We caught up with product lead Chris Voshall for his overview of the new JPX923 irons.
Overall – each model got even more specifically designed to do exactly what it’s supposed to do. The most extreme models in the line – Tour and Hot Metal HL have pushed further to those extremes. The new Tour is by far the most ‘Mizuno Pro’ looking JPX iron we’ve ever released. The Hot Metal HL takes us into new territory of forgiveness – but within an acceptable Mizuno template.
Every model revolves around the new V-Chassis – which allowed us to dial in a very typical Mizuno vibration pattern, without the need to thicken the toplines. So they’re all very nicely in proportion for their size.
Working with the Shaft Optimizer, we learned a number of different things. One thing that’s really interesting is we looked at how players are attacking the ball, shaft lean and angle of attack – and we see a trend of getting steeper and steeper with angle of attack.
The JPX Tour in years past has been a little bit of a low bounce golf club. We’ve added a touch of bounce, but really made sure that we put a ton of camber on it. So this is a golf club is going to enter and exit the turf, even cleaner than it did before.
On the feel side, the new V-Chassis gave us a way to fine tune the vibration, without thickening the top line as we have in previous versions. So we were able to produce a much sleeker looking Tour model – which with the addition of copper underlay, feels softer than its predecessor.
It’s a sharper iron all round.
What I love most about the 923 Forged is how the performance outperforms the look.
And I don’t mean that in a bad way. I mean the look looks so “players”, it looks thicker than the previous one. It looks meaner. It looks more aggressive. It looks like a smaller cavity, but it plays so much bigger, you get so much more out of it.
Now, with this filled out line of JPX Hot Metal, we have a golf club that has the proper amount of stopping power for what you and your swing DNA delivers at impact.
We have the High Launch that’s going to go higher and come in steeper with little bit more spin. We have the Hot Metal that’s going to come in a little bit shallower, but still deliver plenty of spin. And then the Hot Metal Pro for if you need a little bit thinner, look at address.
Original Chromoly has been a great material for us – but the new Hot Metal irons all feature our new Nickel Chromoly, that’s 35% stronger than the previous version. In summary that allows us to go thinner again across the entire face. The material is so strong that our first prototypes were far in excess of the limits set by the governing bodies – we had to thicken the faces for them to conform – the first that’s happened to us within an iron development.
Also, we dialled in our V-chassis to make sure the feel is phenomenal. Yes, it’s a hot golf club, but it’s hot and solid at the same time. It’s a Mizuno version of Hot. It still feels solid. All of the Hot Metals are going to help deliver a golf ball that just launches. It’s going to spin. It’s going to have a ton of speed. And then the specs are going to dial in how it fits you.
The Hot Metal is the middle one of this family. It’s the very traditional, slightly oversize head, slightly thicker top line and slightly thicker sole.
The Hot Metal Pro is the player’s version of that – same ball speed, same distance. Thinner top line, thinner sole, less offset.
Hot Metal High Launch is on the other end of that. This is for that player who wants all that speed but needs a little bit more launch and even more stopping power coming in to the green. We see a lot from fitting and from playing with other golfers to recognize certain trends, but to be able to quantify it is a whole other thing. Shaft Optimizer allowed us to quantify the number of players that need that added spin, and we’ve seen it at close to 50%. Our Shaft Optimizer data has shown that when you look at average angles of attack and average shaft lean, players are delivering these distance irons with too little effective loft. As a result of that, we see a lot of players with Irons that are coming in too shallow.
As a result, this extended Hot Metal series means there is likely going to be a route to more ball speed for most players – but with the right stopping power too.
