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
The forged flat out blew me away, and that’s after obsessing over 10 perfect shots with HMP before even touching them.
What I love about the lineup, is that it promotes exactly what it should – pure control in the tours all the way to pure forgiveness in the HM. Find the sweet spot for your game and let the great product do the rest.
I can say the forgiveness of the 921F is solid but I have a hard time believing it’s comparable to the HM on an apples to apples basis. Maybe apples to oranges – both fruits but fairly distinctive.
That would be tough, assuming a comparison of the 919 is valid. When I compare the 919 Forged with the 919 HMP, having owned both. The HMP lets you get away with more, and offers more distance. It’s about what fits your game and what you want. I would still prefer the Forged when I am consistent. But the distance of the HMP is intoxicating. If they’ve somewhat equalized the distance with the Chromoly in the Forged, that’s a tough decision.
We should be neighbors. We could totally club swap. I’m shopping a very limited Forged combo tonight, with just an hmp in the 4. I’m convinced I can bend the PW and GW to score well and the Forged just look and sound fun. It’d be cool to bounce back and forth between them and my new T100S.
I’m a MCC guy for sure.
As someone directly involved with content creation on THP, it feels incredible to get that kind of engagement, and I am sure a lot of it has to do with our community here. All the feedback has been awesome, and the continued discussion on the irons is great to see.
Can’t wait for more of you guys to hit them.
Correct, although that is basically because one has that shaft as standard and the other its not.
They are similarly priced irons, shaft dependent.
Good point, thanks for clarifying.
I imagine the biggest differences would be hollow forged vs solid forged feel and the club’s proportions.
Actually, when it comes to size, the 921F and HMB’s are almost identical. You can look at the charts on the Mizuno site for measurement comparisons and see there is a slight difference, but to the eye, you really can’t tell. Feel was real similar too, but I’d imagine the copper layer on the HMB’s make up for the slightly softer Chromoly used in the Forged head. Had I stayed with my 900F, the 921F could be a nice upgrade, but at the moment, not seeing any significant jump from the HMB. Going to take the new demo club on the course soon, so that could tell a different story.
7-iron with xstiff shaft and +1" was carrying 195-200 in both HM and HMP, and 190ish with the forged. HM and HMP were absolutely draw biased for me, which is definitely not the norm with my current gamers. Forged, sadly because they’re out of my price range, were very straight and had slightly tighter dispersion. Joked with the guy that I shouldn’t have hit them. HMP and Forged were similar launch, with HM slightly lower launch for me.
The forgiveness in the HMP is definitely noticeable compared to the Forged. Miss with both was the toe. On the HMP distance was maintained very well, noticeably more distance loss on the Forged but again held its line very well for me.
Really enjoyed the feel of all three as well. The Forged was a little harsher on mishits but that’s predictable. You can quickly identify from feel where the miss was. Flush hits are incredible.
As for looks, all are predictably gorgeous. The biggest thing I noted here was that the Hot Metal did not look clunky or large at all. Obviously larger than the HMP and Forged but looking down at them did not scream GI.
Other notes, these were hit on a Foresight simulator and I would say my swing was pretty good today. Sorry I didn’t snap any pictures.
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Forged are a little bigger head than I expected and felt nice. Long and solid. Forgiving but not as forgiving as I expected. I will need to hit these more to get a better sense of them. For some reason I only hit the forged with one shaft, a recoil 95 F4, my least favorite shaft of the ones I hit. Edit note: I was hitting the forged first with no warm up and then got sidetracked. I am slow to warm up. I came back to it at the end and was getting tired. I need some more quality time with the forged.
Tour was fun. As soon as I hit it I didn’t want to stop. Much higher flight and a bit more spin. I loved the control and kept hitting near the GCQuad center line over and over. It was addictive. Tour is definitely less forgiving than the Forged, but I didn’t find them any less forgiving than the MMC that I play. I hit the Tour with KBS Tour, C-Taper light, and Steelfiber 110. No complaints which was a surprise with the Steelfiber given my previous dislike. I know I like the Tour and C-Taper profiles.
MP-20 mb was an absolute feel delight until I hit one on the heel, felt it bigly, and watched the ball squeak low right and 20 yards short. If I hit center all the time, I’d play it in a heartbeat. I hit this with a Modus 105, a little light for me.
And hitting MMC is like coming home to an old friend. I don’t recall what shaft I hit. I kept getting the Tour and MMC mixed up when I would grab from my lineup leaning against the wall.
I don’t have any big takeaways other than I would happily play any of these, likely in some combo fashion. Well, that and MMC is going be hard to unseat from my bag.
I spent a lot of time in the Sim with these irons, and simply put… Wow!!!
I saw unbelievable ball speed & carry distances. Even misses were rewarded with decent yardages. I think they might be slightly longer than my Apex 19s (even although they are lofted about 1° weaker).
