Two weeks ago, Mizuno unveiled the JPX 921 line of irons and if you missed our preview, check it out here. Over the last two weeks, we have been busy in the THP Tech Studio putting each of the four sets to the test.
The lineup consists of the Hot Metal, Hot Metal Pro, Forged and Tour. We wanted to not only tell you about the results, but show you the testing and talk you through some swings.
In the video below, we take each set for a test drive and talk a little bit about the tech, but go a step further and compare all four to each other in the wrap up with all of the data.
After watching the swings and hearing about the clubs, which set do you think fits best for your game?
The Details
In Stores: 9/17/2020
Cost: $1000-$1400 depending on set
Thanks, I appreciate your insight.
That isn’t unusual for Mizuno – several of their lines over the last few years have used these specs. Ended up bending my HMB’s to them (1° stronger) due to the high launch – even with DG shafts – and the flight and distances are absolutely perfect now. As much as I’m sure the new 921F’s will be nice, I can’t imagine them bumping my current set out unless it was just due to wanting something newer. Then again, I’ll get to hit the 921’s on Tuesday and could easily change my mind.
None of them honestly. Not complete set wise. Their design on the long irons, don’t really mirror much of the JPX lineup. Short irons, probably the forged.
My 1st shot from the fairway today was 188 slightly uphill and I pulled the 5 iron hoping to see the front of the green and flew it to the back fringe. Now it was a amped up shot and a perfect lie but it felt great to start that way.
Still could see a set of HMP or a combo HMP / Forged in my future if the numbers prove it out.
That’s what I did in the 919… but I like the smaller head of the Forged. I bought the HMP for insurance in the event my swing goes to heck. I might get an HMP in the 5 and 6i but still buy Forged in 5-PW and take a look at the ES Wedge – at least the 60.
I was pretty sure the MP-20 MBs were the gems of the Mizuno player lineup, but so far the tours have definitely impressed me. I’ve been hitting them back and forth against the MP-18 SC and while I think they are a bit more challenging, I also think they are a bit more rewarding as well.
hahaha you’re a mad man. Pretty telling about the potential that the product has to get you excited like that.
And I don’t blame you. the first time I hit HMP in the Tech Studio, I blurted out "WOW" haha
I think if there’s added forgiveness, it’s not very obvious.
They are both compact players irons.
do you only have access to the tours? not the forged (or others)?
And apparently it got you excited.
Do you want to kiss and tell?
Time to share your thoughts. I need to hear other people’s thoughts here because I’ve been screaming that people should not sleep on the forged.
I will be traveling on business in NE in early October and getting a fitting at that time. Have a guy with tons of shafts and want to see what works best BUT turf interaction and playability are important. He usually gives me a chance to take a couple of clubs to a range and try them out to confirm fitting for playability. Hoping to get together with some MA THP’ers.
Now gotta get the flu shot and Covid testing 72 hours before boarding plane – MA is tough.
Right now just the tours. I brought them home to give them a bit of a run before sending back to HQ (or hand delivering excuse lmao)
That is the beauty of subtle changes to an already very accomplished iron.
From my perspective? 921 is wildly better from an overall experience.
i was curious about consistency of feel between tour and forged if one were to combo the two sets
A release ago? Nope, no chance I’d do it.
This release? I can’t imagine it’s any different going from a wedge to an iron. I was hitting all four heads interchangeably at HQ, and aside from the the overall profile being a bit different in the extremes, I mistook them for the wrong head numerous times during a sim round (and I didn’t even have any rum haha).
Can you flesh out a little bit what it is that makes the 921s better in terms of performance?
wow, that’s saying a lot. good to know.
From a performance perspective, that’s a tough one. From a personal perspective? Lots.
First, I simply didn’t think they looked good. Looked unfinished to me. I remember hitting MP18 MB and the the 919 tours and thinking that it didn’t make sense to even consider the latter.
Second, the sound. It just didn’t work for me – didn’t sound like a Mizuno SHOULD sound (which is basically buttery flawless). i think they closed that gap aggressively with 921 and it’s enough for me to make statements like I have been.
Very helpful. Thanks
the feel, the launch, the forgiveness across the face, the feel, the looks, the feel.
the tours are too much club for me, they are sexy as hell, but I have no business playing that club.
I loved looking down at the forged.Way way way better than the 919 forged, in every regard.
Prob ordering HMP 4 iron bent 1* weak, 5-G Forged tomorrow. Will drop some recoil protos in them.
Quoted for absolute truth.
What are your pre-fit assumptions, guesses?
I’m hoping for a complete summary but you might be smiling too hard to type.
Well I think it would be the forged or HMP but I plan to try the 100S and 770.
I might start with the tour to see the difference bit doubt it would be a good fit distance wise. About to go in and see what’s up.
Shaft wise I am open to try whatever and see what makes a difference
Nice. Looking forward to your thoughts especially in the forged vs 770
Cant wait to hear your feedback on these two. Seems like most folks here are torn between the HM and Forged.
But who knows what will happen. He may put something else in my hands, Mizuno or otherwise.
Am keeping the 919F in Accra i80 to use when I am retooling the swing.
You know, it’s funny to read this, as it really resonates for me. I do a pretty decent job of catching center face, but like with any player iron, as soon as it even somewhat slides away from center, I know about it.
…and it’s not like it is a bad thing. For guys who want full control, you absolutely get it. I’ve just always found it funny how the tours and the Hot Metals are in the same lineup (funny in a non-negative way) because the experience is just SOOOOO different.
