk great job on the review, thus far, but I have one request since I am in the market for some new irons for 2014...Please say something bad about them as I love the looks of these and have always liked the Mizuno sound/feel, but think I want to stick with something a bit more GI!!
 
niteowl03 said:
Hawk great job on the review, thus far, but I have one request since I am in the market for some new irons for 2014...Please say something bad about them as I love the looks of these and have always liked the Mizuno sound/feel, but think I want to stick with something a bit more GI!!
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LOL. Well, I think I've listed some of the things that could be possible detractions (and a lot of that has to do with what type of iron you like and where you're willing to compromise), but there's nothing about them that I'd consider glaringy bad.

I think one of the cooler things is that you could potentially integrate the MP H4's into the longer irons as well.
 
niteowl03 said:
Hawk great job on the review, thus far, but I have one request since I am in the market for some new irons for 2014...Please say something bad about them as I love the looks of these and have always liked the Mizuno sound/feel, but think I want to stick with something a bit more GI!!
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niteowl,
I own 2 sets of Mizunos, MP-60 & MP-67, and all I have for you is that you wouldn't want to get that nice chrome finish dirty/muddy. Hey, it's not much but it might prolong the ponder until summer.:D Seriously though, it won't hurt anything (except your wallet) to demo these. Based on Hawk's experience so far, it seems like you could be pleasantly surprised at how well the MP-54s fit your game.
 
Hawk said:
LOL. Well, I think I've listed some of the things that could be possible detractions (and a lot of that has to do with what type of iron you like and where you're willing to compromise), but there's nothing about them that I'd consider glaringy bad.

I think one of the cooler things is that you could potentially integrate the MP H4's into the longer irons as well.
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I am strongly considering the MP H4s in the 4, 5 and maybe 6 then something like the 825 Pros or 54s in the 7, 8, 9 to then flow into my SCORs.

DufferToo said:
niteowl,
I own 2 sets of Mizunos, MP-60 & MP-67, and all I have for you is that you wouldn't want to get that nice chrome finish dirty/muddy. Hey, it's not much but it might prolong the ponder until summer.:D Seriously though, it won't hurt anything (except your wallet) to demo these. Based on Hawk's experience so far, it seems like you could be pleasantly surprised at how well the MP-54s fit your game.
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I played the MP53s for about 6 months and truly feel that was my best ball striking days, Im working my butt off to get back to that form, these are so pretty and if they are better than the 53s i may not be able to resist!
 
I think the 54's would progress better with the H4's.
 
Hawk said:
I think the 54's would progress better with the H4's.
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Yea, the lofts are identical on the 53s/54s/H4s. 1* stronger on the 825 pros.
 
Might want to check shaft lengths and lie angles too. I don't know how they all compare, but it's worth looking at.
 
Hawk said:
Might want to check shaft lengths and lie angles too. I don't know how they all compare, but it's worth looking at.
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Exactly the same. Thats one of the things I have always liked about Mizuno, easy to order combo sets (excluding the JPX lines) with their being no upcharge
 
That is pretty cool.
 
Yeah-- these clubs are sweet! I just got my set yesterday and was amazed at how forgiving they were. The crazy thing was that I was worried to death over long irons, and it was the 9 and PW that gave me problems. I was slicing the heck out of them until I slowed things down. The turf interaction was great. My divots were nice (I'm a digger at times so I was concerned about that). I lost distance compared to my old irons (s56), but hoping it was the frigid weather.
 
RoundersRob said:
Interesting. The 800 pros are 2 degrees stronger on the 6 thru 9 iron.
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JPX800 Pro3456789PW
Loft2023262933374145
MP543456789PW
Loft2124273034384246

Im not sure where you see 2*, but the lofts on the 800Pro and 825Pro are exactly the same.
 
finally got to hit these outdoors today at a mizuno demo day. the mp-54 with the new xp 105 shaft is so money . I may have to pull the trigger on a set of these sooner then I was expecting lol . price isn't too bad when you don't get the 3 and 4 iron which I wouldn't need anyway.
 
I currently play the 54s in 5 thru 7 and MP 4s in 8 thru pw. My 4 iron is an MP H4 shafted with a Matrix Program 130. I use that basically as a driving iron. Before the 54 and 4 combo I played the entire MP H4 set. For some reason I did not get along with the H4s in the 5 thru pw. In my opinion the MP 54s are no less forgiving than the H4s. They feel so much more solid. I am blown away by the 54s. Make sure you hit both before you buy. If you can hit the H4s there is no question you can hit the 54s.
 
I have hit the 6 iron with the kbs tour, dgxp, NS 1150, px5.5, and tried the xp105 today. All in stiff flex. Swing speed is typically83, 84 but optimizer always puts me in stiff--I think because my transition is quick at the top so I impart a fair amount of shaft flex at the start of the downswing. The optimizer recommends, dynalite xp, NS, and kbs. After MANY swings on different days, the kbs suits me the best. Smooth feel, not too stiff, high but not ballooning flight and the relatively heavier shaft (currently playing kbs tour 90s) seems to help my tempo and really improves dispersion. With the xp105 I lost the feeling of the club in my swing and the sweet sensation at impact even felt muted. The 54s are sooooo sweet. Hit it against the 712 ap2 for the 2nd time today. No comparison for me. Mp54 by a landslide.
 
Old Folks said:
I currently play the 54s in 5 thru 7 and MP 4s in 8 thru pw. My 4 iron is an MP H4 shafted with a Matrix Program 130. I use that basically as a driving iron. Before the 54 and 4 combo I played the entire MP H4 set. For some reason I did not get along with the H4s in the 5 thru pw. In my opinion the MP 54s are no less forgiving than the H4s. They feel so much more solid. I am blown away by the 54s. Make sure you hit both before you buy. If you can hit the H4s there is no question you can hit the 54s.
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Thats a nice set up!

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