New Mizuno JPX- EZ

[saevel25]

Looks like Mizuno is coming out with a new JPX-EZ line with JPX-EZ and JPX-EZ Forged. 

The Forged iron look to be a more in line with a traditional cavity back. They say the sole is triple cut which supposedly allows it to be playable from different type of lies. 

I think they look awesome. I like the darker chrome look. The lofts range from 22 degrees in a 4 iron to 50 degrees in a gap wedge. Their is a good amount of offset on these clubs. The stock shafts are the True Temper XP 95. Though Mizuno typically has an extensive custom shaft option. They say these clubs are for mid single digit to bogey golfers. 

The JPX-EZ is their more game improvement iron. This iron has what they labelled as a Duel Pocket Cavity and a Multi-Thickness Face to increase and maintain ball speeds. The DPC is a cavity that extends around the whole back of the club. 

 

 

The lofts range from 22 degrees in the 4 iron to 55 degrees in the SW. An strange thing is that the 4 & 5 iron actually have negative bounce. I've never seen a club with negative bounce before. I would be interested in hearing as to why they would do that a game improvement iron. 

 

Edited October 2, 2015 by saevel25

[Hardspoon]

These look really nice - the "forged" version is one of the nicest-looking GI irons I've seen.  I have JPX-800's...these will definitely be on my "look at" list soon.  I'm glad they resisted the temptation to continue with the garish (blue then orange) badges.

The negative-bounce thing is interesting.  I've also never seen that before.  Here's a great article that I just found:

http://blog.hirekogolf.com/2007/10/understanding-golf-club-bounce-angle/

It seems like it is related to the wideness of the sole (which makes a lot of sense since these are GI irons):

You might have noticed that most wide sole cavity back wedges do not have the same amount of bounce as a narrower blade-style model. To have the same effective bounce, less measured bounce is needed and here is the reason why. Let’s say we have a 1.25” wide sole wedge with a 3” radius. This will effective make the leading edge 1.81” above the ground. The same golfer with the 5° angle of attack will now return the club at impact with a leading edge height of 0.102” or the equivalent of the narrower sole clubs with greater bounce.

In an extreme example of where there is a very wide sole (1.25”) and has a high sole radius (1.5”) the manufacturer may select a bounce for the sand wedge may appear low on paper, for example 4°. This still leaves the leading edge height 0.183” above the ground. Even if the golfer returned the club with a 5° angle of attack, then effectively it has a negative 1° bounce. But due to the high radius sole, the leading edge will still be approximately 0.125” above the ground.

You might even see long irons with negative bounce as part of their specifications. Once considered that the head was inaccurately manufactured if the bounce was negative is no longer true. Often times the #1, 2 and even 3-irons are used off of a tee. Thus any time the ball is off the ground, then an upward or ascending angle of attack occurs which will add both loft and bounce to the club at impact. Even if clubs with negative bounce are hit of the ground with a level swing, the modern sole radius will prevent the chance of a “fat” shot as the leading edge will be above the ground line.

Edited October 2, 2015 by Hardspoon

[Jeremie Boop]

I actually was interested in the ez forged but since they weren't even starting pre-orders until the first day of the Erie area outing this year I had to skip them in favor of the Ping I irons that I could get in time. They really do look nice but I doubt I'd hit them any better than I do the Pings.

[newtogolf]

The JPX EZ Forged are long.  As I've posted in other threads I found them to be 10 - 15 yards longer in direct comparison to the JPX-850 Forged.  The lofts are the same as the 850 Forged but the face and weighting is optimized for distance.  I tried them with the TT XP105 and XP115 R flex shafts.

They do have some offset to them and the club heads are larger than the JPX 850 forged.  They felt pretty good but I've gotten used to looking at smaller club heads with less offset.  While I like the look of the new EZ forged over the previous model which used orange plastic instead of the current versions black, I'd still prefer if they left the plastic completely off.  

If you are looking for a forgiving forged iron that hits the ball further than most irons out there, you should definitely demo the JPX EX Forged.

[Kenny Lee]

I have a feeling that I'd be a better player if I swapped my AP2's for the JPX EZ Forged.

[boogielicious]

Thanks for posting @saevel25 . They put a little Ping in their design IMO. 

@newtogolf , thanks for your comments. Did you play them on a course or were the distances from a range test?

[newtogolf]

Thanks for posting @saevel25 . They put a little Ping in their design IMO.

@newtogolf , thanks for your comments. Did you play them on a course or were the distances from a range test?

You're welcome, I tested them on a simulator alongside my 850 Forged and the MP-25's. 

[Jmdmbike]

They look great - really like to darker colour and agree it's a big improvement in look without the blue or orange badges. I was surprised to see that they had quite a bit more offset than my AP1's. 

[Dave2512]

Not in the market but probably will demo a bunch as cold temps keep us off the course. I like the look but the offset might look weird at first glance.

[newtogolf]

Not in the market but probably will demo a bunch as cold temps keep us off the course. I like the look but the offset might look weird at first glance.

I wish they would have just gone with the larger more forgiving head and minimized the offset.  I am assuming they are targeting the AP1 / AP2 market but the offset would probably push better players to the 850 Forged and I don't think they will be as forgiving as the AP1. 

Given all their other irons I think Mizuno is starting to confuse and overlap their iron offerings.  They currently have 8 different iron sets which is too many imo and reminds me of Callaway three years ago when no one could figure out which irons to buy so they bought none.