Its larger than both in my opinion and of totally different construction in the long irons. Going to be a hard comparison for me, outside of liking both. Closer would be Hot Metal to UHX, but still quite different.
this is kind of why i was asking about the feel off tour vs forged. to me, it sounds (hehe) the tours almost have no business getting the jpx moniker. like they are an iron unto themselves, not really outfitted with all the tech and story of the forged, hm or hmp.
We’ll start with the 8 iron.
View attachment 8961254
As you can see, most of the contact is either center or toe side of center. I’ll comfortably say that this is the most appealing location on the head to hit the ball. Very full and rich sound profile, supporting exactly what you’d expect out of a shape like this.
And how about the 6 iron.
View attachment 8961255
Notice how the contact moved into the heel? Especially the lower shots that made contact under the last groove, these are the shots that validate what most are saying with this kind of head – that it’s ‘too much club’ for most golfers. Are they super penal? Not really in this location, but I am confident that if I moved any closer to the heel, I’d be in trouble. Most of these were just underwhelming feedback in the hands and ears, but the flight overall was a combination of a bit pully, a bit fadey, or relatively straight. Not really much off the line for me, which tells me path and head were on line.
How about the ‘scary’ 4 iron?
View attachment 8961256
As you’d expect, a bit more head variety but I kept them pretty tight. It’s funny how you’d expect one club to be more demanding, but I would bet the 4 and the 8 are very tight in profile. Gave me mostly that same middle toe contact which promoted very full, robust contact.
My takeaway is exactly what most would expect – that these irons are highly rewarding but equally challenging from a contact perspective. They are extremely responsive as you get towards the heel, and from my on course experience, equally as audibly/vibration present way out on the toe in a very different way.
I like that response. Different enough to hit them both to get your own personalized perspective.
From a performance perspective? I kind of love what both companies are doing, presenting serious forgiveness in a package that doesn’t annoy the hell out of my ears haha!
Thanks for both answers. I am trying to make a concentrated effort to move all ego aside and move into the most forgiving iron I can stand to look / hear Both the UHX (my miss being thin usually and) and HM/P are highest on the testing list at the moment.
Fortunately, Mizuno does an awesome job of creating progressive iron options for the ego challenged haha
I have a friend locally who couldn’t talk himself out of blades until he got sick of bad shots. Managed to get into HMBs and quickly got over it. For me, I love the idea of having easy transitions into Forged, then HMP and finally HM because they are visually close, without compromising what matters most for golfers.
…and I maintain the sound is spot on what it needs to be.
I was half tempted to do like 8-G in the Tours, pure vanity, but realized it would not help me.
maybe one day!
As I am probably still going to hang on to a bit of ego would likely look at transitioning to Forged at around 8i. Realistically I don’t try to get anywhere else than the green up to 7i but from 8i up I start eyeing other things as well. A few loft tweaks should make the sets transition nicely.
Sound seems to be something all reviews I’ve seen touch on as improved from the 919 and also that it flows nicely from HM/P to Forged.
I really enjoy the challenge of the tours, but I’ll openly admit after a few rounds and range sessions with them, even with the face dispersion I’ve presented, I wish I’d abducted the forged instead of them from THP HQ.
It makes sense to want to blend. We basically already blend between wedges and irons, why not split irons with irons depending on how you want to swing them. Me? Forged throughout with a couple HMPs at the top. ooooooooh yeah.
?
BTW, one thing I have noticed in reviews of the JPX921 line is the distance dispersion has been best in set with the forged for just about everyone. That makes a lot of sense. Tours will have more drop off on non-center strikes and more control for moving the ball around. Hotter face, lower loft HMP/HM are simply going further and that creates more opportunities to spread out dispersion a bit. That makes the set even more fun to think about in terms of putting together clubs for specific purposes to make a set. I can make a case, in my overthinking brain, for finding a place for every single model of the JPX line in my bag. That’s wicked fun.
I was swinging about as good as I can off mats inside and sadly even with several different shafts the numbers just did not change, I was fully prepared to take the plunge but it would be a silly waste of money at this point. The only one I could not hit was the Tour which was cross threaded and he could not use it.
We did narrow the shaft selection doen to the Paderson 110 in stiff and the Oban 115 in stiff, both gave me better numbers with TR20 heads and again just about exactly the same with the Mizuno’s which I went back to several times trying to make things better.
The fitter was great and pointed out how OTT my swing is (which I knew) and that is the major fault and kept the smash down, I do manage to do quite well with the awful swing so no point in trying to change that short term.
We agreed I will go back in a week or two and try again with just those two shafts and HMP and Forged against the TR20 to see if it was just me making things look bad.
I did take 5 swings with the Honma TR20 B which 3 were stellar and 2 as bad as you could expect so he did say it would be worth hitting the JPX Tour a few time when he got the head fixed just for meanness. He was laughing that I got the same numbers off the B version on the good ones as all the others, golf is strange.
I do hate the fact the fitting is just with a 6 iron which I may hit 2 times a round if I am playing a longer Course, it is quite possible the 7 – PW in the forged or HMP would have been game changers but it is what it is.
Oh and he said minimum 6-8 weeks for just about anything and longer for Titleist which for my impatient self is just about unbearable but again it is what it is.
Based on my work with the 919F and HMP, that’s what I’m thinking and this year, the blending is even more compatible. What’s a 4i and 5i in HMP and then Forged. Depends on results of a fitting. Doubt if I’ll get a 4i. Need more speed, Captain.
nice to have the validation that your gamers are so good for you. and I agree, what is the point of fitting off a single iron when the company is excited about the ability to build a blended set? I wish more fitters had pw, 8i and 6i (5i) for their fittings so you can test across different subsegments during the fitting..