Mizuno Long Game - 2023 Forum Review

[GolfSpy BOS]

Testers Announced! Mizuno Long Game Test!

Mizuno is here to bring back a favorite and often requested forum member test for 2023!  The Mizuno Long Game test will see testers fit the top end of their bag with the ST 230 line of clubs to see what sort of improvements can be made using Mizuno's latest gear.  Testers will get to experience the missing piece from their golf game in Mizuno's CORTECH Chamber which is featured throughout the lineup.  

What is the CORTECH Chamber?

The CORTECH Chamber: The Missing Piece:  Mizuno's CORTECH Chamber encases a dense stainless steel weight with elastomeric TPU, taking stress from the club face and creating an additional energy source.  At the same time, locating weight closer to the club face to reduce spin rates, while contributing to a more solid, powerful sensation at impact.

Please welcome and congratulate our testers!

@Beakbryce

@vandyland

@Swood1994

@russtopherb

[Beakbryce]

Introduction

Really thankful to MGS and Mizuno for this opportunity as a first time tester. I kind of thought that MGS eased one in to testing with a ball test, or maybe a bag or something. Nope, right into the deep end.

I am a retired Marine. In the Marines I flew the RF4, the recce version of the F-4. I have a couple of hundred carrier landings, mostly on the USS Midway.

After I retired from the Marines, I taught computer software and played golf. I worked at being a club pro, but ability and life change got in the way. My last 14 years of work was at the VA.

First, I am 70. I’m pretty much a casual golfer, just enjoying retirement and living breathing golf. I have my own golf cart and animal headcovers, what can I say?

I began playing golf in 1981. I play at least 150 rounds a year. I have played as many as 220 rounds. While there have been inevitable slumps, when I kept a handicap, I have generally been an 8 or less since 1983.

I have never taped my swing, but it feels one plane. I can still get to 90 degrees on the backswing easily. Probably the only odd thing is I grip very tightly. I go wonky with a light grip and more hand action.

I live in a golf course retirement community. 3 courses. However, I mostly play at Falcon Dunes, a military course at Luke AFB. It's just better, more visually interesting, has elevation changes on every shot, and above all, cheaper. I have been playing these courses for 20+ years. The primary test course will be Falcon Dunes. I will also play in the afternoon at one of the courses here in the community, circumstances permitting, as there are course closures this summer.

My plan for testing is to get some yardage numbers using my Sky Caddie SX 400. Since this is a 3 club test, I will be able to report straight up if the Mizuno clubs beat my present clubs. Of course, numbers aren’t the only determining factor, so reports on feel and playability will be judgement issues.

I have hit some Mizuno irons on club testing days here at my community and liked them. Ok, loved them. If I change irons, would test Mizuno and Titleist along with Callaway.

My expectation for these clubs is basically the same for everyone testing clubs that are generations and years beyond what I already have, do they have the technology to be better? The golf nerd in my also wants to know if their adjustability function works.

What would get me to change from my proven companions to these Mizuno clubs? Consistent length that is longer and straighter. C’mon man, what else is more important for woods and hybrids in your golf game? I’m pretty ambivalent about sound, feel, shot flight window, or anything else, if consistent length that is longer and straighter happens.

Added new comments, expectations and fitting

Addition: If you are following me on this thread then please go to page 6 for Initial thoughts, range testing, and first three actual play impressions

Final Thoughts

My main testing conclusion: QUESTION- does higher speeds work better with the Cortech chamber? Based on the other testers results I think it does. There is a physical limit for medium to slow swing speeds where less spin is a killer as the ball doesn’t have enough lift to stay in the air. This affected my results. I think Mizuno created exactly the club they wanted, low spin, shorter shaft for control, but it probably won’t work well for golfers with swing speeds less than 95 mph.

Read on for the reasons for this final conclusion and other thoughts.

First Impression

Cortech chamber sounds cool. Internal technology to make the ball go straighter and longer. Mizuno indicates the ball will be boosted by the chamber to be faster and spin less. Who doesn’t want that?

