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Mizuno JPX 921 Tour irons

Mizuno JPX Tour irons have been used to win four majors. The newest version offers more maneuverability with classic looks and feel.

Gear: Mizuno JPX 921 Tour irons
Price: $1,299 (4-GW)/$175 per club with Nippon N.S. Pro Modus 120 shafts and Golf Pride MCC +4 grips
Specs: Grain flow forged 1025E mild carbon steel
Available: Sept. 17

While not officially a member of Mizuno’s PGA Tour staff, Brooks Koepka has won four major championships playing Mizuno JPX Tour irons. Last season they were used to win nine professional events around the world, and none of those wins were by golfers who are paid to endorse Mizuno. The appeal of the JPX Tour irons is they provide accomplished players with loads of feel and control with just a touch of forgiveness.

With the release of the JPX 921 Tour, the Japanese company is hoping to make those clubs even more appealing to golfers who have a fast, repeatable swing.

Mizuno JPX 921 Tour irons — Removing some mass from the toe and repositioning it around the head maintains stability but should allow golfers to shape shots more easily. (Mizuno)

Aesthetically, the JPX 921 Tour irons are designed to appeal to elite golfers. The topline is thin, there is minimal offset and the look is clean.

But while Tour players told Mizuno the JPX 919 Tour was stable on off-center hits for a compact iron, a few said it could be challenging to shape shots and curve them in desired directions. To fix that and add workability, engineers shifted some of the mass from the toe to the head’s perimeter.

The overall moment of inertia is about the same, so the irons retain their stability, but the center of gravity has shifted slightly to the heel side. Mizuno said that should help golfers hit controlled draws and fades more easily.

To make the long irons slightly more playable, Mizuno made the soles a little wider in the 4-iron through 7-iron, while the 9-iron and pitching wedge are somewhat smaller. The sweet spot is also fractionally higher in each iron.

To further enhance feel, Mizuno reinforced the pad designed to be low and behind the hitting area, as well as the perimeter of the toe. That helps create a more substantial, deeper sound at impact.

Mizuno JPX 921 Forged irons

Mizuno’s JPX 921 Forged irons are designed to look like a better-player’s club, but a unique material helps them deliver more distance.

Gear: Mizuno JPX 921 Forged irons
Price: $1,399 (4-GW)/$175 per club with Nippon N.S. Pro Modus 120 shafts and Golf Pride MCC +4 grips
Specs: Grain flow forged 4120 Chromoly
Available: Sept. 17

Recreational golfers have aspired to hit Mizuno blades for decades because they have a clean, classic look and legendary feel. In reality, even fairly accomplished club players need some forgiveness built into their clubs, and a little extra distance is almost always welcome. With the release of the new JPX 921 Forged irons, Mizuno’s latest offering in the better-player distance category tries to deliver the performance those players need in a club that looks like something a Tour player might use.

The JPX 921 Forged is the first fully forged iron from Mizuno made from Chromoly. Mizuno has used the material in irons before because it is extremely strong, but the Chromoly in the 921 Forged is softer and more forgeable. Still, it is stronger than the boron-infused 1025 carbon steel used in the previous generation of JPX Forged irons. That let Mizuno make the faces thinner and the pocket cavity behind the hitting area slightly wider. The result: The sweetspot is larger even though the new irons are smaller.

Mizuno JPX 921 Forged irons — The thin topline and classic look at address will appeal to better players. (Mizuno)

Removing more mass from the face and the pocket allowed Mizuno to redistribute weight to the perimeter of the head and boost stability.

At address, golfers will see a thin topline, less offset and a slightly shorter blade length than the previous version of the JPX Forged iron. The sole is modestly narrow, and the flashy blue color that debuted 10 years ago with the first JPX irons is gone, replaced by chrome and black for a more elegant look. Some players may not even notice the pocket cavity in the back of the head.

While the long and mid-irons are each 1 degree stronger lofted in this edition of the JPX Forged, they are still comparable to the lofts found in most better-player irons, with a 5-iron at 24 degrees and a 9-iron at 40 degrees.

Mizuno ES21 wedges

Mizuno’s newest wedge has a hollow-bodied design that shifts the sweet spot more into the middle of the face for more spin and control.

Gear: Mizuno ES21 wedges
Price: $200 each with KBS Hi-Rev 110 Black Wedge shaft and Lamkin ST Hybrid grip
Specs: Forged 1025, boron-infused carbon steel faces attached to hollow-bodied 431 stainless steel body with a wide sole and a standard sole option. 54, 56, 58 and 60 degrees.
Available: Sept. 17

The hosel of a golf club does not necessarily affect how much spin a wedge shot produces, but its weight can shift the center of gravity toward the heel and affect how shots feel at impact. The bigger and heavier the hosel, the more the center of gravity shifts, pulling the ideal hitting location out of the center of the face.

Mizuno’s newest wedge, the ES21, is designed to keep the sweet spot in the middle of the face, enhance spin and give golfers more control around the green.

