Mizuno hybrids – Syndication Server

Gear: Mizuno JPX 925 Fli-Hi hybrids
Price: $150 each with UST Mamiya Recoil Dart ESX shaft and Lamkin UT+ grip
Specs: 17-4 stainless steel face with 431 stainless steel body and internal tungsten weight. Available in 19-, 22-, 25-, and 28-degree versions.
Available: Sept. 5 (pre-order), Sept. 19 (in stores)

Who It’s For: Golfers who want more height, distance, and consistency than they get from long irons.

What You Should Know: Mizuno’s updated Fli-Hi hybrids have a low profile and draw bias to help recreational golfers enhance their consistency and hit straighter shots than they can with long irons.

The Deep Dive: While pros make it look easy, most recreational golfers struggle to hit a high draw with long irons. Hybrids, thanks to their lower center of gravity and larger size, make solid contact and consistency easier to achieve for many players. With the release of its new JPX 925 Fli-Hi hybrids, Mizuno aims to bring that elusive shot, the high draw, to players who routinely shoot in the 80s and 90s.

The JPX 925 Fli-Hi hybrids are available in lofts designed to replace a golfer’s 3-, 4-, 5-, or 6-iron. They feature a wider profile in the stronger-lofted clubs, with the width decreasing as lofts increase. For example, the 19-degree, 3-iron replacement is a fairway wood-style hybrid and wider than the 28-degree version that could replace a 6-iron.

In the address position, the Mizuno JPX 925 Fli-Hi hybrids have no visual distractions. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

All JPX 925 Fli-Hi hybrids have a matte-black crown that is free of visual distractions, along with a low-profile design that is meant to inspire confidence.

These hybrids feature a 17-4 stainless steel face attached to a 431 stainless steel body. Internal mass placed in the back on the heel side is meant to help the faces close more easily during the downswing. That should result in squaring the face more consistently, so shots should fly straighter or be inclined to have a draw shape.

The accordion-style Wave Sole behind the leading edge is designed to compress at the moment of impact and lower the sweet spot, so thin-struck shots should retain more ball speed.

Mizuno’s designers rounded the leading edge and added extra bounce, making the JPX 925 Fli-Hi hybrids more adept at working through the turf, especially when golfers have a steep angle of attack or when conditions are soft.

While there isn’t an adjustable hosel on the JPX 925 Fli-Hi, the 17-4 stainless steel hosel is bendable, allowing custom fitters to adjust the lofts and help golfers fill distance gaps.

Finally, the price of the Mizuno JPX 925 Fli-Hi hybrids is $150, which is the same price as each of the new JPX 925 Hot Metal, Hot Metal Pro and Hot Metal HL irons. So, working with a custom fitter, golfers can mix and match the clubs to create their ideally blended sets without increasing the price.

Below are several close-up images of the new Mizuno JPX 925 hybrids.

Gear: Mizuno ST-Max 230 hybrids
Price: $250 with Mitsubishi Lai’ Li Blue, UST-Mamiya LIN-Q Blue Hybrid or Helium NanoCore Hybrid shaft and Lamkin ST Hybrid grip
Specs: MAS1C maraging stainless steel with stainless steel chassis with an adjustable hosel. 19, 22, 25 and 28-degree head options.

Who It’s For: Golfers who want an easy-to-hit replacement for their long irons that produces a high launch angle and extra carry distance.

The Skinny: The new ST-Max 230 hybrids are like miniature fairway woods, with a larger size and high moment of inertia (MOI) to make them easy to hit off the tee and from the fairway for golfers who want more forgiveness and distance than traditional long irons.

The Deep Dive: The new Mizuno ST-Max hybrids are designed to appeal to the same golfers who will benefit from the ST-Max driver and fairway woods, meaning golfers who want to maximize stability and forgiveness.

While the driver and fairway woods utilize multi-material constructions, the hybrids are all stainless steel. Instead of adding a small carbon fiber crown, Mizuno made the top of the club thicker in some areas and thinner in others. The brand refers to it as a Waffle Crown, and while the glossy black top gives the ST-Max hybrids a classic look in the address position, it reduces weight on the top of the head.

Mizuno ST-Max 230 hybrids — The CorTech Chamber helps performance on low-struck shots. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

To increase ball speed, a larger CorTech Chamber complements the MAS1C stainless steel face in the sole. It’s a slot designed behind the leading edge that is then filled with a blue thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), so grass and debris do not get inside the head. Inside the TPU, Mizuno designers have added a stainless steel bar that helps the head maintain forward momentum at the moment of impact. So, while the TPU reduces weight and soaks up excessive vibrations, the CorTech Chamber also helps golfers generate more ball speed.

The larger size, from heel to toe and from front to back, makes the ST-Max 230 hybrids more stable on off-center hits, but the addition of a weight in the back of the sole helps to drive up the MOI and further increase stability.

To help golfers and fitters fill distance gaps and provide clubs that go to precise distances, the ST-Max 230 hybrids are available in four loft options. However, each club’s adjustable hosel allows the stated loft to be increased or decreased by up to 2 degrees. The result is golfers can adjust the clubs to cover lofts from as little as 17 degrees to as much as 30 degrees.

Several close-up images of the ST-Max 230 hybrids are below.