First Impression 20 out of 20 points.

Aesthetics

The clubs arrived well packed and undamaged. I wasn’t fond of the logo as it seemed to be an afterthought. The driver generally conforms to current driver shapes. I was off put by the front to back length. The 3 wood and 4 hybrid are beautiful looking and right sized. All 3 are fine looking shiny new clubs with no characteristic that makes them stand out in a crowd. I realize other testers liked the looks but I go back to the first time I saw a deep red putter and thought, “wow, that’s awesome”. I think Mizuno needs to find a color scheme that stands out in a crowd, where someone walking around a golf store would think, “I need to hit that thing”. What do you initially notice when looking at the Stealth driver? That red face. It’s just cool.

I kept being asked about the sound. It is so unexceptional that I never noticed it. After a lot of prodding, I made sure to listen and to be truthful, it’s a dull thud. Which also may help explain why I received no feedback, no knowledge of where the ball was hitting on the face.

Based on the above, I gave Aesthetics 8 out of 10.  1 point deducted for the logo and general sameness look and 1 point for sound. Looks are no better than or stand out enough from the other drivers and 3 woods on display when I browsed current offerings at my local PGA Superstore.

Numbers

The following pertains to the driver and 3 wood.

Testing on a Trackman reported similar numbers to my current Callaway Epic clubs. Shots were low and very straight. Not much curve either way. Varying the club loft and lie to the extremes didn’t result in longer drives. They did add a draw for higher loft and a tiny fade for lower loft. Shots hit out on the extreme toe and heel away from the Cortach Chamber lost a lot of yardage. Based on the numbers I expected the Mizuno clubs to be the same as my Epics on the course.

Based on these Numbers I gave it 9 out of 10 because it equaled my several generations older Epic clubs.

On course play

Reality struck when I took the clubs out to play. I never achieved the Trackman numbers. A lot of that was our fairways, which were soaked early morning rounds to keep them alive in 110 degree weather during the testing period. Importantly, the average distance for the driver and 3 wood was 10-15 yards shorter than my current Epic clubs. That difference held up on the day I hit both clubs from each tee and landing area as appropriate. While they are straighter than my Epic woods, statistically, fairways hit was the same. The extra club needed for second shots on par 4’s and third shots on par 5’s also didn’t necessarily affect scoring unless I played the longer tees on my course. Shorter drives from the longer tees resulted in balls landing and stopping quicker on the numerous up slopes in the landing area that my Epic normally carried.

I initially felt there was a big sweet spot in the clubs conforming to the Cortech Chamber. I ended up not sure about that though as hits seemingly in the same spot on the face went anywhere from 195 yards or so to one 230+ yarder with no rhyme or reason for the difference. I think they chased the mantra of a low spin driver down the rabbit hole.

I gave the clubs 15 out of 20 for On Course play. Recreational golf is all about pointing at your buddy’s drive while cruising past to your own ball farther up the fairway. Maybe you don’t score as well, but the beat down already happened in the fairway. Am I right? 3 points for distance and 2 points for the lack of feel.

Miscellaneous: The good, bad, in between

All three were adjustable which made the testing process fun.

I question the decision to go with 45 inch driver shafts because length may suffer given all other things being equal when compared to other current clubs. I am not sure I buy into the theory that a ¾ to 1 inch shorter shaft automatically means the ball will be hit in the center of the clubface to make up yardage loss from a shorter shaft length.

I am also not a fan of the adjustable hosel. There is a picture on the website that shows what each change makes to the clubhead lie and loft. While it is easily understood and is easy to change it, there is no literature that comes with the clubs, nor on their website that explains in plain English what change occurs when an other than stock setting is selected. How hard would it have been to provide an explanation that at the plus one setting, “the 9.5 degree driver is now 10.625 degrees and the face is 1.5 degrees closed”. They should have a caption that reads for those changes, “From your standard flight path, these changes should result in a higher ball flight that goes a little left” or whatever those changes actually accomplish.

