Mizuno JPX 923 Forged and JPX 923 Tour Irons

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Mizuno has introduced the JPX 923 Solid and JPX 923 Tour.
The JPX 923 is a single-piece forging within the participant’s distance class.
The JPX 923 is a real Tour-inspired cavity-back.
Retail value is $187.50 per iron. Out there February 2023.

We covered the Mizuno JPX 923 Hot Metal lineup here. The cast half of the lineup (technically, it’s the opposite 40 %)—the JPX 923 Solid and JPX 923 Tour—received’t launch till February.

Bummer. Come on, Mizuno.

It’s not misplaced on Mizuno that 5 months is a hell of a very long time to maintain golfers ready however, with pictures already floating across the interwebs, there isn’t a lot level in attempting to maintain the irons a secret—not that you simply couldn’t have guessed new JPX had been coming anyway.

Why wait?

The thought behind the delay is to reestablish the cadence with the Mizuno Professional line such that each solid mannequin within the lineup will get one yr on the shelf earlier than the subsequent one launches.

Sure, JPX and Mizuno Professional are totally different however, as extra expertise just like the hollow-body Mizuno Professional 225, has crept into Mizuno Professional irons and extra magnificence has labored its manner into the JPX line (nothing right here is ugly), there may be arguably extra overlap than ever.

Lengthy story quick: Each solid Mizuno iron will get 12 months alone within the solar.

JPX 923 Solid

The extra forgiving of Mizuno’s two solid fashions, the JPX 923 Solid, is an outlier of types within the participant’s distance class. It’s nonetheless a single-piece forging (no foam fillers, no plasma welded L-faces, and many others.). That’s sometimes not a recipe for distance which is sort of the factor within the participant’s distance class.

Happily for followers of Mizuno forgings who’re additionally followers of extra distance, Mizuno has discovered methods to engineer pace into what is often not a speed-favoring development.

That begins with the forging materials Mizuno used within the JPX 923 Solid. As with the JPX 921 Forged, Mizuno is utilizing Grain Move Solid HD 4120 Chromoly within the 4- to 7-irons. Earlier than Nickel Chromoly, it was the identical materials Mizuno utilized in casting the Hot Metal family.

The Chromoly lengthy irons are paired with Mizuno conventional forging materials (1025E) in 8-iron to hole wedge.

Why Solid Chromoly?

Merely, Chromoly permits for thinner faces than Mizuno could make with 1025E. As we’ve repeated numerous occasions, a thinner face is a sooner face. Chromoly is among the levers Mizuno pulls to maintain tempo with different irons within the class.

The draw back of Chromoly is that it’s tougher to forge than 1025E. That provides complexity to the forging course of. To attain the complicated geometries of the JPX932 Solid from a single billet of metal, Mizuno had so as to add one other forging step.

One other step within the course of provides important value (each by way of money and time) nevertheless it’s needed to realize the specified efficiency with out sacrificing really feel.

Micro-slots

Chromoly is just a part of the JPX 923 Solid pace story. Whereas the faces are thinner than they had been with JPX 921, even with Chromoly it’s not doable to make faces as skinny as they’re in multi-piece constructions.

So to bump pace in step with what golfers count on from the participant’s distance class, Mizuno milled a micro-slot behind the face of the JPX 923 Solid 4- to 7-irons which permits the face to flex greater than it will with no slot.

The slot is 4.2 millimeters thick within the 4- to 6-iron and three.7 millimeters thick within the 7-iron.

I’m guessing these particulars in all probability aren’t that vital to you however the thought is that Mizuno is attempting to create most flex (pace) within the lengthy irons earlier than dialing it again as you transition into shorter golf equipment.

Mizuno doesn’t mill the scoring irons as a result of the COR profit offered by the micro-slot diminishes at larger lofts.

You’ll discover it’s typical throughout the trade that when you hit 8-iron lofts, regardless of the speed-boosting tech occurs to be, it disappears.

(As I believe this via … no person prices much less for his or her quick irons than their lengthy irons however they in all probability ought to.)

Anyway, the Mizuno JPX 923 Solid isn’t Sizzling Steel quick however the COR (pace) is phenomenal for a single-piece forging.

Mizuno JPX 923 Solid Shaping

It’s a desire factor however I’ve all the time discovered the JPX Solid irons to be just a bit too large for my style. Maybe that’s modified this time round.

Having decreased the general footprint of the JPX 923 Sizzling Steel Professional, Mizuno had a chance to shrink the JPX 923 Solid as properly. The brand new mannequin needs to be noticeably smaller than its predecessor. It additionally affords a thinner, extra cambered topline which Mizuno says seems as skinny because the previous JPX Tour

V-Chassis

As with each different mannequin within the JPX 923 lineup, the JPX 923 solid has a V-Chassis design. Basically, V-Chassis is a little bit of intelligent structural reinforcement that finally serves to reinforce the texture of the iron.