The feel is great, if you are looking at getting new irons in the players distance profile, you need to give these a hard look.
I know it is hard to describe, but do they have a "clicky" sound or are them more softer sounding? I know that is hard to tell indoors also compared to outside.
It’s harder to tell indoors, I didn’t find them clicky at all. But you can tell where you missed on the face based on the sound though. This is definitely a set that I will borrow and take to the course at some point, as it’s in the iron profile that I prefer to play.
I will provide more feedback as soon as I take them out for a round….
You hit these as well as I have seen you hit any irons.
Did you expect them to go further than HMBs? Also, wouldnt your focus be more on improved dispersion while maintaining distance?
I thought there was a chance, especially with all the reviews commenting on increased ball speed, so it was worth investigating. Even with the HMP I didn’t see a big jump either for whatever it’s worth. Dispersion really was about the same as well, but I give credit to the DG shaft there. Since my favorite before had been the 900F, couldn’t pass up the chance to try these, but glad the HMB’s will be sticking around.
Man I can’t wait to get my protos in the HMP/ Forged set
ES wedges? I know you said that you were drawn to them?
Not sure on wedges yet. My thoughts are in the ES21 review thread and I like them a lot, just not sure yet.
Regular Hot Metal going in to your set… That leaves the HM Pros just sitting in the Tech Studio… Excellent.
May need to rename it the JDax testing studio…
I’m a gear junkie, so the THP HQ moving to Hendersonville is going to be a rough situation bc I’ll want everything that comes out…
I would be more concerned with your 5 iron gap, just saying.
You might look at the lie angle, as well
HMP doesn’t have much offset either… not as soft as the forged from comments but more distance.
I‘m thinking of going HMP in 5 iron, and then 6-pw in the forged. Possibly HMP in the 6 iron, but will have to look at weakening lofts. I’m kind of wanting to wait for the new Srixon ZX5 irons to come out here before I go get my fitting as the one I had lined up has been cancelled.
While It’s not the largest sample size, my experience was that the the HM and HMP were both very draw biased, while the Forged had a much straighter ball flight for me. I thought this odd since the HMP and Forged have essentially the same offset but the simulator was very consistent in the results.
That’s what I was doing in my 919 Set – 5i a HMP, and going 6-PW most of the time, but would throw in the HMP 6i weakened by 1 degree about half the time. HMP – long.
I think I can go 6 iron in the forged, but I will make sure in my fitting hopefully. I mean, let’s be honest, the 6 is like a 5 from a decade ago, so I should have no issue.
I love everything about this line of Mizuno irons except what you are discussing. There was always a gap when I got closer to the hole and I am not a low handicap. The 9 iron went 20 yards further than the PW in both sets of Hot Metals I had. It wasn’t a huge deal, but I ended up in gaps close to the hole. The gap from club to club seemed larger than 10 yards too which is hard for me to calculate. Titleist lofts just adds another club in the scoring range and keeps everything on tighter gapping. I have come to appreciate that more than the added distance from these newer loft setups on other brands.
Whoa, really? And contact was good and similar on both? I have played both hot metals a lot here and have not seen any sort of huge gaps in the scoring clubs.
That was similar to my reaction. They’re a little stronger than I assumed based on who the reviews implied they’re for, with larger scoring club loft gaps. Makes for a tougher combo, too. Not that it can’t work, but it’s likely a lot more challenging than I had planned. Have to see how they fly and figure it out from there.
I’ve been tracking my time with the JPX921F with Arccos and over the last month or so the gapping has not been an issue. 11 yards (plus or minus 1 yard for certain clubs). You may certainly have some issues along the way When you hit them but I wouldn’t Elevate form over substance based purely on the lofts on paper. I’ve got 5-G in the bag and if someone wants to re-label them 4-P, the results are still the results.
Yeah, I hit the 9 120-125 in the 900’s and the 919. I hit the PW 105. I hated being 110-115. Came up short some and blasted some over. With current clubs I have a 47*, 43*, 39*, and 35*. With the Hot Metals that same gap was covered by 45*, 40*, and 35*. The spacing is much better with my current lofts.
Could very well be a fit thing causing some missed contact. Loft is only one piece of the distance puzzle and in many ways, a small piece.
I did not find the 921 Tour tough to play. Based on the 7i, they are approx. as forgiving as the MMC. Mishits lose something, but they should. I hit the Tour back to back with my 18 MMC and the 20 MMC. The main thing I noticed is that the Tour had a higher flight and more spin than the forged. A bit higher than the MMC. I had more left-right control with them over the forged which wanted to go left over and over for me (lighter recoil 95 may be the culprit). I don’t know how far I would play the Tour into a set (for sure 7i, maybe 6i), but the 4* gaps would be nice. I notice the slightly larger distance gaps from the 5* loft gaps from PW to 9 and 9 to 8 in my MMC set.