Additionally, changing a setting on the hosel rotates the shaft and the grip, so those players with a reminder rib would have to live with the reminder in the wrong spot and/or pay to regrip the club.

I gave the Miscellaneous factor 17 out of 20. Plus 3 points for adjustability, minus 3 points for lack of explanation for said adjustability to the average golfer, minus 1 point for the problem with a rib grip, and 2 points for the shorter shaft.

Play it or Trade it

Back to my original question regarding lower spin, as it turns out, slower swing speed golfers do not want or need drastically lower spin. No lift to help keep the ball in the air. I entered the testing thinking that a straight up comparison with my current clubs would be won if the driver and 3 wood were longer regardless of feel or any other detractor. They are straight but not longer.

0 points for Play it or Trade it.

Points for driver and 3 wood: 69 out of 100.

 

4 hybrid

Maybe because this is closer to iron technology, this club is an absolute money club. I was not looking for all out distance, but rather a club that fit my yardage gap between my heaven wood and my 6 hybrid. I currently have a Big Bertha 19 (BB 19) 4 hybrid. It slots right in with the other clubs in my bag with a 180 yard flight that I can choke up and hit 170. The Mizuno slotted perfectly into those same yardages. It did that with a higher ball flight and a softer landing. This club is a pure joy to hit. It looks, visually, half the size of my BB19 although it isn’t. It forces a good swing. If a good swing is not made, there is a ton of feedback. While I am decidedly not a range rat, if I was, I would hit this a lot. The sound is pleasant.

For all factors because this club did exactly what I wanted, looks and feels great, 20 points for Initial Impression, 10 points for Aesthetics, 10 points for Numbers, 20 points each for On Course play, Miscellaneous, and Play it or Trade it.

Clean sweep, 100 points.

Conclusion and other thoughts

If I was going to get fit for a Mizuno club again, I would find a place that has the Mizuno 7 iron fitting tool that makes club and shaft recommendations based on your swing characteristics.

If I was a new golfer without developed swing speed, or current golfers with lower swing speeds, I believe the Mizuno clubs would be something to at least try. The ability in a fitting to find a straight hit should be fairly easy as that is what the club wants to do. They are $100 cheaper than other premium drivers. I am just not sure how one would progress if the club is not giving any feedback for your swing.

If one has a higher swing speed, then maybe the straight ball from this driver and/or 3 wood could help lower scores. It should be included in a fitting.

I feel it is appropriate for experienced golfers to think of this test as a competition for the Mizuno clubs to be compared with what is out there available for sale now. While there were similar numbers on Trackman, these clubs never had the distance during actual play that my generations old Epics have. I think the lower spin and shorter shaft were deciding factors. The Mizuno’s were straighter albeit just barely. Given that the current golf theory is rip it and go find it you would think Mizuno would build to what is popular. In my case, the rip is charmingly age appropriate but still what I am looking to achieve. The Epics are straight enough and longer. Plus, the Callaway Epics are just more fun to hit as they feel great. I know before I look up where the ball is going. I like that. I think that is part of what makes golf great.

I said at the beginning that I wasn’t concerned to much with feel if they were longer and straighter compared to the current bag. Because the driver and 3 wood aren’t longer than my current clubs, and lack feel, they won’t be finding a place in my bag.

Offer to send clubs to another tester

I offered to send the clubs to another tester as they were not going to stay in my bag. @Silver Fawkes is currently conducting an ongoing test. Please see: 

Here are some pictures of the clubs just before sending them.

Edited February 5 by Beakbryce
Final test results including sending clubs on to another tester.

[vandyland]

Introduction:
I am in my late 30s and I have been playing golf for about 9 years. I picked up the game in college and played for 4 years and was terrible. Then I stopped playing for about 12 years and then picked golf back up at 34 and started taking lessons and overall trying to actually get better. In the last year I have dropped down to a 3.5 index.

