Equipment Test 4 - Mizuno JPX-800

It's easy to be mesmerized by new golf clubs boasting fancy-sounding technology. Some of it definitely does represent genuine innovation that will help you hit the ball farther and closer to the hole, and ultimately shoot lower scores. But a lot of it is just the same old stuff hidden behind cool new graphics. Here, as well as giving you the manufacturers' blurb on their own products, we'll add our own thoughts - Totally Independent Golf Equipment Reviews (or T.I.G.E.R. for short) - and identify the gear we think really will help your game and that which might just be an unnecessary, but expensive, addition to what you already have. If you'd like to get involved with the testing, click here to contact us.

mizjpx800

Looks: 9
Performance: 9
Available in:
Right and left hand (JPX-800 Pro; right-hand only).
Stock shaft:
True Temper Dynalite Gold XP (steel - R300, S300), or Mizuno Exsar IS4 (graphite - regular).
Offset Range:
0.102" (SW) - 0.209" (4-iron).
Ideal For: Amateur golfers looking for more distance with their irons. 8-18 handicappers.
Briefly:
As Mizuno's head of R&D    David Llewelyn says; it's relatively simple to build a club specifically for distance, accuracy, workability, feel or forgiveness, but much harder to build one that offers something for everyone. The JPX-800 comes closer to that ideal than any Mizuno iron before it - it's a forgiving players' club, and elegant game-improvement model. 
mizunoprofilejpx800

mizjpx800pro

The JPX-800 Pro (above) - built for the better player obviously - is a forged iron with minimal progressive offset, a thinner top-line, and a smaller more compact clubhead.

Mizuno JPX-800

In Theory:
A serious looking iron designed to be amazingly forgiving and explosively long, the JPX-800 is the first model to bring Mizuno’s Global JPX technology platform to the United States. The unbelievable distance of the JPX-800 irons is achieved by combining MAX COR Technology, Hot Metal Face construction, and an exotic pocket cavity to hit the maximum allowable limits for energy transfer.
Hot Metal construction utilizes a new manufacturing process that increases the material’s natural strength to create an ultra-thin and multi-thickness face for maximum, consistent ball speed, while the innovative pocket cavity with external power bar design expands and extends the sweet area and lowers the center of gravity for unsurpassed forgiveness.
An aggressive triple-cut sole ensures solid
ball-striking from all types of lies, and a
multi-material cavity badge provides tuned impact sound with enhanced feel and sharp looks. Simply put, the JPX-800 irons utilize the world’s most advanced Game Improvement technologies to help the serious mid to high-handicap player score like never before!

In Reality:
These aren't your grandfather's Mizunos. They may not even be your father's. When I last owned a set of the Japanese manufacturer's finest irons (TP Originals), they had a narrow sole, a narrower top line, no offset and no cavity.
Apart from the fact they had grooves, and were forged (and felt divine if and when you flushed one), there wasn't an awful lot the marketing department could say about them. They looked positively dangerous, and were definitely not well-suited to cold December mornings. After them came the TP-18s which might have been a little shinier as I recall, but not significantly more forgiving.
A while after abandoning Mizuno's blades and going in search of a cavity, I noticed the company started bringing out game-improvement models of its own (to my knowledge, Mizuno irons that were available in Europe did not have cavities until the mid-'90s). Some people, in the UK at least, said Mizuno had sold out, forsaking the gorgeous forged irons on which it had built its reputation in favor of run-of-the-mill, mass-market clubs that were more or less indistinguishable from those of other manufacturers.
Golfers soon realized, however, that while the T-Zoids may not have had their predecessors' good looks, they were still being designed and constructed with a level of craftmanship similar to that employed on any of the TP models. 
These days, Mizuno's reputation depends just as much on its game-improvement clubs as its musclebacks (blades). The JPX-800 is certainly game-improvement but, says the company, represents a foray into a segment of the market as yet untried - filling the gap between its players' clubs (such as the MP-68), and high-handicapper models (such as the MX-1000).
First thing you notice, even before you place the head up behind the ball, is how sleek this club looks. There's something called a 'multi-level, multi-thickness exotic pocket cavity' in the 4-7 irons, and the cavity features some electric blue grahpics - stuff that might make the blade connoisseur feel physically unwell - but Mizuno somehow makes it look cool. Address the ball and, once again, the blade snob rolls his eyes, aghast at the offset and thick top line.
But on the JPX-800, neither is excessive and, with its pleasantly curved toe-end, the clubhead actually appears very accommodating. Its look  will surely appeal more to the 12-handicapper than the scratch man, but the latter might not dismiss it out of hand as quickly as he might a Super Game Improvement club. I really like the tacky texture of the M-21 grip too.
Luke Donald was curious enough to give the JPX-800 a try during a test-session for the MP-63 (which he is lined up to endorse), and couldn't believe how much further it hit the ball. With the JPX-800 6-iron, the Englishman carried it 193.3 yards - 17.4 yards more than he was getting with the MP-63 6-iron.
17.4 more yards...with a 6-iron!
The MP-63 will give Donald greater precision and ability to work the ball, but his mini-test with the JPX-800 clearly proved the Hot Face construction, which increases the strength of the ultra-thin clubface and thus maximizes the iron's COR (MAX COR), does exactly what it claims to do.
The difference between how far you hit the JPX-800 and your current 6-iron obviously won't be as great as that which Donald generated, but if additional distance is what you're looking for in your irons, you probably need look no further. And while these cast clubs may not possess the feel, sensitivity and workability of forged blades, it really isn't as if the 8-18 handicappers for whom they were built are going to complain as they watch their latest iron shot creep onto the front of the green instead of coming up way short.

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