Mizuno JPX923 Forged Iron Review

Mizuno JPX923 Forged Iron Review

Iron designs tend to have a set of hallmarks that appeal to a particular type of player - be it offset, sole width or the balance between forgiveness and workability. It’s rare that an iron has an appeal that crosses a major part of the handicap spectrum but the Mizuno JPX923 Forged iron is probably as close as I’ve ever seen.

VIDEO: We debate whether the JPX923 Forged is the perfect iron

This mid-sized, compact cavity back benefits from Mizuno’s Grain Flow Chromoly HD forging process that guarantees good feel and feedback while also allowing the face to be made thinner. A milling slot in the 4-7 irons extends even wider into the heel and toe to increase ball speeds.

The look on the back is clean and classic, it may not catch your eye on the shelf but it lets the performance speak for it - more on that later. At address, it looks compact while inspiring confidence. The thinner top line certainly makes it look more like a better player iron than the prior generation, although the hint of offset reminds you it’s probably closer to a compact distance iron.

I say this also because the lofts are quite strong - 30° in the 7-iron - which means it’ll probably be one of the fastest one-piece forged irons you’ll try this year. Clip a few away and the feel off the face is incredibly pleasing - soft, solid, springy and with a dense thud to it, leaving absolutely nothing behind. The hitting experience is certainly enhanced by the camber on the sole of the short irons, which means it plays narrower than it looks and gets the head in and then out of the turf briskly with minimal interference.

The ball flight is more akin to what you experience from a tour played iron too - flying quite low (33 yards peak height) but with plenty of spin (over 5000 rpm) to keep the ball in the air and then stop sharply on the green post landing. But as often the case with the best Mizuno irons, the attribute that really stands out is distance consistency. I hit five decent but not perfectly-struck shots on the GCQuad launch monitor and the carries ranged from 167 to 169 yards. This kind of repeatability will afford you to be more aggressive on approach shots because the tighter dispersion increases your margin for error.

Versus the best golf irons in this kind of spec, it is by no means the longest - look to the Callaway Paradym or Srixon ZX5 Mk II if you want more yardage. But if you want an iron that delivers predictable results, this is the iron to put in the bag. What you’ll really enjoy is how they play more forgiving than they look and couple that with the feel off the face, it’s as close to the perfect iron that I’ve experienced from all the new launches in 2023. At £185 a stick, it’s punchy, but value is in the eye of the beholder and once you try these I’m confident you’ll agree they’re worth every cent.

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