I am married with two children under 5. I am currently very into working on my swing (have been for the last 6 months) and I have a borderline psychotic thread about how I am practicing. Thankfully my wife supports me and this time-consuming hobby so I play every week and I hit balls into my net almost every night (and hit the range 1-2 times per week). I am also working with an instructor and going to his golf school this month in Chicago (shoutout Monte). On course, I play it fairly safe (a lot of pars) and I generally play tees between 6,000 yds - 6,400 yds. I play my golf in Middle TN and primarily at one club which has several trackmans as well as a range and several fairly challenging driving holes (all good varied options for testing). In terms of testing, I plan on mixing range, actual golf and trackman. I think numbers are important and relatively unbiased but not EVERYTHING and thus a good blend with on-course performance. For comparison's sake, I am going to test the Driver against my gamer and several other demos (we have Ping, Titleist, Taylormade and Callaway demos at the club) and same for the hybrid and utility. The top end of my bag is extremely important since I play shorter courses so a good drive/hybrid/utility iron off the tee can put me into wedge territory on a lot of holes. If I am not hitting my driver well, I am usually not playing well and not having fun. 

My expectations for this product are a balance of distance and forgiveness (not going to be an out and out ball speed monster but that's not what I need) with great acoustics and some feel across the three products. For the driver to earn a spot in the bag, it is going to need to stay under 2600 rpm spin, not give up any yardage to my current driver and hopefully be more forgiving on low toe strikes (that is where my current driver struggles). For the hybrid and the utility, I am looking more for specific, consistent yardages rather than absolute distance (Hybrid 220 yd carry and Utility 205 yd carry) as my current hybrid can go either 220 or 245 on seemingly the same strike. So consistent carry and dispersion will easily trump out and out distance

I am extremely excited about testing Mizuno woods and utility because I have never tried top-end of the bag mizuno products. I have hit numerous mizuno irons and the T series wedges but nothing in the 200+ yd territory. I will say that in the past I have put Mizuno in the bin of "makes good irons" because of their famous feel and forging process and never really thought much about their drivers (or any other products that aren't forged) until the ST190 driver. 

Initial impressions from the fitting are that this driver can (likely will) absolutely surpass my current driver. But that isn't really what the readers care about (my driver is 3 years old), I think they want to know where does it slot in with the current drivers. Is this a ballspeed monster? A safety blanket of forgiveness? A surgical, workable weapon? You'll have to read on to find out. I like a higher flight and smooth/active shaft (and I went with a lower lofted head to drop spin a tad) so I am in the UST LIN-Q Red stiff with a 9.5* head. The best thing I saw in my fitting was a low toe strike that flew like I centered it...might have been a fluke but I just started laughing when I saw it come out perfect. 

On the hybrid, I sits a little differently than my current hybrid so I will have to see how I can adjust to that. It definitely does not gear effect left like my current one does (at least in the fitting), didn't hit and quick left knuckleballs like I have with my current hybrid. I jumped into a LIN-Q Blue in the Hybrid (again it is #smooth). Best thing I saw with this was the aforementioned elimination (so far) of the low left dive bomb and overall less gear effect. 

On the utility, some of the ball speeds and carries were a little concerning, haha (like a few mega hot shots which is weird to complain about but we'll see what it does in the real world). Especially with the graphite shafts so I stepped back into the steel shaft and that tamed it a little. Dispersion was good but will have to see how it works off real grass. I ended up going with the project X U steel. [Side note: I LOVE the blacked out look. It looks awesome]. Best thing I saw was this thing does not hit low stingers like some driving irons, it can get up there....which I like. 

