Equipment

Mizuno unveils new Pro 221, 223, 225 and Fli-Hi irons

Published

2 years ago

Dec 9, 2021

Mizuno has introduced its new Pro 221, 223, 225 and Fli-Hi irons which will hit retail on February 3rd, 2022.

“The concept of Mizuno Pro can be misunderstood – we’re not trying to design instant classics or works of art. Mizuno just hides technology incredibly well. This could be perceived as the ultimate betrayal of Mizuno Pro. But the true essence has always been to make history – not be stuck in it.” – Chris Voshall, Product Manager, Mizuno Golf.

The Mizuno Pro 221 is a new muscleback iron inspired by iconic Mizuno blades of the past. The Pro 223 is an elite players cavity iron, while the Pro 225 is a hot metal blade design.

Mizuno Pro 221

The Pro 221 irons have been bevelled for the appearance of a shorter face profile and narrower top line but without loss of mass in the upper blade.

The 221’s are more compact in the scoring irons than their predecessors while also featuring Mizuno’s shortest CG/shaft axis, which is consistent from 3-iron to PW, in design to allow for controlled shot shaping through the set.

Grain Flow Forged in Hiroshima, Japan, they feature a soft copper underlay in a bid to provide a classic, smooth Mizuno feel at impact.

“We’re obviously working in small increments on a Mizuno muscleback – we have to dig quite deep to get any negative feedback. The copper underlay and Grain Flow forging was such a great foundation on the MP-20. Players with a good eye will enjoy the subtle shape changes through the set – especially the 8, 9, PW” – David Llewellyn– Director of R&D for Mizuno

Price: $187.50 per iron

Mizuno Pro 223

The Mizuno Pro 223 irons conceal a ball speed-enhancing construction within the frame of a compact players cavity.

A completely new technology platform from 4-7 iron combines Mizuno’s tested Chromoly Forging and Flow Micro-Slot – An innovation designed to produce extreme ball speeds from a small tour-ready profile.

The irons deliver a face thickness of just 2.4mm (vs 2.6mm JPX921 Forged), and from 8-PW, the Pro 223 irons are constructed from 1025E Pure Select Mild Carbon Steel in a bid to offer excellent precision and control.

“The good way to look at the new Mizuno Pro 223 is that we shrunk the JPX921 Forged technology platform to the profile of one of our small player’s cavities – comparable to the MP-62, MP-64 or MP.” – David Llewellyn.

Price: $187.50 per iron

Mizuno Pro 225

The Mizuno Pro 225 represents the second generation of Mizuno’s Hot Metal Blade and is designed to be the most playable of the Mizuno Pro series. The iron is more compact than the original and features a revised Cortech multi-thickness face in a bid to produce even quicker ball speeds.

The Hot Metal Blade design features Grain Flow Forged 4135 Chromoly in the face and neck in the 2-8 iron – consistently 0.2mm thinner across the face. This combines with a COR Forged Hollow Body and 28.5g Tungsten weight in the 2-7 iron in a bid to produce a higher, more stable flight and enhanced ball speed.

In the 9-PW, 1025E Pure Select Mild Carbon Steel is used with stabilizing back weight in design for greater precision and a more penetrating flight.

“The original Hot Metal Blade was the extension of our hybrid iron technology into a full bladed look set. The new Mizuno Pro 225 pushes the profile and size deeper in the realms of the tour – but commits more fully to the pursuit of ball speed,” – David Llewellyn Director of R&D

Price: $187.50 per iron

Mizuno Pro Fli-Hi

A long iron replacement with a priority on ball speed – the Mizuno Pro Fli-Hi is designed to be played with a graphite shaft.

The Mizuno Pro Fli-Hi features a longer head length, a little extra offset and a wider sole than the Mizuno Pro 225 long irons and includes the brand’s first-ever Maraging MAS1C face in an iron – which is designed to deliver vastly increased ball speeds.

The Pro Fli-Hi comes in 2-4 iron and is right-hand only.

“Over the last couple of seasons, we’ve noticed that there are two types of tour player – those who predominantly use their long iron hybrids into greens and others who use them to hit more fairways. With the Mizuno Pro 225 and Fli-Hi, we’ve got options for both – or to meet changing demands players might encounter at different types of courses.” – Jeff Cook, PGA Tour Manager, Mizuno.

Price: $224.95 per iron

Your Reaction?

LIKE193
LEGIT23
WOW21
LOL1
IDHT4
FLOP5
OB2
SHANK9

Equipment

Voting is live: 2023 GolfWRX Members Choice presented by 2nd Swing!

Published

4 hours ago

Jul 10, 2023

GolfWRX Staff

We’re proud to partner with 2nd Swing Golf to bring you GolfWRX Members Choice 2023! 2nd Swing has more than 100,000 new and pre-swung golf clubs available in six store locations and online. Check them out here.

The bedrock of GolfWRX.com is the community of passionate and knowledgable golfers in our forums, and we put endless trust in the opinions of our GolfWRX members — the most knowledgeable community of golfers on the internet. No other group of golfers in the world tests golf clubs as frequently or as extensively, or is armed with such in-depth information about the latest technology and gear.

On that note, we just launched our 2023 GolfWRX Members Choice awards, and the polls are now open.

We want to hear from you, not just with a vote but with your comments too!

Please vote in the Members Choice categories below!

And don’t forget to comment with the reasoning for your choice!

Your Reaction?

