The Best Mizuno Irons

Irons that are the right fit for you can completely reinvent your entire golf game, from their consistency on each swing to the feedback you get when you don’t quite catch the ball perfectly. If you’re looking for new irons for your golf game, there isn’t a better place to start looking than Mizuno.

Irons often get left behind when talking about the most valuable parts of the golf game.

Sure, long drives impress everyone in your group, and a long putt can feel like stealing a stroke. But an accurate day with your irons can remove more stress from your game than any other area, turning par threes into scoring holes and every good drive into a birdie chance. Your approach shots can turn hit fairways into birdie opportunities, limit bad drives into easy up-and-downs, and prevent frustrating wasted strokes. But which irons are the best for you?

When I first started playing competitive golf in high school, I was always at least confident with my irons. I never felt like I had firm control over where the ball was heading, and it was hard for me to figure out what I’d done wrong on each swing. I tried countless brands, even bringing my dad’s old clubs to the range or testing out a friend’s club for a swing or two. My iron game completely changed once I got fit for my first set of Mizuno clubs. I can reliably hit six or seven greens in regulation even when I take a few weeks off from the game, my distance control remains sharp even without spending hours on the range, and I rarely hit the ball dangerously far right or left. The best part about the irons is the feedback I get on each swing. If I miss-hit a shot with my irons now, I can tell what I did wrong based on the ball flight and how the club felt at impact. Some of that is experience, for sure, but a lot of it is how much care and craft goes into Mizuno’s clubs.

Who is Mizuno?

Mizuno, a Japanese company founded nearly a century ago, offers some of the most versatile irons on the market, all with exceptional feel and forgiveness. Golfers all around the world, from professionals like LPGA legend Stacy Lewis to PGA Tour players Keith Mitchell and Ben Griffin, use the brand through the bag. Brooks Koepka had Mizuno irons in the bag for his first four major championship wins. But where should you look among all the options? Below are a few great starting places.

What to Consider When Buying a Mizuno

1. Do you want to play blades?

Bladed irons are a thinner clubhead that traditionally makes it easier for you to move the ball right or left on command. The compact head size offers greater rewards when you find the sweet spot. Mizuno has several great blade options, such as the Pro 221s. However, since the sweet spot is smaller, blades are much less forgiving than cavity back irons. The margins between the center of the face and the toe or the heel shrinks.

A golfer with a low handicap who rarely mis-hits an iron but plays a course with lots of tucked pins might benefit from the performance of a compact blade. However, golfers who don’t hit half of their greens in regulation already will probably be punished more than they are helped by a blade. Even PGA Tour players are starting to shift over to cavity back irons with a larger clubhead size, with a 2020 Golf.com article citing how the pros thought the fatter irons still provided plenty of distance and thought the extra forgiveness outweighed the penal mis-hits of muscle back irons. The Mizuno forged options are some of the best in the business, but the pros and cons are worth consideration.

2. Do you want a little extra distance?

Drivers aren’t the only clubs that benefit from extra distance. Shorter irons, with their shorter length and higher loft, offer extra control and punish mis-hits less. If a player finds an iron set that turns their 7-iron distance into an 8-iron, their dispersion suddenly shrinks, and they become more consistent. Even at the top of the set, hitting long irons an extra 10 to 15 yards farther can be the difference between reaching par 5s in two. Mizuno has options crafted to maximize distance, like the JPX923 Hot Metal HL irons built with a thin clubface and cup face technology meant to increase launch angle and ball speed.

3. What’s your price range?

Iron sets are always the most expensive purchase for a golfer since there are more than half of a dozen in each set. Most of the Mizuno sets end up close to $1,300 for sets with a pitching wedge through a 4-iron. There are some options that can look a little better on the budget sheet, however. The Hot Metal HL irons listed above only cost about $960 for pitching wedge through 5-iron, and the regular JPX923 Hot Metal Pros are about the same, with a 4-iron included in the set.

What are the Types of Mizuno Irons?

Blades

If you read my breakdown on whether or not blades are the right fit for your game and you found yourself intrigued or excited rather than scared away, then these are the irons for you. Mizuno’s blades, like the Pro 221 pictured above, offer an incredibly soft feel and premium workability. For players who love spending hours on the range and yearn for perfection, the blade offers immediate feedback.

Benefits:

• Precision: The sweet spot on a blade offers greater rewards than any other iron model, meaning that the perfect swing will look almost exactly like the shot you pictured in your head.
• Workability: Blades can move the ball right or left effortlessly. If your swing is dialed, you can get yourself out of trouble or access any pin guarded by hazards. No target is off-limits.
• Feedback: Mizuno blades offer a distinct feel when you hit a little too close to the toe or heel, meaning you can immediately identify the cause of a misfire instead of scratching your head.

Be Aware:

• Forgiveness: Blades have a smaller sweet spot than other iron models. It’s not only easier to miss the sweet spot, but also the punishments are more severe, meaning someone who doesn’t consistently pure their irons could lose irons a long way left or right.
• Small clubhead: Blades are very compact, meaning you can see how small the clubhead is at the address. For some golfers, this visual at address is intimidating and makes the hosel look larger, and a club you don’t feel confident over is a recipe for disaster.