Driver carry: 265-270 yds (108 mph swing speed)
Hybrid carry: 220-240 yds
21* Utility Iron carry: 210-225 yds
Handicap: 3-5
Products: ST-Z 230 9.5* Driver, ST-Z 230 18* Hybrid, FliHi 21.5* (4 iron)

Unboxing/Delivery
I have to be critical of Mizuno USA on lead times, 6+ weeks from order to delivery is too long for a "stock" order. I have never waited more than 4 weeks for delivery or a club or clubs and it, to me, is indicative of a problem Mizuno is going to wrestle with for a bit. A few other testers had to wait 6+ weeks for their orders to arrive and, ancedotally, many others have seen 6-7-8 week wait times this summer for Mizuno products. I should stress that my shafts were stock as were length/lie and grip. Nothing custom at all. I think is a significant shortcoming for Mizuno at the moment. I will say everything was correct, the shaft selections and lofts were as ordered so no issues there. 

We did get the blue box, which was exciting and elicits all the positive vibes I have about Mizuno...

The clubs were all separated by a 4 way cardboard divided and well protected and packed with care. Bonus points for including Mizuno wrenches with both the driver and hybrid! Love the headcovers. They look great and feel high quality. Beyond the purposes of the test I will probably keep them on even though I am a big fan of custom (non-branded) headcovers. 

First Impressions (18 out of 20):
Mizuno has always been a classic company to me and I typically don't think of them as being super tech-y but more focused on well-made products with careful technological steps forward. The STZ and STX series are hoping to convince people that Mizuno has made large strides in their Drivers, Fairway woods and hybrids. This is primarily achieved through their Cortech chamber which sits weight low and forward. In the STZ 230 (my model), they are touting "straight, stable and low spinning." Mizuno also has a carbon crown and updated Beta TI face for better ball speeds. Overall, I think Mizuno is seeking to get more ball speed and performance out of their face BUT still maintaining an accuracy build with the standard length being 45" which is almost short by today's standards. 

So here is the lineup as soon as I got them, along with some other shots of the driver both indoors and outdoors so one can see how the carbon crown looks in the sunlight as some of it is quite subtle and doesn't really "pop" under indoor lighting:

The main downside and reason I am docking points in the "First Impressions" is due to the delivery time. I think my impression on that front is that Mizuno was/is struggling with fulfilment on their side. 

Aesthetics (9 out of 10)
I think the line looks really good. I will judge each club separately and describe them below:

STZ 230 Driver (8.5 out of 10) - LOVE the profile and shaping to it. It has a much more rounded and compact front to back profile than my Cobra (current gamer) and I am finding that fits my eye better. The blue is sharp without being overpowering though I won't quite say the sole is "classic" looking. It will be interesting to see how the blue ages over time but for now it is brilliantly blue. See below for address photo of the mizuno vs the cobra. I don't love the carbon top as I think I prefer a more matte finish for glare reduction. In my first outdoor round, I didn't have many issues with glare but it can catch the sun at times. I like the alignment aid being a little of a subtle gray and overall it is an attractive driver. On the sound front, the Driver is noticeably quieter than my Cobra and my playing partner's Taylormade SIM 2. My cobra driver, in comparison, almost sounds like glass when it is striking that ball. I like the more muted and understated sound from Mizuno. The driver is most notable sound difference from peer comparisons in the fact that is quieter and subdued which I love, more of "THWACK" than a "PING" or a "TING" and sounds less metallic for sure. Feedback front, I can feel when I miss way toe-side or heel side or even high on the face on this driver. There is feedback there for sure. I wouldn't say it is overly pronounced in the feedback department vs other drivers I have hit. A centered shot feels SOLID and explosive, not soft. 

STZ 230 Hybrid (9 out of 10) - Looks smaller than it actually is, which I like and just looks classic at address. Square face, no carbon top and sits well on the ground. Again, maybe I would like a matte finish but overall it is players-looking without being intimidating and I felt comfortable with it right away. The sole has the same blue cortech chamber visible and present but slightly less pronounced than the driver. Hybrid sound is also fairly muted but still sounds like a fairway wood for the most part. For the hybrid the feel is a bit on the explosive side vs the controlled side. The hybrid feels "hot" which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what you are trying to accomplish.A flushed shot feels very fast and hot coming off the face. 

