Mizuno JPX850 Forged Irons Review

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After six years in development, Mizuno has introduced Boron to Mizuno’s Grain Flow Forging process to increase the strength of its forged material. This gave Mizuno’s R&D team greater design freedom and allowed them to engineer even more distance into the iron. Mizuno’s new material is 30% stronger than its traditional 1025E steel billets – allowing for a thinner face for faster ball speeds. The result is a forged feel with the ball speeds of a modern distance iron. The thinner BORON face is strategically reinforced by a Power Frame cavity – allowing it to flex over a wider area. A shorter top edge to the frame helps maintain the customary Mizuno feel. A CNC Milled pocket on the 4-7 iron increases launch angle.

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“It took 6 years from the start of our development work with BORON Forging to get to this breakthrough point. This is distance generated by genuine technology, rather than just cranking lofts or using longer shafts. It used to be that you had to give up a little ball speed to play a Forged iron. Boron Forged gives the best of both worlds.” Chris Voshall, Mizuno’s Senior Engineer.

Technology
Mizuno has infused boron into its forging process to increase the strength of the material, allowing them to thin the face and place more weight on the perimeter for increased ball speed and forgiveness, but with a soft feel. A CNC milled pocket in the long irons increases launch angle.

Looks
Minimal offset will appeal to good players and accomplished game improvers. Thinner top line and less Mizuno blue on the back than the cast version, but the same mirrored chrome finish on the heel and toe.

Feel/sound
A soft, dull thud at impact you expect from a forged club, but perhaps across a wider area than other better player models.

Forgiveness
Seriously impressive from a relatively compact clubhead. Players will especially enjoy the amount of forgiveness on offer in the longer irons.

Performance
On the face of it, this iron offers the ideal combination of feel, forgiveness and distance and it goes a long way towards delivering that. With a 7-iron loft of 32° they are slightly stronger than the better player MP models, and the heavier shaft compared to the cast JPX850 should help keep the flight down. But with the undercut cavity and perimeter frame you’ve got bags of launch assistance and help when you don’t strike the sweetspot. Along with the minimal offset, these irons could genuinely appeal to a pro all the way up to a 20 handicapper.

Details: RRP: £100 per iron (XP115 steel), £130 (2014 Orochi graphite). RH & LH.

See how the irons got on in our 2015 Game Improvement Irons Test!

If you’re a golf club design aficionado, you’re probably wondering why a Mizuno forged iron is included in a distance test. Surely, there’s some mistake, right? Not at all. The JPX850, which replaces the JPX825 Pro, is a genuine distance contender. In the new iteration, the word ‘Pro’ makes way for ‘Forged’ to reinforce the message that this is a serious player’s golf club and not just another cast game-improvement iron.

Other than a few minor enhancements to the club’s perimeter weighting to improve forgiveness, the JPX850 Forged is a materials story pure and simple. Thanks to the six-year development of a new Boron reinforced material that is some 30 per cent lighter as well as harder than the company’s traditional grain flow forged 1025E steel, Mizuno has been able to make the face thinner, which translates into faster ball speed and more distance. There’s no messing around strengthening lofts or tinkering with the CG position or the club’s MOI. Simply R&D and engineering at their very best.