I have to admit that the new Fake Mizuno JPX 925 irons have confused me a bit.
Not that I’m confused if the clubs are good. Mizuno’s JPX line has been a top performer in MyGolfSpy’s testing since Hot Metal became a thing. I’m also not confused as to which category the JPX 925 Forged falls into.
It is surely a player’s distance.
What is confusing is where it belongs on the continuum of player distance.
Like its predecessor, the Mizuno JPX 925 Forged is compact for a player’s distance iron, but Mizuno is apologizing for rivaling game-improvement irons. On the other hand, the JPX 925 chassis is significantly larger than a player’s blade or hollow back, but Mizuno tells us it sounds and feels more like a forged blade than a Mizuno Pro 243.
In contrast, ball speed and MOI are in the same neighborhood as the TaylorMade P790 or PING i530, despite its significantly smaller chassis.
And don’t get me started on the slim (for the category) sole and topline.
After our meeting with Mizunoit appears that the JPX 925 Forged is a multi-piece distance iron, which is a one-piece forged for ball speed that sounds, feels and plays like a blade, while being forgiving at the same time. AND applicable.
One more thing: For a company not prone to hyperbole, Mizuno says the performance increase in the JPX 925 Forged over the 923 Forged is the most dramatic it’s seen since the JPX Forged line began more than a decade ago.
See why I’m confused?
Mizuno JPX 925 Forged: New from the neck up
Mizuno set off the new JPX 925 Hot Metal lineup last September but the forged family was conspicuously absent. This was due to a planned fall launch for the JPX 925 Forged in Japan.
Fundamentally, the Mizuno JPX 925 Forged is very different from its predecessor, the 923 Forged. Specifically, it is no longer a single-part forgery. Mizuno is using an entirely new manufacturing process with the 925 Forged.
As mentioned, the 923 Forged was a one-piece forge. The 8-iron wedges were one-piece forged 1025E Pure Select mild carbon steel, while the 4- to 7-irons were Grain Flow Forged 4120 Chromoly. Mizuno would insert a grinding tool through a micro-slot in the sole to create a variable face thickness for those longer irons. From this approach, the best Mizuno could do was thin the sweet spot to about 2.3 millimeters.
For the 925 Forged, Mizuno uses new multi-million dollar forging machinery and a new process to make the face even thinner. Instead of forging the entire head, Mizuno is now forging the neck, face and topline in a single shell and welds it to a single piece of 431 stainless steel sole.
With this new construction, Mizuno can now grind the back of the club face directly rather than through the micro-slot in the sole. This means Mizuno can get even more aggressive, not to mention creative, with that grind.
“We’re now at 2.1mm thick in the impact area, dropping to 1.5mm around the circumference in the flex area,” Chris Voshall, Mizuno USA Golf’s Product and Marketing Manager, tells MyGolfSpy. “That’s a 30 percent decrease in facial thickness. When you can get that much thinner, that means a massive jump in performance.”
Bang-squish-squeeze
Forgery is more involved than simply beating the female out of a piece of molten metal until it looks like a golf club. As with any other manufacturing technology, the forging process is evolving. That new machine we mentioned is a prime example. Mizuno uses a hammer press and a hydraulic press to forge its irons. The JPX 925 Forged uses an updated and much more sophisticated hydraulic press for secondary forging.
The new machine allows Mizuno to vary the pressure at different points in time as you compress the head.
“We are now able to control the pressure all the way to the face,” explains Voshall. “Once it starts compressing, we can control how it compresses and the rate at which it compresses. This allows us to have a much thinner face.”
If it helps, think of the old hydraulic press as one bang-bang car. The new hydraulic press is more one noise-squish-squeeze car.
Mizuno JPX 925 Forged: The Science of Feel
Any experienced club designer can tell you that a poorly made forged iron with bad geometry can feel like hot garbage. Conversely, a well-crafted cast iron with intelligent geometry can feel just as sweet as the best forging.
Golfers have a unique, not to mention subjective, vocabulary when describing feel. Buddha OR buttery smooth are widespread, positive terms. Scratched? Not so much.Solid AND hot they are good sensations, but weird, clicky and salty they are not. Nor is their non-alliterative synonym, painful.
Solidhowever, it is not the same as hot. Nor is it the same as Buddha. No matter how you describe it, what we call “feeling” is directly related to vibration and sound.
“The vibes are great,” Voshall says. “But if they don’t last long, you won’t feel much. If they go on for a long time, but at the wrong frequencies, it can feel like a waste for a long time.”