Mizuno Pro Fli-Hi (9.5 out of 10) - Some people may dislike that it is black but I love it. This looks like what I would design if I was building a utility iron for myself. A little bit of offset and a wider sole for ease of launch but hidden by the slimming black. It just looks very cool but has some classic mizuno touches to it. Great blend of old and new. Looks about perfect. The fli hi doesn't quite sound like an iron but is certainly much closer to an iron sound than a hybrid or fairway wood. A flushed shot is soft and springy, if that makes sense. Ball seems to stick a fraction longer as it compresses. It is a pleasurable feeling. The driving iron is very high on feedback for being such a large club. You know IMMEDIATELY when you hit it toe-side as it is rather punishing on toe misses. 

The Numbers (9.5 out of 10) 

Initial Trackman Averages - Mizuno STZ 230 Driver vs Gamer at regular speeds (Driver wins on accuracy and distance and feel)
My first Trackman session was on 8/18/2023 this was before I was able to hit it outside so it was truly my first experience with it. My testing protocol was to hit 4 drivers with the Mizuno and then my Cobra Radspeed back and forth until I got about 10 good strikes with each. Here are the averages for my "on-course" swing, which is controlled aggression:

NOTE: The Cobra is an inch longer shaft so that is likely the clubhead speed difference. But the Mizuno's most notable difference is the drop in spin (about 500rpm less) and the resulting impact on total distance which is 8.5 yds greater. Everything else is quite close so it *seems* like I am not giving up any distance and getting a better spin profile. I also took 3 "higher speed" swings to see what the top end of the Mizuno could do and this was interesting:

Initial Trackman Averages - Mizuno STZ 230 Driver vs Gamer at "max speed"

The Cobra actually did quite well here. They are neck and neck in a lot of areas and somehow the spin came down on the Cobra at a higher speed (I am not a robot so it is possible I was just hitting it better). And, what was really compelling was how good the Cobra's dispersion was at this really high speed (I apologize for the quality of this photo, the Trackman reporting function was not working so I couldn't email this report to myself so I had to manually type out all the numbers from this photo along with just accepting the low quality photo below):

So it may be hard to see but the overall dispersion of the Mizuno, to me, seems better. Mizuno is orange for the on-course speed swings and red for the high speed swings. Cobra is purple for the on-course speed and blue for the max speeds. However, at very high speeds the Cobra was extremely consistent. Granted, this is a small sample size and the overall data seems to suggest the Mizuno is at least as accurate and probably more accurate overall. They both have the same shape, a small draw, so that is good. See below the general shape of each, the green is the Cobra and the Red is the mizuno for some reason:

Both are what I wanted to see. The shots that went right generally were just slight blocks or started too far right and didn't draw much. Overall this is what I like to see with driver and what I would expect. 

See link below for all Trackman and on-course numbers for Driver:

Initial Trackman Averages - Mizuno STZ Hybrid vs Gamer off small tee

My current gamer is 1* stronger loft and .5 inches longer. The current averages for my gamer vs the Mizuno are:

And for me, I saw this out on the course. Even though the Mizuno is higher lofted, it launches lower due to it having less rear ward CG and just a smaller profile. Balls comes out slightly lower, flies flatter, has less spin. For me, these are all positives. I want my hybrid to be a bomber since it is serving as my 3W in this instance so more distance without a bunch of dispersion issues (which I have not had) is ideal. Both fly right to left for me which is my natural shot shape. 

Initial Trackman Averages - Mizuno Pro Fli-Hi vs Gamer off small tee (Kind of a tie between the two)

So there are some important differences to start off with, my gamer is .5* stronger and 1 inch longer (Callaway Apex Forged UT 21*) so I would expect it to be a tad longer but, so far, that is not the case. They are pretty much, shockingly, close in many ways. The Mizuno is much more efficient since I am swinging it 5 mph slower but getting almost the same carry and totals with it. The Mizuno spins less with the same level of launch and has similar dispersion. It feels a little less "surgical" than my gamer given it has a more explosive face but it isn't firing off crazy low spin bombs as far as I can tell. 

