Mizuno JPX 919 Hotmetal

When I first wanted to write about this, the pandemic came and rendered most things in life meaningless. Golf too came to a standstill. Even when courses were opened later with safety measures in place, you can't even get your slots to play. Those who used to travel overseas for golf especially to China, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia or even Batam and Bintan were stuck here. Those who travel for work are also stuck here and many others begin to golf again. It is just too difficult to get a flight but we must keep on and keep our chins up even after long layoffs and playing like beginners all over again. Before I could share with you the wonders of the Mizuno JPX 919 Hotmetal they have recently released the 921.

Mizuno have been making some of the most awesome irons over the years and have been noted for their great looks, awesome feel, excellent quality that produces great shots. Their product development are geared a lot towards irons than any other clubs. Mizuno deserved more credit than they have been given and you will know what I mean if you have ever played their irons before.  Mizuno irons and wedges have the sleekest design you will ever find. Brooks Koepka made them very popular once again when he used the Mizuno JPX900  Tour when he won the 2017 US Open. Then he followed up with his title and captured the US PGA Championship with the same irons. This icing on the cake caught everyone's attention making the JPX range a huge and roaring success.

From the Players' irons in the MP series to the JPX 919 series that comes in Tour, Forged, Pro and Game Improvement Hotmetal, Mizuno have been most famous for their irons with thin top line , forged bladed irons with exceptional feel. If you are not a scratch golfer, then you should be looking in the game improvement category which in this case is the Mizuno JPX 919 Hotmetal. It is the latest  evolution of their most successful JPX 900 irons. It gets the prestigious Guru Choice Award for sure for 2019 / 2020! Here is why...

Even as every club in your bag is important for different reasons, irons are your bread and butter of golf. There are plenty of big chunky Super Game Improvement and Game Improvement irons out there that are forgiving and hit long distances and take note that very often golf can be a game of ego. What are most frequently done are that by giving you more forgiving club heads, they have also extended the length of the shaft and surely decreasing the loft a few degrees lower so that your 7-iron plays the distance of a 6-iron. 

Mizuno JPX 919 Hotmetal

The JPX 919 Hotmetal is a benchmark in iron design and performance. It is engineered with a powerful blend of soft landing angles and quite astonishing ball speed by using Chromoly 414 M (Chromoly is a steel alloy from Chromium and Molybdenum). This is to pave the way for a multi-thickness face that produce greater ball speeds using a one-piece seamless cup face construction. As you know one-piece construction will give you better feel. 

They created this Stability Frame design to move the CG closer to the centre of the club so that your hits can be even more consistent. 

Though the head is cast, Chromoly allows flexibility and yet strong enough to create a large head with a thin face and we all know thin face generates more ball speed. Chromoly 414M is a highly durable and resilient material. 

Over the years I have played all the major brands and models, Mizuno irons are often among my favourite as not only do they look and feel amazing but also produce beautiful quality shots. Golfers often think that Titleist and Mizuno make irons that are not easy to use. That is definitely not true. The JPX 919 Hotmetal chipped away all the unessential and made these purposeful and sleek without sacrificing forgiveness. In fact, it is probably the most forgiving Mizuno ever. 

The redistribution of weight has resulted in a higher launch with serious hangtime and steeper landing angles thus increasing the brakes with stopping power onto greens.  

You must also know that they a buttery, creamy soft on solid impact. Every time you hit it you would go "Wow!" 

Launch and flight apex are highly impressive. Mizuno's catch word were indeed true - the extra ball speed and distance doesn't come from low flying bullets - we worked the design backwards from the correct landing angles. These irons are for the golf course, not just the launch monitor. 

You will notice that the leading edge has changed. The grind is gone to facilitate sharper and cleaner turf interaction. Meanwhile, there is more camber to the trailing edge grind for the whole width of the sole. This club produces less spin  and a higher flight than its predecessor. This is to ensure that its steeper landing angles can accommodate the lesser spin rate making it a classic hot iron and has taken it to the next level! 

Lower spin for extra distance, soft parachute landing onto greens, very forgiving, stable and consistent head, one piece construction for a great feel, simple and elegant cosmetics, Hotmetal is going to be the irons to beat! 

The sole construction is wonderful. It seems like it could only go deep enough so fat shots still look quite pretty. 

I have been playing with steel shaft for a long time. From 95g for the longest time then I reduced them to 85g but when my elbow was kaput, it ended my association with steel shaft. The initial switch to graphite shaft was a gradual adjustment with the last being at 65g but with the advent of technology advancing so quickly, this time I have chosen only 55g. Older 55g shaft are often too whippy but not these Orochi.

Though the clubhead fitted to these shafts are light, they are very well balanced. You can feel the clubhead to enable a smooth tempo and proper loading. Feel is often attuned to sound and for the 919, it is hard to beat.

Mizuno threw in a durable Pearl Brush finish (chrome-plated) to leave us with a very classy looking iron. Look carefully just under the top line. The gap you see  attached from the top to the centre by ribs which are kind of like sound bars and are engineered to be called Sound Ribs. These are developed to  hit specific vibration patterns to deliver a most satisfying sensation through impact. There is no colour fill or graphics to distract. Like a player's club.

The heel area is opened up to provide acoustics and feel, also to move weights from around the hosel more towards the toe to increase MOI (Moment of Inertia) and hence increased forgiveness. 

It is impossible not to like the looks of this clubs. The colour or rather the lack of it is brilliant. Most GI clubs have lots of graphics and colours and designs that can be distracting but these are totally like Players' irons such as blades. Even the Mizuno name is gone and replaced by a simple logo. No gimmicks and totally sleek. No paint-fill or overzealous branding. A very clean look. 

It has a new stability frame at the heel portion that is open to enhance - yes - stability and also to promote launch and loft to produce the most appropriate flight and trajectory apex creating controlled soft landing approaches. Seriously, among the many accolades, some of the most impressive are the launch, control and flight. It looks like Mizuno worked it backwards like reversing a film from the ball landing onto the green and backwards to the position you last hit it and created these irons. They said it very well when they said -"these are irons for the golf course, not just for the launch monitor!'

Those who have played Mizuno before will know. I have and have also played, Callaway, Ping, TaylorMade, Titleist and their various models and many more others. I love these Mizuno JPX 919 Hotmetal clubs. You will experience exhilarating shots. Forgiving, long and high shots are the order of the day. Probably the softest non-forged GI irons in the market. It wows you when you hit them. They are also plain easy to use. By far they are the sleekest, most elegant irons with a gorgeous look in a Game Improvement. 

Mizuno really have you covered. They might be among the most forgiving irons you have ever hit. It felt that way for me. They either bail you out and sometimes also get you out of jail. Its like having Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil Van Dijk playing together in your soccer team. If you are looking for new irons, you owe yourself a favour by putting the 919 on the top of your list and be sure to check them out. They are not just pretty to look at, they may be the most complete GI irons out there even up to now. 

Fear not the weapons but the hands that wield them.

Golf as in life, play as it lies.