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Mizuno JPX 921 Irons Review

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SuperStroke
My 921 Tours and I are almost one month into our relationship and it could be love.

Paired with the Project X 6.5 I have found them to be extremely consistent. So many shots of late have been pin high to the metre, and it's wonderful playing clubs where you know that as long as you hit it somewhere near the middle you will get the exact carry you want.

After the first few rounds I was noticing that full shots with the short irons were landing and ripping back off greens which I've addresed with a ball change (TP5 to TP5x). Another surprise is how much I love the set GW. It's deadly with knock down shots, but I have been having great success as my go-to club around greens for bump and runs. I've chipped in twice with it already and had three chips today that lipped out.

Handicap is down a full stroke after just 5 rounds. I've posted lower scores before, just not this consistently low.
 
Faiz said:
Definitely, when you have them in hand they're just gorgeous.

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I definitely might see if I can pick up some 8-G heads down the road to build yo for when I’m feeling really good about striking it.
 
HarryPotter said:
I definitely might see if I can pick up some 8-G heads down the road to build yo for when I’m feeling really good about striking it.
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i think 8i would be a good breakpoint for the combo set
 
McLovin said:
i think 8i would be a good breakpoint for the combo set
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Agree for sure. The forged are such a joy to hit in the 5-7, I think it would be a great set. Bend the tours 1* strong or something.
 
I’m really surprised by the number of people who are gaming the tours. I really thought they would be amazing but tough to hit - I may need to reassess that assumption
 
Molten said:
I’m really surprised by the number of people who are gaming the tours. I really thought they would be amazing but tough to hit - I may need to reassess that assumption
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It has kind of surprised me, as well, particularly where the Forged provide such a good look and feel.
 
I might play them in the 9-Gap if I was playing 921's. But that's it. :)
 
Molten said:
I’m really surprised by the number of people who are gaming the tours. I really thought they would be amazing but tough to hit - I may need to reassess that assumption
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I can tell you straight away. I am not a great player. I usually find the center of the club, but not the center of the club face, if that makes sense.

The tours are NOT at all difficult to hit. They feel fantastic off of just about every strike, but provide you with the feedback on what you did wrong (aka, where the ball hit the face,) which I feel is important in a golf club.

*I hate hitting a great shot only to see it was 1mm away from being a hosel rocket. How will I ever improve with that?
 
I know I have been loosely basing my experience with all of these clubs I've been trying on spin performance, but man do the Tours spin well! I hit a few beauties yesterday that would have made Phil proud. And that's with the PX shafts - which are a bit much for my swing. I'm really happy with these clubs
 
Space Bandito said:
I can tell you straight away. I am not a great player. I usually find the center of the club, but not the center of the club face, if that makes sense.

The tours are NOT at all difficult to hit. They feel fantastic off of just about every strike, but provide you with the feedback on what you did wrong (aka, where the ball hit the face,) which I feel is important in a golf club.

*I hate hitting a great shot only to see it was 1mm away from being a hosel rocket. How will I ever improve with that?
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Really glad to hear this. I ordered the JPX 921 tours (SEL) and am dying at the wait to get them. I'll circle back and contribute my thoughts on the forgiveness question when I get my set in hand.
 
Molten said:
I’m really surprised by the number of people who are gaming the tours. I really thought they would be amazing but tough to hit - I may need to reassess that assumption
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head to head against my mav pros, i didn’t see any marginal difference in forgiveness. it was a quick, limited sample. i wasn’t wearing a glove or golf shoes. no warm up. and don’t have my best swing. but i don’t recall any shots where i hit a mav pro marginally well, and got a good result, where i had a similar strike with the 921 tour, and saw a worse result. in fact, the two performed surprisingly similarly.
 
Space Bandito said:
I can tell you straight away. I am not a great player. I usually find the center of the club, but not the center of the club face, if that makes sense.

The tours are NOT at all difficult to hit. They feel fantastic off of just about every strike, but provide you with the feedback on what you did wrong (aka, where the ball hit the face,) which I feel is important in a golf club.

