Mizuno’s newest driver has a carbon fiber crown, adjustable hosel and moveable weights.
Gear: Mizuno ST-G 220 driver Price: $499 at (Carl’s Golf Land) Specs: Titanium face and chassis with carbon fiber crown, adjustable hosel and three moveable weight areas. Available: October
For several years, Mizuno has been known as a company that makes outstanding irons, especially for accomplished golfers, but in recent years the Japanese equipment maker has put a lot of resources into improving its drivers. The ST-Z and ST-X drivers that were released in early 2021 offered advanced features. They used several high-tech materials like special titanium alloys and carbon fiber to help golfers get more distance and enhance feel. Now the company is releasing its most adjustable driver ever, the ST-G 220, to help golfers and fitters fine-tune performance.
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A list of our favorite gloves for every budget and preference in 2021
Although often overlooked, golf gloves are an important piece of equipment because your hands are your connection to the club. If your glove is poorly fit, has holes in it or does not supply you with the grip and traction you need, you’ll wind up making compensations and altering your swing.
On the other hand (sorry, we couldn’t resist), the right glove can enhance grip, reduce friction, prevent blisters and improve your swing.
Most golfers wear a glove on only their non-dominant hand, but sometimes a pair is necessary for wet or frigid conditions.
While most gloves look the same to the naked eye, there’s a wide range in quality and material, varying from natural leather to synthetic fabrics.
With the lion’s share of golf gloves falling in the $15-$25 range, we’ve identified 10 of the best gloves for any budget and handicap in 2021.
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JERSEY CITY, N.J. – With the skyline of New York and the Statue of Liberty creating the perfect background, the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs are set to begin Thursday at Liberty National Golf Club. The top 125 players on the FedEx Cup point list qualified to play in this event, and 124 are here to compete. The top 70 after the conclusion of play Sunday qualify for next week’s BMW Championship.
At this point in the season and with so much at stake, most golfers are not making major changes to their equipment setups. They are going with gear they trust.
Golfweek’s equipment guru, David Dusek, was on the range and in the practice areas Tuesday and Wednesday and spotted plenty of interesting clubs.
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Whether you are in the market for game-improvement irons, muscleback blades or something in between, check out the newest irons for 2021.
The holidays are a distant memory but ’tis the season for new golf equipment to be arriving at your local pro shop and golf specialty store. We showed you the abundance of new drivers, and now it is time to focus on irons.
The trend in irons is to utilize unique materials and construction to not only allow golfers to hit the ball farther and higher but to get better performance on mis-hit shots. However, this season there are not just game-improvement and max game-improvement irons for mid- and higher-handicap golfers. We are also seeing a bumper crop of irons designed for experienced golfers who have repeatable, powerful swings and demand feel and control.
The best way to figure out which new iron is ideal for your game is to work with a good custom fitter, use a launch monitor and test several models and shafts.
Check out golf’s newest drivers for 2021 from brands like Callaway, Ping, TaylorMade, Titleist and more.
With the first month of 2021 now complete, most of the major equipment companies have released their flagship drivers for the year. In the first few weeks of January, new clubs were debuting nearly every day, or at least that’s how it felt to Golfweek’s equipment insider, David Dusek, who covered them all.
The trend that started to emerge in 2018 and 2019 is continuing, with several companies now using multi-material constructions to save weight in specific areas and shift it to other spots in the head to improve performance. We are also seeing more and more drivers that not only deliver great ball speed on well-struck shots, but also protect ball speed on mis-hits on the heel and toe. And finally, today’s drivers are more stable than ever, with several featuring extra mass in the back of the head to boost the moment of inertia.
Below are several new offerings from major brands.
Jim Herman won his third PGA Tour event using a mixture of clubs from four different manufacturers. See all the golf equipment he played.
A complete list of the golf equipment that Jim Herman used to win the PGA Tour’s 2020 Wyndham Championship:
DRIVER:TaylorMade SIM (10.5 degrees), with Graphite Design Tour AD DI-7 X shaft
FAIRWAY WOODS:TaylorMade M6 (15 degrees), with Graphite Design Tour AD DI-8 X shaft; TaylorMade M4 (21 degrees), with Graphite Design Tour AD DI-8 X shaft
A thinner, more-flexible face helps Mizuno’s newest game-improvement irons deliver more power without growing in size.
Gear: Mizuno JPX 921 Hot Metal, Hot Metal Pro irons Price: $1,000 (4-GW)/$125 per club with Nippon N.S. Pro 950 NEO steel or UST Mamiya Recoil ESX graphite shafts and Golf Pride MCC +4 grips Specs: Cast 4140 Chromoly with a cup-face design and pocket cavity. Available: Sept. 17
It is not uncommon for golfers on the PGA Tour to compliment their irons with a game-improvement club or a distance-oriented long iron at the top of their set. Those clubs tend to create more distance, a higher launch and a quicker stop on the greens. For example, Paul Casey has played a Mizuno Hot Metal Pro 3-iron for more than a year because the club is easier to hit from long range than his Mizuno MP-5 muscleback blades.
Many amateurs need that kind of distance and height gains not only in their long and mid-irons but throughout the set, and for years they were offered oversized clubs that produced those attributes but that often were not the best looking clubs.
Now, recreational golfers who are turned off by oversized clubs but who want more distance and forgiveness can benefit from more normal sized, perimeter-weighted clubs that have flexible faces. Mizuno has two new offerings – the JPX 921 Hot Metal and JPX 921 Hot Metal Pro – made to do that.
Mizuno JPX 921 Hot Metal irons (Mizuno)
Instead of being forged from soft carbon steel, the Hot Metal irons are cast from 4140 Chromoly, a much harder material. Its strength allowed Mizuno designers to make the faces of the Hot Metal irons very thin. The center of the hitting area is thinner than the previous Hot Metal and Hot Metal Pro, and that ultra-thin area is larger than in the predecessors. With a large pocket cavity behind the hitting area, it also flexes more efficiently for increased ball speed.
To broaden the sweet spot, Mizuno gave the Hot Metal irons a cup-face design, with the edges of the face behind the seams of the leading edge, the toe and the topline. When the ball hits the face, the leading edge acts as a hinge and activates a larger area.
Mizuno JPX 921 Hot Metal Pro irons (Mizuno)
Finally, extra sound ribs were positioned around the frame’s perimeter to improve the impact sound and feel.
The only difference between the Hot Metal and the Hot Metal Pro is size. The Pro version shares the same materials and construction, but it has a shorter blade length, slightly thinner topline, less offset and slightly narrower sole.