LIKE0
LEGIT0
WOW0
LOL0
IDHT0
FLOP0
OB0
SHANK0

Equipment

GolfWRXers put the Full Swing KIT’s accuracy to the test

Published

7 hours ago

Jul 10, 2023

GolfWRX Staff

Last month, four GolfWRX forum members traveled to The Grand Golf Club at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar in San Diego, California, to test the Full Swing KIT launch monitor and to see how it stacks up against other launch monitors. If you’re not familiar with the Full Swing KIT, development began when Tiger Woods requested a launch monitor he could trust on the range as much as he trusted his Full Swing simulator in his own home. Later, the KIT earned Tiger’s seal of approval and has been seen with him at every tournament he’s played in since its release.

Check out the video below to see if the KIT can earn the seal of approval from our four WRXers — @zap311, @double or triple?, @hatrick11, and @SwingBlues — just like it did from Tiger Woods himself.

GolfWRX members on the KIT’s accuracy

zap311: “The Full Swing team seems obsessed with accuracy when it comes to the KIT – The team talked about how this product officially shipped about 18 months ago and they are already on firmware release #20. They said they are regularly releasing updates (overnight via WiFi) to continuously improve accuracy and performance. That is pretty awesome and it’s nice to hear that they are not a company that “ships it” and moves to the next thing. I think they are on the right track since I saw virtually no differences in the data when testing vs. GCQuad and Trackman today.”

double or triple?: “In some cases the difference was less than half a degree on launch and less than 50 rpms on spin.”

hatrick11: “The differences were statistically nonexistent. I think it’s hard to believe for a lot of people when you think about the huge price disparity, but I can’t state enough how close the Full Swing was to trackman every single time, for each of us.”

“Outside, the data is just really really accurate. I know my numbers and know this particular range very well and the KIT was spot on all day. I also had some very variable quality golf balls in the bucket I hit and there was really only one spin rate in the whole session that had me raising my eyebrows at all.”

SwingBlues: “The GolfWRX Full Swing/WRX Experience showed Full Swing KIT produce numbers the same as the GC Quad (GC4) and the Trackman4. Dollar wise, both LMs are easily north of KIT, so this is HUGE to stand up there with the bigger boys on the Podium. For me, it seems more “apples to apples” to compare KIT to GC3. My own testing validates what we saw at the Experience. It shows critical data points like spin, carry, ball speeds are dead on or almost dead on for 40 yards and up on both GC3 and KIT.”

More on the Full Swing KIT

zap311: “The versatility of viewing data is impressive – Depending on usage, everyone has different preferences for viewing data. You have on-device, phone, tablet, monitor, smartwatch, or audio/headphones. I’m pleased to say that Full Swing covers all of these. You can use the app on iOS devices (they said Android is planned for the future). This includes viewing your last shot on the Apple Watch with a few options and turning on audio playback of your preferred metrics following each shot. I’ll post screenshots of this later. You can also choose between 4 data points or 1 data point on the device itself. It was easy to use the app to customize the top 4. For example, I was able to quickly change from launch angle on irons to swing path on driver.

“The KIT was very easy to use – Once you spend a few minutes learning the app and settings, it is very simple to select a club, line up the target line, and fire away. You don’t have to use a level or a laser to line up. KIT uses the built-in camera to tell you where to line up within the app or on-device screen. I was also able to boot up the KIT in less than a minute and drop it down on the tee box for our on-course trial today. Because of this simplicity, I can see it being more practical to bring to the course…

“The Full Swing team really thought through usability for the KIT. You can see up to four data points on the device’s OLED screen. You can see all 16 data points on your iPhone/iPad along with a video replay of the shot, you can view one primary metric from your Apple Watch, and you can enable audio playback for any of the 16 data points. For me, this was a dream as a full iOS user. One other feature I like is that you can star a particular shot to save it. You can also send shot data + the video recording to your coach if you want.”

double or triple?: “I was able to meet the teaching pro at the range I’m using for testing – PGA teacher/member Ryan Kolk. He and his team have 4 units amongst themselves and use them both personally and with their students during lessons. Ryan spent time dialing in his knowledge of the range balls vs proV1x (gamer) to better understand the FSK and he believes the consistency is there with the FSK and within trackman and GC/Foresight models. His preference is to use FSK while testing shafts and new product before using them in his personal playing bag which as a GolfWRX member is 100% appreciated. For his better students, he believes the information like Face to Path and Club Path that FullSwing Kit offers is great to help them understand what their swing is doing and use that information to better themselves.”

hatrick11: “It’s nice to know I can get super useful practice sessions in at my house, and can do in in ~20 min stints; with two little kids at home I can’t just go out for frequent or lengthy range sessions, so this is super valuable and I think will help me keep my game from degrading and allow me to spend my limited free time enjoying the occasional round with friends. In particular with the KIT, as opposed to the cheaper monitors or the other “mid tiers” like GC3, seeing path and face-to-path data is the key item that makes my practice sessions useful…when I am grooving it my path is almost always between 0-2* out to in, with face control being the main thing I need to work on. When my game goes sideways I start coming more in to out, and combined with face consistency being an ongoing issue, that brings the bad left miss into play. Previously I have struggled getting real use out of net practice, because the feels don’t always match reality. This data and video evidence really helps keep me honest, so it was great to see that I was eventually able to get that piece dialed in with KIT.”

SwingBlues: “One feature I am really starting to like is how easy to see the video of each shot. My buddy was not hitting it well, we went to the video and we could see the takeway was too far to the outside.”

“Using the app, it will display all 16 data points. Below is an example of one of my iron shots. Pretty impressive data captured by KIT. On KIT itself, the launch monitor display can be configured to show a single data point, or it can show a grid of 4 data points where the golfer choose which ones to display!”

Head over to the thread for more comments, reviews, and future updates as our members continue to test the Full Swing KIT. Don’t forget to become a member today for future opportunities like this, plus product member testing and giveaways!

Your Reaction?