I’m going to borrow instantly from Mizuno’s JPX 923 presentation so that you get a greater sense of how a lot engineering (and the ensuing geometries) contribute to the texture of an iron.

“By reinforcing the higher portion of the cavity body, sound stress between 6000-10000 HZ is lowering, offering a extra strong influence sound, nearer to JPX Tour.”

Yeah … sound stress received’t be on the quiz. The purpose is that distinctive really feel doesn’t occur accidentally. Attaining it takes a variety of work which is perhaps why some irons really feel like scorching trash.

JPX 923 Solid Specs

JPX 923 Solid lofts are stronger than the earlier mannequin. The 7-iron is now 30 levels whereas the pitching wedge has dropped to 44 levels.

Frankly, the JPX 923 Solid is stronger than I believed I’d ever see in a Mizuno forging and the corporate concedes it’s merely reacting to the market. We will discuss becoming all day however the majority of iron purchases are nonetheless pushed by distance.

Mizuno has made up for among the loft-jacking with center-of-gravity places which are a contact deeper and it’s additionally emphasizing that JPX Solid will not be meant for a low swing pace participant.

It’s additionally vital to do not forget that loft is a becoming variable. If the irons are too sturdy on your style, bend them weaker. That’s completely cool.

As with the Sizzling Steel line, Mizuno has elevated bounce by a few levels based mostly on information collected from its Shaft Optimizer

Your JPX 923 Solid abstract from Mizuno’s Chris Voshall: “Higher really feel, sooner, higher wanting.”

I also needs to point out the Mizuno JPX 923 Solid is on the market in left-handed as properly.

JPX 923 TOUR

It wasn’t all that way back that Mizuno talked about sustaining clear separation between JPX and MP however time passes, strains blur and, properly, what you get is a JPX 923 that Voshall describes as essentially the most MP-ish JPX iron ever.

In some methods, you may consider the JPX 923 Tour because the reimagination of MP-64. It’s a real participant’s cavity-back that wouldn’t be in the slightest degree misplaced within the Mizuno Professional line.

Tour Shaping

It ought to go with out saying that the JPX 923 is essentially the most compact iron within the JPX lineup. Blade lengths are shorter than they had been with JPX 921 with the largest variations to be discovered within the scoring irons.

For the sake of readability, with the JPX 923 Tour, the scoring irons start with the 6-iron.

As that stuff concerning the JPX 923 Tour being MP-ish suggests, the brand new mannequin affords a thinner, extra cambered topline. To place that in context, Voshall says it seems thinner than Mizuno’s present MB (even when it technically isn’t).

As a result of Mizuno added bounce to the JPX 923 Tour sole design, the trailing edge is a little more rounded and there’s a little bit of heel reduction as properly. The result’s a barely narrower, extra versatile sole, presumably with higher turf interplay.

Extra What You’d Count on

So far as the overall package deal is anxious, one may argue the brand new JPX l923 Tour seems a bit extra refined than the earlier iteration. I’m not alone after I say that I felt just like the JPX 921 was a step again, no less than cosmetically, from the 919. A great little bit of that is perhaps traceable to the cosmetics the place the 921’s cavity badge made the iron look a bit larger than it actually was.

If nothing else, it in all probability wasn’t what the JPX Tour wheelhouse participant needed to see.

With the badge gone, the form tweaked barely, the JPX 923 Solid simply seems cleaner. That’s my two cents, anyway.

The thought was to create one thing that’s actually going to resonate with the goal participant. My hunch is Mizuno has succeeded.

V-Chassis Design

Like the opposite JPX 923 Irons, the JPX 932 Tour contains the V-Chassis design. As soon as once more, V-Chassis serves to strengthen the topline and toe sections of the iron for the needs of tuning sound and really feel of the iron.

Copper Underlay

Talking once more to the significance of really feel to the JPX 923 Tour story, the brand new mannequin incorporates a mushy copper underlay—a layer of copper utilized between the solid 1025E head and the end materials. Mizuno has used copper within the two most up-to-date iterations of the MP/Mizuno Professional line however that is the primary time copper has been utilized in a JPX iron.

Voshall says the copper “turns down the quantity” which golfers ought to expertise as softer really feel. In testing with Tour gamers, about 90 % observed a distinction between the JPX Tour with copper and one with out.

JPX 923 Tour Specs

Whereas Mizuno has added a little bit of bounce, key specs—primarily loft and lie—are unchanged from the earlier mannequin and mirror these of the Mizuno Professional 221.

It’s not one thing that’s mentioned usually however, in case you needed to mix your set throughout Mizuno Professional and JPX strains, it may possibly completely be completed.

Sorry, lefties. The Mizuno JPX 923 Tour is on the market in right-handed solely.

No Putts Given Bonus Version

Make sure you try this particular bonus version of No Putts Given the place we focus on the brand new JPX 923 lineup and a lot extra with Mizuno’s Chris Voshall.