While the black ion plating is eye-catching, it’s what you don’t see that makes all the difference with this wedge. It’s hollow, with the grain flow forged boron-infused carbon steel face and neck portion welded to a 431 stainless steel body. The boron blends with the carbon steel to make it harder, which should prolong the grooves’ sharpness without sacrificing the soft feel.

Mizuno ES21 wedges — Making the ES21 wedges hollow and removing material from the heel side helped shift the ideal hitting location into the middle of the score lines. (Mizuno)

However, Mizuno said, it is the hollow-body design that makes the most difference. It allowed designers to remove material from the heel area inside the head and shift more weight toward the toe. That offsets more of the hosel’s weight and, combined with the higher toe design, pulls the center of gravity into the middle of the hitting area.

Mizuno said the sweet spot also was pulled back and elevated relative to previously released wedges, and that should help increase spin.

To hide the extra mass designed high in the heads, Mizuno made the topline thinner and curved the back of it.

To further boost spin, the ES21 wedges were designed with Quadcut grooves that are CNC-milled for precision and feature HydroFlow microgrooves that run up and down the face. The microgrooves help pull water away from the hitting area for increased consistency, especially from the rough.

The ES21 wedges come in two sole configurations, standard and wide. The standard sole has a constant width with ample heel and toe relief to allow players to open the face and hit a variety of greenside shots. The wide sole has 20 percent more width, which translates to more effective bounce, making it especially useful in bunkers and in soft conditions.

Mizuno ST200 Drivers

Golfweek’s David Dusek talks to Mizuno’s Director of R&D, David Llewelyn, about the all new ST200 drivers.

Play like the pros: Irons used by the world’s top 10 golfers

Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and other stars will be in the field next week at Colonial Club. See which irons they’ll use.

After being forced to cancel the Players Championship after the first round due to the coronavirus outbreak in March, the PGA Tour is set to resume the 2019-20 season next week at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Ft. Worth, Texas.

Colonial Country Club, the host venue, is steeped in tradition, with a massive statue of Ben Hogan hitting a shot just outside the clubhouse. The course has historically favored great ballstrikers and golfers who have exception control over their iron shots.

Several of the game’s top players are scheduled to compete at Colonial. The list below reveals all the irons currently being used by the top 10 players on the Official World Golf Ranking.

Tommy Fleetwood's irons — Tommy Fleetwood’s Srixon and TaylorMade irons. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

10. Tommy Fleetwood

IRONS: Srixon Z 785 (4, 5), TaylorMade P7TW (6-9), with Project X 6.5 shafts.

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Golf equipment used by the top 10 players in the world

See the clubs used by PGA Tour stars such as Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Adam Scott in 2020.

If everything goes well, the PGA Tour might be able to resume the 2020 season in six weeks at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Official World Golf Ranking has been locked since the Players Championship was canceled in mid-March. Below is a list of clubs the golfers ranked in the top 10 on the OWGR had in their bags at the Players Championship, which should provide a good idea about what they will use when professional golf returns.

10. Tommy Fleetwood

DRIVER: TaylorMade SIM (10.5 degrees), with Mitsubishi Kuro Kage S TiNi 70X shaft

FAIRWAY WOODS: TaylorMade M6 (15 degrees), with Mitsubishi Diamana DF 70 TX shaft; (18 degrees), with Mitsubishi Kuro Kage S TiNi 80TX shaft

IRONS: Srixon Z 785 (4, 5), TaylorMade P7TW (6-9), with Project X 6.5 shafts

WEDGES: Titleist Vokey Design SM7 (48 degrees), TaylorMade Milled Grind 2 (52, 60 degrees), Titleist Vokey Design BV prototype TVD (56 degrees), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts

PUTTER: Odyssey White Hot Pro 3

BALL: Titleist Pro V1

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Irons used by PGA Tour players ranked in the top 10 in strokes gained approach the green

See a complete list of the irons used by the best ballstrikers on the PGA Tour in 2020.

The offseason, such as it was, is long over and the West Coast Swing is now in the rearview mirror too. These days, most of golf’s best players are in Florida, honing their games and getting ready for the Players Championship and the season’s first major, the Masters, which is just a month away.

While there has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about distance, solid iron play is always critical for success. The players listed below all rank in the top 10 in strokes gained approach the green, which means, statisically, they have been the best irons players this season on the PGA Tour. The number listed next to their names is their strokes gained approach the green average. If a player averages a one, that means he is one shot better than the field average on Tour, meaning he would pick up four shots against the field – based solely on his iron play – during a 72-hole event.

See who they are and the clubs they use.

Paul Casey's Mizuno irons — Paul Casey’s Mizuno irons (David Dusek/Golfweek)

10. Paul Casey, 0.905

IRONS: Mizuno MP-25 (3), Mizuno JPX 919 Hot Metal Pro (4), Mizuno MP-5 (5-PW), with Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour 120 TX shafts

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