- Joined
- Jul 2, 2018
- Messages
- 8,623
- Reaction score
- 10,305
- Location
- Sierra Foothills, CA
- Handicap
- --17--
So Uncle Sam decided that the wife and I should help stimulate the economy during this pandemic crisis, and they sent us both a nice chunk of change. I immediately asked the wife what she was going to do with hers (see what I did there?), after her response she asked what golf stuff I had in mind, a trip with the guys, or more new clubs? She knows me so well, of course that kind of happens after 41 years of marriage.
So I impatiently wait for the golf industry to get rolling again, and the day after the local Club Champion opens up I’m in for an iron fitting (see that thread here: Another Club Champion Iron Fitting ). So to get to the point, my fitter says Aerotech Steelfiber i95 Regular shafts, and Honma XP-1 is the #1 recommendation, gave me a quote for them, but in continued conversations after the fitting said that any of the irons I hit well would work for me with the Steelfiber i95 shafts. Initially the contenders were:
Honma XP-1
Taylormade P790
Mizunp MP-20 HMB
Mizuno JPX 919 Hot Metal Pro
….. and the winner is:
Mizuno JPX 919 Forged!
Wait a minute ...... how did that happen? Well I wanted to hit a few of them some more, along with at least one that I didn’t get to try during my fitting, the Cleveland UHX. A local shop in Sacramento has a great demo program, and they opened back up this past weekend. They carry just about everything, have full demo sets of most (limited to stock shaft offerings), and you can pick up to three clubs at a time, get a mini-bucket of balls (no charge), and take them out to the driving range to try them side-by-side. I wanted to start with the Mizunos, the MP-20 HMB and JPX 919 Hot Metal Pros, but they didn’t have demos of the 919 HMPs. They did have the 919 Forged, which from my research are very similar in forgiveness, looks, and size as the 919 HMPs, but with a bit more offset, and not as strongly lofted, so I tried them instead. Took out the 7-irons, stock DG 105 S300 shaft in the Forged, Nippon Modus 120 Stiff in the HMB (didn’t have “R” for either), and WOW! I hit both better than expected, in fact maybe just a better day for me, but was hitting them better than anything during my CC fitting. I then tried the 919 Hot Metals, stack steel “R” shaft, and Cleveland UHX with stock “R” graphite. I hit them both really well, but not well enough to get the first two out of my head. So I went back in and got the 9-irons for the first two sets, and here is where I saw a noticeable difference, I could not get elevation with the HMB, but was still hitting great with the Forged. So I turn those back in, and just happened to see the guy putting them back on the rack, so I mentioned that I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t have demos of the Hot Metal Pros. Well lucky me, this isn’t just one of the sales guys, but one of their fitters (still not open for fittings or lessons), and he says he can put one together for me from the fitting rack. Okay, how about the 7-iron with Steelfiber i95 R shaft? No problem, so he brings it out, along with the Forged set up the same for comparison! Well I loved them both, hit them both well, and with the deals Mizuno has going with the 919 line right now, could get either in my “Stimulus” budget. I waffled a bit on the $200 difference in price, but finally pulled the trigger on the Forged, justifying it by figuring the slightly greater offset in the Forged might help a bit with the long irons, and besides, IT’S MONEY THAT WAS GIVEN TO ME!!!
Can’t wait for them to get here, I am totally stoked to get them out on the course!
So I impatiently wait for the golf industry to get rolling again, and the day after the local Club Champion opens up I’m in for an iron fitting (see that thread here: Another Club Champion Iron Fitting ). So to get to the point, my fitter says Aerotech Steelfiber i95 Regular shafts, and Honma XP-1 is the #1 recommendation, gave me a quote for them, but in continued conversations after the fitting said that any of the irons I hit well would work for me with the Steelfiber i95 shafts. Initially the contenders were:
Honma XP-1
Taylormade P790
Mizunp MP-20 HMB
Mizuno JPX 919 Hot Metal Pro
….. and the winner is:
Mizuno JPX 919 Forged!
Wait a minute ...... how did that happen? Well I wanted to hit a few of them some more, along with at least one that I didn’t get to try during my fitting, the Cleveland UHX. A local shop in Sacramento has a great demo program, and they opened back up this past weekend. They carry just about everything, have full demo sets of most (limited to stock shaft offerings), and you can pick up to three clubs at a time, get a mini-bucket of balls (no charge), and take them out to the driving range to try them side-by-side. I wanted to start with the Mizunos, the MP-20 HMB and JPX 919 Hot Metal Pros, but they didn’t have demos of the 919 HMPs. They did have the 919 Forged, which from my research are very similar in forgiveness, looks, and size as the 919 HMPs, but with a bit more offset, and not as strongly lofted, so I tried them instead. Took out the 7-irons, stock DG 105 S300 shaft in the Forged, Nippon Modus 120 Stiff in the HMB (didn’t have “R” for either), and WOW! I hit both better than expected, in fact maybe just a better day for me, but was hitting them better than anything during my CC fitting. I then tried the 919 Hot Metals, stack steel “R” shaft, and Cleveland UHX with stock “R” graphite. I hit them both really well, but not well enough to get the first two out of my head. So I went back in and got the 9-irons for the first two sets, and here is where I saw a noticeable difference, I could not get elevation with the HMB, but was still hitting great with the Forged. So I turn those back in, and just happened to see the guy putting them back on the rack, so I mentioned that I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t have demos of the Hot Metal Pros. Well lucky me, this isn’t just one of the sales guys, but one of their fitters (still not open for fittings or lessons), and he says he can put one together for me from the fitting rack. Okay, how about the 7-iron with Steelfiber i95 R shaft? No problem, so he brings it out, along with the Forged set up the same for comparison! Well I loved them both, hit them both well, and with the deals Mizuno has going with the 919 line right now, could get either in my “Stimulus” budget. I waffled a bit on the $200 difference in price, but finally pulled the trigger on the Forged, justifying it by figuring the slightly greater offset in the Forged might help a bit with the long irons, and besides, IT’S MONEY THAT WAS GIVEN TO ME!!!
Can’t wait for them to get here, I am totally stoked to get them out on the course!