Mizuno Examples: Pro 223, JPX923 Tour

Cavity Backs

The Mizuno JPX line of irons, from the Hot Metal options mentioned above to the JPX923 Forged pictured here, are built for players who want a little more forgiveness, and the JPX923s are the best of the best. The thick sole emphasizes forgiveness. While a bad swing with a blade might lead to waving your ball goodbye and hitting your fourth shot from the same place as your second, a bad swing with one of their forged models would just leave you just in the rough around the green with an easy up and down.

Benefits:

• Forgiveness: The thicker club has a larger sweet spot and less punishment when you can’t find it, the perfect combination to keep the ball in play
• Trajectory: Mizuno’s forged irons fly higher in the air and land softer on the green, helping you avoid the large bounce into trouble over the back of a green

Be Aware:

• Spin: The forged options have a lower spin rate than blades, meaning it’s harder to move the ball super far left or right, and you can’t put backspin on the ball as easily.

Mizuno Examples: JPX923 Hot Metal, JPX923 Hot Metal HL

Driving Irons

If you want my two cents, this is the best product in Mizuno’s inventory. Driving irons are lower lofted than standard irons provided in sets and are typically sold individually, meant to provide an option if you don’t feel comfortable or don’t have the room to hit the driver on a hole but don’t want to effectively lay up. Available in lofts for a 2-, 3-, or 4-iron, the Pro Fli-Hi is such a reliable driving iron.

Benefits:

• High ball flight: For a low-lofted club, the Pro Fli-Hi gets a staggering amount of launch on the ball and repeatedly produces high trajectories
• Performance in the wind: Even if I’m hitting directly into a headwind, I only lose a handful of yards despite how high this club goes
• Workability: Mizuno driving irons are very easy to shape and are able to move a good distance either left or right
• Forgiveness: Driving irons have to be graded on a curve here. They’re still very low-lofted clubs and can miss really badly if miss-hit, but the sweet spot is very large for a long iron.

Be Aware:

• Clubhead speed: Driving irons are only meant for golfers with high ball speeds. Golfers with more moderate speeds won’t make hard enough contact with the ball to activate it (compress it hard enough to reach the core), meaning they will get less distance and forgiveness than someone who swings faster.

Mizuno Example: Pro Fli-Hi Driving Iron

Features to Look For When Buying a Mizuno

• Nickel Chromoly: The Nickel Chromoly featured on most models is stronger than the old Chromoly technology, meaning the clubface can be thinner. Thinner club faces make it a little easier for the sweet spot to reach the core of the golf ball, creating extra compression and resulting in extra ball speed. In the fewest amount of words, it makes the ball go farther.
• V-Chassis: The V-Chassis technology on the back of the clubhead creates a satisfying vibration at impact, meaning the thinner clubface above won’t make your hands sting if you mis-hit the ball.
• Grain Flow Forge: The Mizuno blade designs are Grain Flow Forged, meaning the clubhead preserves the metal’s natural grain. This unity from the whole clubhead improves the club’s swing-to-swing consistency and makes the irons more durable.
• Tungsten weight: Some Mizuno irons, like the Pro 225, have a tungsten weight in the face, lowering the center of gravity to create a higher ball flight and extra security on bad swings.
• Cup face construction: Some Mizuno irons without the tungsten weight have a slightly cupped face, which also lowers the center of gravity for optimal launch angle

How to Choose the Right Mizuno

It’s hard to fit the nuance of finding the right iron into a recommendation sheet. Below, I’ve described two hypothetical personas to show which Mizuno irons fit different kinds of players.

Abby:

Abby is a 10 handicap golfer. She doesn’t make many big numbers, but she rarely makes birdies, and she struggles to give herself good chances for them. She’s a good driver of the golf ball who hits fairways relatively consistently, and she hits the ball plenty far, but she only hits two to three greens in regulation per round. She doesn’t have a consistent miss, sometimes pulling the ball left and sometimes flaring it outright, and she struggles to know why.

Features Abby Should Look For:

• A cavity-back iron with a wider sole for increased reliability and forgiveness on all swings
• Cup face construction for reliable, high launch angles

Mizuno Example: Mizuno JPX923 Hot Metal Irons

Kevin:

Kevin is a former collegiate golfer who has always been torn between blades and cavity back irons. He doesn’t feel like cavity back irons are precise enough for him. When he puts blades in the bag, he makes more birdies, but he typically hits an iron shot into trouble once or twice a round so his scores don’t improve. He doesn’t feel like she fully fits in either category.

Features Kevin Should Look For:

• A Grain Flow Forged blade with a thicker sole
• A COR Forged Hollow Body, which features the tungsten weight in the face mentioned above to help the ball in the air and balance out mis-hits

Mizuno Example: Mizuno Pro 225

Find the Right Mizuno Iron for You

All of the irons I’ve mentioned in this article are the best fit for someone out there, and no one can possibly simplify your golf game and golf swing into a few hundred words. If you’d like in-depth, personalized advice as to which of these models is the perfect fit for your game, don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our Curated Golf Experts today. They all have years of experience matching clubs to golfers, and they’re available around the clock for any questions or conversations you want about your equipment, entirely for free.