Swing The Golf Club Slower To Gain More Distance
In this video, Joel Tadman tests the three new Mizuno JPX923 Hot Metal irons on the launch monitor and the course at Longcliffe Golf Club to see how they perform. Interestingly, Mizuno has added a new High Launch model this time around and so Joel does a little experiment to see if golfers with slower swing speeds will actually get more distance from an iron with weaker lofts. Watch to the end to find out if this is the case.
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00:00Now it's always an exciting time when Mizuno launches new irons, especially within that
00:04JPX franchise where they have models to suit every type of player. But for 2023 there's a
00:10brand new model that Mizuno say will help golfers with slower swing speeds hit it further. It sounds
00:16counterintuitive but it's really addressing the need for game-improved irons to provide a more
00:22playable and optimum ball fight. The trend I've seen with lofts getting stronger, even at my swing
00:28speed, I struggle to really flight the ball in these game-improvement, super game-improvement
00:32clubs and Mizuno say they've combated that with the launch of this new JPX range, specifically
00:38the JPX 923 hot metal high launch. As you can see I've got three hot metal irons here in front of
00:43me. It's a split launch this time so you're gonna have to wait until February next year for the TOR
00:48and the FORGE, which are the two models that admittedly would probably be more suited to my
00:51swing speed and my handicap. But I want to put these irons through their paces, the hot metal,
00:56the hot metal pro and the hot metal high launch in this JPX 923 range to see exactly what they're
01:02all about. But even more specifically, if I swing them slower can I get even more distance out of
01:08that hot metal high launch than I can the other two models? That's what we're here at Long Cliff
01:12Golf Club to find out. Now if you want to find out about the technology in each of these specific
01:17heads go to the Golf Monthly website, there's a story there you can read all about that. We're
01:20not going to cover that in this video but what we are going to talk about is the concept behind
01:25the changes that Mizuno have made with these irons versus the previous 921 range in that JPX
01:30franchise. So Mizuno, as we know, they have that shaft optimizer technology where in three swings
01:36they can identify what shaft a golfer needs for their irons and from all those different swings
01:41they've captured over 350,000 swings there were a couple of trends that really stood out and that
01:46has really helped shape and influence the design of these new irons. The first is the fact actually
01:51that golfer swing speeds are quite slow, average was about 82 miles an hour with the server 9 and
01:56that has led to the introduction of this high launch model which we've covered already. But
02:00the second trend was that golfers tended to present quite a lot of shaft lean at impact
02:05and that's resulted in a change in the bounce and the camber to these clubs so you'll notice
02:08there's a lot more bounce and camber to these clubs to give you a little bit more forgiveness
02:12through the turf if you do tend to deal off the club into impact and get that leading edge quite
02:18sharp into the ball so it gives you a little bit more margin for error, Mizuno say, on your strike.
02:22So those are the two key trends that Mizuno have incorporated into this range. I'm going to hit
02:26some shots here into this beautiful par 4 down here, the 10th hole at Longcliffe Golf Club.
02:31Got the launch monitor, the full swing kit launch monitor, going to capture some data,
02:35we're going to assess the ball flight, assess the feel, the sound, everything about these clubs
02:39and then we'll feed back afterwards. So without further ado let's hit some shots see what they're
02:42all about. Oh, it's much higher!
