How does the Pro version of Mizuno’s new JPX 923 Hot Metal lineup perform? Find out in our Mizuno JPX923 Hot Metal Pro irons review.
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JPX923 Hot Metal Pro
NCG SUMMARY
The 923 Hot Metal Pro irons are fiery, in a good way. The heads are compact and sit nicely behind the ball but under the hood these irons have the technology to produce crazy ball speeds.
If you’re a low to mid handicap that is looking to totally revamp their iron game, these might be the irons for you. consistency hasn’t been sacrificed in the pursuit of distance, as off centre strikes perform well too.
PROS
- LONG
- Brilliant sound
- Small performance drop off on miss hits
CONS
- increased distance might cause a gapping problem at the bottom end of the bag
First Impressions
These irons sit beautifully in your bag. The matte chrome finish is subtle but there’s just enough shine for these to really catch your eye. For a cavity backed club the 923 Hot Metal Pro has a relatively compact foot print that will suit the eye of a lot of different standard of players.
JPX 923 Irons: Review
These irons are long. I don’t just mean occasionally long. I mean really long all of the time. Straight away from my first shots with the 9-iron, the balls were rocketing from the face at speeds I couldn’t really believe. Embarrassingly I even reset my Flightscope just to make sure what I was seeing was real.
Mizuno have used a different 4335 Nickel Chromoly metal to make the heads of the JPX 923 Hot Metal Pro irons, which is 35% stronger than on the previous models. This has allowed them to make the faces even thinner than before, which of course means ‘springier’ and hotter ball speeds.
The carry distances on my shots with the 5, 7 and 9 irons are bonkers, at pretty average club head speeds. I’ve never been in danger before of sending a 9 iron 160 yards, or a 7 iron 180 yards through the air, and these are my AVERAGE numbers.
What I found interesting was how far my poor strikes went. I didn’t notice much of a drop off in flight or spin and they still carried a reasonable distance. Mizuno put this down to the fact that they have been able to widen the thinnest part of the face due to the new head material being so much stronger.
Distance isn’t all that these irons offer however, as they do also look and sound brilliant. I took them out to play with at my home club Sand Moor and when my bag was by the putting green I noticed a few curious onlookers wander over to have a look
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I did have some issues when playing, as I was overshooting the greens with my approach shots. I couldn’t get head around how far they were going after just one practice session, so I think you should be prepared to have to do some work to dial in your distance control with them being so hot.
Something that’s brilliant about the Mizuno JPX923 Hot Metal Pro irons is that there are 21 different custom shafts to choose from. This gives a player a really great opportunity to have a proper custom fit and buy some clubs that are actually right for them. These irons are not cheap at £175 a club so you would want to make sure you are buying the right ones.
My only concern with these irons is that they go so far that I would have to re jig my whole bag set up to put these in play. The lofts are quite strong and they go so far I’d have to put at least 1 maybe 2 more wedges in the bag just to get the gapping right.
This wont be an issue for a lot of players who just want more distance, in which case these are going to definitely do that for you! I can see these irons going into a lot of players bags going into the 2023 golf season as the performance is going to be very difficult to look past.
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The Details
Available: Now
RRP: £175 per iron
Lofts: 4i 19, 5i 22, 6i 25, 7i 28.5, 8i 33, 9i 37.5, PW 42.5
Shaft: KBS Tour $ Taper light – R, S
Custom shafts: 21 Custom shaft options available
More information: Mizuno website
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