Exceptional video! Very informative. So great to see an illustration at a clubhead speed that resembles the masses instead of the usual RU-vid video with the guy swinging a 7 iron at 95 mph, which represents less than 2% of all golfers. Thank you for sharing.
I wouldn't have thought that the conclusion being that it would come down between a blade and a SGI club as that seems so counter-intuitive. But as someone who got fitted into the HM 921 last March at WGC, it also comes down to the golfer. For instance for me and my swing, on the 921's, I was getting 5800 spin, 51* landing angle with 87 MPH club speed and a very different dynamic loft of 30* as I tend to hit up on my irons as I have an attack angle of 1.7. Very different from the above test.
Very interesting. Went through the same exercise w/mizuno irons and ended up w/the 225's as I hit a high ball. Keeping the ball flight a little lower was the goal. My swing speed is around 85-86 for a 7 iron. Like you, I wasn't too concerned with distance.
I was fit by the local mizuno rep this fall. He fit me into the 923 HL with my 78mph swing speed. It was between the HL or the regular hot metal but weakening the loft by 2degrees I order to get the proper launch angle. I decided to just go with the HL and love them
The spin difference between the super GI and the blade is what is balancing out the landing angle and providing the major gap in carry distance, too. One of the reason I've stuck with bladed style over GI is because the feedback is higher on strike, and you don't get those low spinning knuckle ball flights over the back of the green off of fairways, which come up every now and again with super GIs. most golfers tend to hit short most shots anyway due to mis-strikes, so the low spin can actually be helpful in making up some distance.
Great vid. I was fitted into the MP 223 last Feb. I'm thinking I may replace my 5 iron with a HL, just to get a bit of help. I have an 83 mph 7 iron swing. I already use a hybrid instead of a 4 iron but don't want to go with a 5 hybrid as that is just too many headcovers in 1 bag.
Great video and THANK YOU for doing this with a realistic swing speed! One comment I would make is I wouldn’t classify the high launch as a “Super Game Improvement” club…that connotation in the industry seems to indicate someone who is not very good at golf and need a lot of help to get consistent strikes…From all the research I’ve done on the HL irons, that is not the case. AS you state, it’s geared toward the slower swinger (which may be someone who is a very good player, but due to age or possibly injury, cannot swing it hard anymore)…AND, Mizuno also says it’s geared toward the player with a lot of forward shaft lean. Again, that is usually something seen in better players. And that’s key. Because most game improvement/super improvement irons move the CG as low as possible on the club face. However, if you hit a ball with forward shaft lean, your strike spot will not be low on the club, but more middle and possibly higher…So, Mizuno designed these clubs with that in mind, not placing the CG as low as the other game improvement clubs in the series…I think that’s very important in the fitting sense…
With my 80 mph 6 iron swing speed, these new Player’s Distance and Game Improvement irons never go high enough, I never get the landing angle steep enough, and spin is always too low. I’m a 60 year old, handicap has doubled in the last couple years to a 6 handicap, and I have gone back to playing 20 year old game improvement irons because I need the loft. I have played blades in the past, but I just like to look down at a bigger club. I would like to try some graphite shafts, so maybe the Hot Metal HL’s might be something to look at. My last fitting I was put into Callaway Mavrik irons that were going far, but couldn’t hold a green. Great video. ⛳️🏌🏽♂️
Good video. I think a good part 2 could include mishits and a longer iron. There's a certain point where blades get really unforgiving and tougher to launch. It looks like you could do a combo set between the high launch and blades. I have blades from 8i up and older forged game improvement irons down.
Although very interesting and informative, this seems to me like a bit of an incomplete comparison (Sorry). Having recently been custom fitted into a set of JPX923 HM’s the biggest impact on launch/flight/spin for me was actually the shaft. This also applied to the other different brands/shafts that I was testing at the time. So to state the bleeding obvious, it all comes down what best suits the individual’s swing characteristics.
In fittings, with average ball strikers, which iron is doing better with overall performance out of Mizuno Pro 225 and JPX 923 Hot Metal Pro? Which has more spin? Which is more forgiving? Thanks!!
That is about my swing speed so the comparison was very interesting. I could play the 221s, but that HL iron is very impressive, difference in spin between it and 221 is probably all due to static loft difference between the 2 clubs - but with HL peak height and descent angle will give a lot of stopping power. Hot Metal seems to be the worst of the 4 clubs - very low loft and too low spin for me.
Could you do a test on average/ideal 'Smash Factor' through all the clubs? I find that just like swing speed, Smash Factor really diminishes with the higher clubs, but i'm not sure what the numbers should be for me as a target to try to reach during my practice sessions.
This analysis seems flawed. You can't compare the same number iron among the different models because the lofts vary quite a bit. Of course the higher lofted 7 iron is going to fly higher and have a steeper descent angle than a lower lofted 7 iron. The player might use an 8 iron in HM but a 7 iron in 221 models, achieving the same distance because of the club loft not the number on the club.. So compare them based on club loft, not based on the number at the bottom of the club.
I thought the CG on a blade would be a little higher and cause a lower flight where as the CG on a game improvement iron would be lower causing a higher flight. I realize the loft on the blade is higher but I still thought the launch would have been lower.
The differences in lofts and cg is a big factor for the launches of these clubs. The Pro 221 loft is 34 degrees and the hot metal is 28.5. Big difference in loft but the cg helps the launch of each club and their respective goals (221 being launch lower with the high loft, Hot Metal launch higher with a lower loft).
