New Mizuno drivers are hitting stores soon and we got a chance to put them to the test in the THP Tech Studio. The latest iteration represents the culmination of the company’s 3-year, rapid-fire driver development project.
Before jumping into the video and testing, we want to mention one of the more fascinating aspects of the drivers, the new SAT2041 Beta Ti face. What does that mean? SAT2041 stands for Super / Alloy / Titanium / 20% Vanadium / 4% Aluminium / 1% tin and it offers 17% more tensile strength and 8% more flexibility than traditional 6-4Ti. In other words, stronger and faster than previous offerings.
“Most of our ST200 tour feedback was on the sensory side, a desire for a sound our players generally described as solid or dense,” said Chris Voshall from Mizuno. “We spent the next year working on improving feedback, hand in hand with releasing the additional ball speed we knew was left in our SAT2041 Beta Ti face.”
Unlike many videos which feature us testing the equipment, we figured we would do something a bit different today. We brought Chris Voshall into the Tech Studio and had him put both heads to the test and discuss not only the differences between the new ST-X and ST-Z drivers, but also the changes made from the last release…all while he hits balls in our hitting bay so you can see the ball flight and hear the impact sound. Watch the Mizuno ST-X and ST-Z Driver Review below.
Mizuno ST-X and ST-Z Driver Review
Shaft options are aplenty for those looking for choices. The ST-Z standard shafts are Project X EvenFlow Riptide or HZRDUS Smoke Black RDX as well as a Fujikura Motore X. Switching to the ST-X the options are the same EvenFlow RipTide from Project X or Motore X as well as a light weight Mizuno option called MFusion. All of which will be available in the fitting matrix software called the Mizuno Shaft Optimizer 3D you can find at retailers.
The Details
In Stores: February 2021
Cost: $400
Shafts: See above
that is an incredible deal. love the ST-Z
Holy steal to end the year! That’s a great price and a pretty not bad driver.
Check out the ST-Z fairways as well. I swear I’ve never hit such smooth, forgiving clubs. I even skied my 3 wood (we don’t talk about it) but it still went 200 yards and dead straight.
Totally agree with this poster. The ST-Z fairway is an absolute gem. If you love either the Z or X driver, then the Z fairway should be an automatic additon to the bag.
i am, too but i definitely need to resist…self-christmas has wrecked my checking account
James how does the X play versus the G? Might those of us with less speed get enough spin to increase distance? I am about the Mizuno mainly because i have 3 shafts from which to work with.
Can you see any increase in distance with the x? For the average old guy? Thanks!
Do you make a purchase?
Already had the stz in a riptide CB but picked up the purple from Mike G… Surprisingly smooth with my mosh pit macarena of a swing. We’ll give it a few days before declaring all out victory, tho. It is giving me second thoughts about my stealth order… But that’s crazy talk that don’t go ’round here
"mosh pit macarena of a swing", gave me a good laugh, thanks for that.
Got it on eBay for $202.50.
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It is a little hard to hit without a shaft. If I can figure out how to get a fitting I will take care of that. And since I got a new adaptor with it that might come in handy.
Bombs away
nice pickup indeed!
Best sounding driver I’ve ever heard.
That’s a steal!
Played 36 sim holes today and boy was I an adventure (as usual). Had some swing ideas that I was excited to try and (shockingly) they didn’t work how I thought they would. This combination remains fantastic when I do my part. Took me about 27 holes to figure it out, but chilling my tempo out and choking down a bit turn this combo into a fairway finder.
The thing that continued to stand out was that I still don’t see wild fades/hooks. Don’t get me wrong I was all over the map today, but i wasn’t seeing something start down the middle of the fairway and hook or slice 50 yards. A 50 yard miss was the result of starting line of the shot (pull draw/push fade). Given how off I was all day that made me happy. My final swing of the day was the choked down, smooth tempo swing that produced a beautiful high baby fade that was my longest of the day at 305. If I can ever figure my swing out the ST-Z / Smoke Blue combo could be a legitimate weapon this year ?
I’m going to throw one screen shot in because this one really stood out to me. Slight DL left, so setup to hit a draw that was way out off the toe. Didn’t overspin, and still got me 245 yards, which I didn’t expect at all given how poor it felt off the face. I’m sure the newer generation is even better, but if you’re on a budget this one is a great bang for your buck option.
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Even those couple heel and high strikes felt good and went midway up the hill at the range (230y) with crappy range balls.
Hoping I get to take it to the course tomorrow if there is a morning window in the rain we’re getting.
Seeing improvements in distance consistently? Any accuracy improvements?
Both. For one, and admittedly we’re talking sample size of one, my average drive last time out was 280. Comparatively my average over the last 5 (which would be this year exclusively), was 252 according to ShotScope.
The dispersion also tightened up. Most of my misses were directional, being primarily pulls while expecting a fade, but what was not there was the huge hook or fade (depending on the day ?)
Again, this is purely based on one round, but it sure was a good one.
One round but that’s a heck of a distance gain
It was. I mentioned it in another thread but a big change I made was getting much more aggressive in my backswing with the driver. The result, I think, was activating the shaft, leading to more swing speed and better quality of strike. Makes quite a difference when you’re using the center of the club face ?
I’ve been a complete mixed bag with the ST-Z this year, but of course 99.999% of that is me. As you can see below I’m your classic two way miss guy but get away with it from an SG perspective (compared to others in my HCP range) thanks to length off the tee.
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Obviously there’s room for improvement, and as such I did make a shaft change this week in hopes of unlocking some better accuracy. I had been playing an RDX Smoke Blue in TX that I was fit into last year at the PX with Mizuno event, but old age is catching up with me and I just don’t think I have what it takes to make that work any more
That being said I’ve plugged in a Lin-Q Gunmetal 6F5 and have a tournament on Friday on a course that really demands accuracy off the tee so that will be a great test.
I’m not exactly an expert at this, but there are two things that stand out to me with this driver. The first, a positive, is it seems to hold up very well to the high toe strike. There have been multiple times I’ve hit this shot and been very surprised by the distance I retained. The second, less positive, is the sound. To my ear it’s a little higher pitched than I would like. Not quite Epic Max LS high (and certainly not any kind of Ping sound) but not the most pleasant to my ear. With this about to be two generations old, if you’re a budget conscious golfer like myself I would suspect you could pick one of these up an extremely reasonable price. The performance at the cost would be well worth checking out.
How about making those reviews actually relevent by having a less skilled golfer do the test?
Definitely spend some time on the THP Forum.
Golfers of all swing speeds review equipment and will continue to through both forum testing and THP Experiences.
That’s the joy of this forum, you’ll see folks from + handicaps to the 20’s and beyond reviewing equipment and giving their opinion.