03:07Right, so I've really enjoyed my testing session on the full swing kit launch monitor with
03:11the three new JPX 923 hot metal irons and I've also thrown in the JPX 921 hot metal iron as a
03:18comparison which we're going to touch on now. So I'll flash up the data on the screen, you can
03:23click pause and peruse it at your leisure but there were some trends that I noticed during
03:27the testing from the data that we got. The first being that I love how the spin is pretty high for
03:32what is a game improvement iron range where we see loft spin stronger, spin coming down, the fact
03:38that these clubs are spinning close to 6,000 rpm we saw with the prior generation and that's been
03:43continuing to this one so that's going to help players keep the ball in the air for longer and
03:47get more stopping power into greens. So that's the first thing that I really observed across all
03:51three of the new irons. So coming on to numbers, worth pointing out that the the hot metal and the
03:55hot metal pro in this 923 range is half a degree stronger than where we were in the 921 but looking
04:00at the numbers actually it wasn't necessarily getting anything more out of this new version,
04:05both were carrying similar in the hot metal starting with the hot metal iron both were
04:09carrying around about that 170 range but what I did notice was the ball flight was a little bit
04:14higher so even though it's stronger in loft actually the ball was launching a little bit
04:17higher and it was flying a little bit higher too. Notice that testing here on this hole at Longcliffe
04:22golf club it was like one or two yards higher through the air which is a change that I like to
04:26see given those stronger lofts. Then we move on to that the hot metal pro is actually this is the
04:31club I got the most out of despite it being a slimmed down version of the hot metal actually
04:35hit a little bit further than the hot metal definitely prefer the look of it it's got a more
04:39compact look down at address whereas the hot metal iron in the 921 and 923 very similar really
04:46comforting sparring a little bit of offset there thicker top line hot metal pro a little bit more
04:51slimmed down so it definitely suits my eye as a lower handicap a little bit more and then we move
04:55on to the hot metal high lodge now you might think well this club is weaker in loft it's two degree
05:01two to three degrees weaker through the set than the hot metal in the 7-iron it's 31 degrees so
05:05it's significantly weaker and as a result the testing I did a launch monitor and my speed
05:11would suggest that it's not going to give me the distance compared to the other two models so it's
05:15around about seven or eight yards shorter on average than the hot metal and the hot metal pro
05:21but we know this club is not designed for a golfer like me it's designed for slower swing
05:25speeds and so now we're going to do a little experiment where I'm going to test
05:30this hot metal high launch up against the hot metal slow my swing speed down to 75 miles an
05:35hour and see actually by doing that and switching into this new iron do you get more distance because
05:42I think if you do that's going to suit an awful lot of players looking for a club like this okay
05:47so I'm going to start with the jpx 923 hot metal going to hit three shots with each of that slower
05:52swing speed and see which one gives us the most distance okay it's a good hit swing speed 79
06:12they only carried 115 yards
06:23oh slightly slower that one 66
06:2856 that's a good shot 70.5
06:39one two one okay let's move on to the hot metal so we're looking like we're averaging
06:45around about 120 yards with the hot metal now we're going to try the high launch
06:51oh I might have been a little heavy
06:58swing speed bang on 75 112 carry I think I hit that a little bit chunky
07:07that's a much cleaner strike higher flight much noticeably higher flight on that one
07:14so that's really interesting swing speed of 71 or 70.6 carry of 125 so that's the
07:20longest shot I've hit in this experiment so far and not the fastest swing speed by any means
07:30again noticeably higher flight a good four or five yards higher 71 swing speed carry of 129
07:39yards so this experiment this little experiment has proved to me definitely that I think slower
07:45swing speed golfers mid-high handicap golfers who struggle to get the ball in the air are really
07:49going to enjoy what this hot metal high launch has to offer and they're actually going to get
07:54a bit more distance out of this because your ball flight is optimized for your swing speed
08:00so while these three jpx 923 hot metal irons are probably not aimed at me I've really enjoyed my
08:06time testing these and there's three really key takeaways that I would offer to you in terms of
08:12how these irons perform and the user experience that that you will expect the first being these
08:16irons look absolutely fantastic I don't think they move it on a great deal in terms of looks
08:21or performance versus what where we were with the jpx 921 in fact I think like for like models you're
08:28not going to see huge gains you might see a little bit more distance from that stronger loft and a
08:33slightly maybe higher ball flight as well from the technology they've packed into this club but
08:37you're not going to see huge gains I don't think versus generation to generation but
08:41the other thing that really stood out for me was the turf interaction so it's hard to pinpoint
08:45exactly how it felt differently but it definitely felt different I think a little bit more give
08:50through the turf so maybe you're not getting your my did I felt like my divots were a little bit
08:55shallow a little bit smaller and I think your margin for error is a little bit greater if you
09:00just catch the ground slightly heavy so that's the other thing I would kind of observe from
09:05generation to generation I think the feel is absolutely fantastic these clubs feel hot but
09:11they don't feel harsh or clicky they actually feel relatively soft but explosive at the same
09:16time it's an interesting combination but through the set it's a very pleasing feel and I think
09:20across all three of these hot metal clubs if you're a mid to high handicapper there's definitely
09:24going to be something for you even if you're maybe a single figure high single figure golfer I think
09:29you'll really enjoy what this hot metal pro has to offer in terms of that visual package nice and
09:33compact down behind the ball but gives really good speed good launch and good distance as well so
09:38lots of like about this new JPX 923 range hopefully you've enjoyed this video if you do
09:43click the like button down below and do comment on this video we'd love to hear from you which
09:47iron are you most excited to try within this new hot metal franchise if you're after those better
09:52player irons you've got to wait till February but I think this hot metal irons from what we've seen
09:57so far there's a lot to be excited about with this new JPX 923 range but that's all for me
10:01from Longcliffe Golf Club I'll see you next time