*I hate hitting a great shot only to see it was 1mm away from being a hosel rocket. How will I ever improve with that?
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McLovin said:
head to head against my mav pros, i didn’t see any marginal difference in forgiveness. it was a quick, limited sample. i wasn’t wearing a glove or golf shoes. no warm up. and don’t have my best swing. but i don’t recall any shots where i hit a mav pro marginally well, and got a good result, where i had a similar strike with the 921 tour, and saw a worse result. in fact, the two performed surprisingly similarly.
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Very, very nice to hear this type of feedback. 2021 has got some killer irons I need to hit and the tours are on that list
 
Molten said:
I’m really surprised by the number of people who are gaming the tours. I really thought they would be amazing but tough to hit - I may need to reassess that assumption
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I found the 919 Tour very hard to hit. The 921 Tour not so much. Mizuno claims the MOI has increased between models but I obviously can't measure that.

My assumption is that the difference I feel is due to changes in weight distribution in the head. The 919 Tour distributed a large % of the head weight towards the toe that would help with a certain type of miss. The 921 Tour puts more mass around the entire cavity and behind the hitting area that I assume helps with all types of misses.

When being fitted I found the 921 Tour to be no more or less demanding than the 921 Forged. The biggest difference for me was carry consistency. 921 Forged was a bit all over the place. 921 Tour was precise. When I went to hitting off turf I found that the thicker sole of the 921 Forged did not get through the turf as cleanly as the 921 Tour.
 
The tours (SEL) look and feel are just money. 8 more days to go until i get my fit done. I have hit around 50 balls with the 6 iron and it was all it took for me to say full fitting please.
 
I'm still a higher handicap player but working on my game, but I had a really good experience when getting fitted for irons. The Hot Metals really provided a lot of performance improvements over my old irons from 2010. I gained nearly 30 yards of carry distance without sacrificing descent angle. Plus, I loved the way they felt and sounded. I just picked up my new fitted irons today!

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Lefty JB said:
Getting fitted in the morning for some tasty 921 tour SEL. Mega excited here.
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Where you going for this fitting, can't wait to hear about your fitting with the SELs.
 