Furthermore, when the faces become as thin as they are in JPX 925 Forged, painful a lot comes into play. Forging a piece and geometry let Mizuno STAY painful under control.
“By creating that topline, we control the geometry of the area below,” Voshall explains. “This is the area that causes it painful so reinforcing that area gives a stronger feel.”
Additionally, Mizuno has identified the sound frequencies that lead to painful – approximately 6,000 to 7,000 Hertz range. The reinforced top line as well as the diagonal sound bar at the back of the cavity help to dampen these vibrations.
“This will sound and feel stronger and more blade-like than even the Mizuno Pro 243,” says Voshall. “The 243 doesn’t have that many reinforcements. This feels smoother throughout the set.”
Triple wedges and centers of gravity
The new hydraulic press also opens new doors of mass ownership for the JPX 925 forged. CG distance is a prime example.
CG distance measures the distance between the center of gravity of the club head and the shaft axis. The shorter it is, the more control you have to “work” the ball. The further away it is, the higher the COR and the bigger the sweet spot. You usually have to choose one or the other.
“With the new construction and the welded back, we can strategically control the geometry,” says Voshall. “We can get the CG distance closer to the axle shaft while still increasing the sweet zone. It’s more controllable and more forgiving. If you can accomplish both, then you’ve created something better.”
The JPX 925 Forged also has a triple cut or V-shaped sole, something Mizuno could not be done in previous iterations. Since face grinding is now done from the back rather than the sole, Mizuno can add bounce to the front end, reduce the camber in the middle and aggressively slope the trailing edge.
“It’s a sole that will go in and out of the lawnmower,” says Voshall. “It will also allow us to have a more uniform effective tread width.”
The sole transition from the 7 iron to the 8 iron has traditionally been a bit odd. Mizuno’s new construction method allows for much thinner soles throughout the set and a smoother transition from 7 to 8 iron.
“We’re increasing COR, increasing ball speed and adding forgiveness,” says Voshall. “But we’re making a sole that plays thinner than ever before, one that will get in and out of the field quickly.”
JPX, Mizuno Pro and the iron market
You can’t call today’s iron market a boom, but you can’t call it a bust either. If anything, the market is in a stagnant decline. OEMs need to protect their market share while trying to steal a bit of someone else’s sandbox.
“Custom orders are way up, but stock orders are way down,” says Voshall. “Two years ago, everyone had one on their shelf and 10 on their back. Now everyone is relying on inventory and relying on quick order turnaround.”
Mizuno has always had a cult following, but by 2020 it was a fairly small cult. The MP-20 line had a market share of 2.6 percent that year while the JPX 919 was 3.3 percent. A year later, the JPX 921 line began a market shift for Mizuno, grabbing an 8.7 percent share of its own. By 2023, Mizuno held a 12.6 percent market share in irons with the JPX 923 holding almost a 10 percent share on its own.
Early returns for 2024 show Mizuno’s market share standing at 13 percent with JPX accounting for nearly 80 percent of that total. The JPX itself has more iron today than all of Mizuno in 2020.
What does this mean? This means that Tour level forged knives are nice, but JPX Buddhas the bread
Mizuno JPX 925 Forged: Specs, Price and Availability
The JPX 925 Forged Loft Matrix isn’t the strongest in the player’s distance category, but it’s a bit on the firmer side with a 7-30 degree iron. Mizuno has loosened the loft a bit on the 9-iron, pitching and gap wedges for better opening and transition.
Mizuno is doing something unusual by offering a blacked-out JPX 925 Forged at launch. Usually, OEMs will release a black version of an iron a year later to give the line a sales boost in the second year. Mizuno, however, is marching to the beat of its own drummer.
The darkened finish is what Mizuno calls premium PVD. The finish goes right over the soft white satin, a rougher finish that allows the PVD to adhere better. The face is a lighter gray thanks to a face blast, so it won’t show signs of impact.
The standard JPX 925 forged irons come with the lightweight KBS C-Taper shaft and Golf Pride MCC grip in black/grey. The blacked-out model comes with a Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid 115 shaft in Black Onyx and a black/grey MCC grip.
As always, Mizuno has one of the most extensive collections of no-load shafts in the business.
The Mizuno JPX 925 Forged Chrome irons cost $200 per club and will be available for lefties and righties. The blacked-out version is right-handed only and costs $215 per club.
Presale starts January 23rd. They will be in stores on February 6th.
For more information, visit Mizuno Golf website.
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