Not a lot of real news regarding the fitting session. It took around 1 hour to complete. I did the usual hit about 15 balls with my irons to get loose. Then I hit around 10 balls with my 7 iron to get a bench mark for distance spin etc. I was then handed a club with the iron fitting measure gauge on it and I hit 3 balls with that and then it gave a few recommendations. It was the usual 130 gram x flex type iron shaft prediction. Project X, dynamic old x100. The too did also recommend a lie angle of 1.5 flat which was odd for me as I am usual a standard LLL. I did those swings with a tour head but did not notice what shaft was in it.
After watching me hit a few and seeing my cobra cb/mb irons he did hint that the MP20 Sel irons could also be an option. But I said my preference is a smaller headed iron however my blade days are over. He pushed me a little and said lets hit a few and see. So after a few shaft changes and around 40 balls he said okay. We got some real good numbers and the flight is where you would like it. I was getting an average of 165 yards (150 meters) and 7250 spin. I do not remember what the launch was but the flight was mid to low. The one thin i did notice was as far as blades go the mizuno for mind did not seem as harsh or penal as others on slightly off centre strikes.
I then said lets try the JPX tour SEL. These were the ones that I thought would be the clear straight in the bag irons. We started off we some c taper 130 gram shafts in the 7 iron and i did a few. But after 3 balls I said the shaft is just not for me and the fitter agreed. In went a project x 6.5 shaft and it felt better but was not giving me any more distance and my swing speed went down with it. The fitter said if the shaft is to heavy for a player then typically the swing speed drops a bit and the strike can suffer. So we tried a few with KBS tour V in 120 gram X flex which I had a great match with in the MP20 blades. The strike and ball speed immediately improved and my swing speed was back to where we started at. The only issue was the flight was a tad high and we both said if we could bring that down a little it would be perfect. He suggested the KBS $ taper at 120 grams might be a better match for me. So in the shaft went and BINGO an average of 170 yards with spin at 6800 and the launch and flight was as good as it will ever get for me. It must have been something in the balance of the club with that shaft that made the real difference for me. Granted no of the others I would call real stinkers, ut they were just not the goldilocks for me. MMM decision time now do I go with the blades or the tours.
To be honest the feel between the two irons was very similar but the tours just gave me that slight more help and that to me was the difference maker. If I was a fews younger the blades would have been straight in. The 921 forged in the 4 and 5 irons were quite big to look at after hitting the mp20 and tours. But I hit around 10 balls with the 4 irons and it was okay. The club feel was excellent but not that love soft feel of the mp20. If the tours had the same feel as the forged I would still be happy with them. Don't think the forged are not great feeing irons they are just different. In the end i settled on the JPX tours SEL 4-GW with the KBS $ 120 gram shafts at 1.5 flat. Now the real sucky part is a 6 week wait for them to be built. There is a bit of a back log here due to COVID so the wait is unavoidable. I did suggest they just let me buy the heads and I will build the clubs but they were having none of that. To be honest its probably best they make them that way i know they are right and my muppet club building skills would not wreck what is a beautifully set of irons. Guys if you on the fence with these I would not hesitate to say go for it and give them a go. The tours are not as demanding as some my elude to and if you are a reasonable ball striker than these should be on your radar. I did see the new ping g425driver and fw, the srixon zx5 and zx7. That ping driver looks huge to my eye. The srixon driver look real nice. If I had the time and energy left I would have given them a run.
Just to note - Due to covid here the Mizuno fitting was at a brand agnostic centre that mizuno has hired as there fitting centre as the wanted to separate there home base office and production to fitting centre so if one area gets the dreaded rona then the other can still continue. Cheers guys and sorry for the long winded post. i am begging for these to come pre christmas.
 
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i hit the 921t again today, this time side-by-side with other clubs. while distance, spin and consistency were all there, the feel was severely lacking compared to today’s competition. so as good as they look, and as well as they perform as intended, i couldn’t game them on feel alone. not when there are other options that do just as well in the same class and feel better.
 
Picked up my 921F from GolfTec today and can’t wait to get them to the range tomorrow although it will be fairly cool.
 
Finally had a fitting with the Mizuno fitter and rep this week. I currently play 2015 / 16 Cobra Forged Tec with DG 95 S200 shafts. 7 iron typically carries right around 155 yards and I can get a high ball flight with not a lot of roll.

First up we started with the Hot metal 7 iron good strong high launching ball flight, this sounds stupid but it carried too far and I'd have problems with shorter distances. Next up the Forged, launched 17.4 degrees, spin was 6590, ball speed 119mph, carry 167.3 yards, not much roll out. This was with the same DG 95 S200 shaft and a 2* flat head. I miss left with my irons and that 2* flat eliminated the left side. Ball flight was high with a 43* descent angle, and straight. Off centre hits didn't seem to lose that much distance.

I also hit the HMP and the Tour, distances were up with both HM's, but to much and dispersion was greater than the Forged. The Tour wasn't for me. I also tried the MP20 HMB and on centre hits it was very similar to the JPX Forged, however on off centre the Forged are far more friendly.

The DG shafts are custom order here in Thailand, so we also tried the Modus tour 105 and 120. The 105 I didn't like at all, the felt very head heavy and low launching. The 120 felt a lot better and similar to the DG's.

Price wise, they were offering a promotional 25% discount, free stand bag and umbrella or a free wedge. The local sport store had them in stock for a few thousand baht less and the Mizuno Rep happened to be in there this morning when I went to check the price. He has agreed to sell 5-PW DG 95 S200 shafts, 2* flat for the same price. Now I have a 20 - 30 day wait, realistically I expect more likely 5 - 6 weeks as this is Thailand.
 
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