The dispersion chart is shockingly similar. See below:

Mizuno Lie/Loft Test with Hybrid (see link below)

On Course (18 out of 20) Note above that I have had several trackman sessions with each club type, have played 8+ rounds with the clubs and had about 6 outdoor range sessions with them so I am quite well acquainted at this point. I will say this club seems to perform even better out on course than it does on Trackman, at least for me. I track all shots (except during competitions) using the TaylorMade GPS app where you can mark all shots and assign clubs, etc. It also spits out strokes gained and other metrics. 

Driver (19.5 out of 20) - The main quality I have noted in this driver is that there is not much loss of ballspeed or efficiency when you miss the center of the clubface. This is what I think of when I hear about a driver being "forgiving". In addition, the ST-Z has given me a significant drop in spin and is quite accurate. I will say there are faster drivers out there and the Mizuno wasn't a huge step up in ballspeed over my gamer on dead center hits. This driver hits the ball on a fairly mid flight, flat trajectory and is quite straight. This driver mostly wants to go straight so I won't say it is highly "workable" but that is not what I am looking for. I have had both good and bad days with my swing and the driver for the part has always performed. I have consistently gained strokes with the driver. My last 8 rounds have been +3.70, +1.10, +1.00, +3.30, +2.10, +1.20, +1.50, +1.40. Loving this club and the LIN-Q shaft has been quite good as well. This driver does well under pressure and was the bright spot during the club championship this past month. I have truly found myself in places on the golf course I am not used to being in. I played with my regular group the first round I ever brought the ST-Z out and I didn't tell them I had a new driver. By about the 4th tee shot one of my friends said "what has gotten into you today???" That is when they noticed the driver (I didn't take the Mizuno headcover out because I didn't want to tip my hand). My friend went and tested out the Z last week and it is "in the finals" against another driver right now so I guess I am an "influencer" now. 

Hybrid (19 out of 20) - First of all, the adjustability of a hybrid is a feature I never knew I was missing but it is pretty amazing how much you can change the flight conditions with the hosel sleeve. It is almost like having multiple clubs in one. I settled on the turned down version to 18* and have found that this hybrid is more a weapon than a surgical instrument. I don't play any fairway woods so I need distance from this club and that is what it provides. The club is pretty hot off the face and fairly low spinning but flies fairly neutral and has been a great 220-240 club the last several rounds. I haven't hit any waaay left with this club and overall I don't find it to be tremendously workable. Similar to the driver it goes straight and stable most all the time. Turf interaction is GREAT and this club does not dig or skip but just glides into the ball. Really didn't expect much from this hybrid but I feel like it almost has a driver like explosion of the clubface. I have started trusting this club out of all sort of lies and I can't say it has let me down yet. The craziest thing I have seen out of this club was a tee shot I hit a few weeks ago where I hit a drive (with this hybrid) through the fairway on a dogleg that rolled out to 270 yds on GPS. This thing has major juice. 

Pro Fli-Hi (17 out of 20) - Utilities can be a tricky beast to tame. The Pro Fli-Hi has been interesting to me. First off, it provides a TON of feedback. You know...immediately....if you hit the ball in the center or not. I have been missing this club out on the toe a bit and, to its credit, the ball still gets out there a good ways. On the top end, off a tee, I can fly this 21* utility 225 yds and if I hit it out on the toe it still carries about 205. Ball flight is higher than I expected and you can work the ball IF you hit it out of the center. Anything off the toe or heel generally just comes out straight and slightly dead. I love the look of it and the feel out of the center is good but I just haven't gotten along as well with it. This is the only club where I think my gamer is comparable and, in some ways, more enjoyable to hit. I am sticking with the Fli Hi for now because, on paper, it is doing the job. I wonder if the lighter shaft has been throwing me off but I really just need to make better contact with this club. 

Rounds Tracked:
8/20/2023 18 hole Round link to comment: https://forum.mygolfspy.com/topic/59890-mizuno-long-game-2023-forum-review/?do=findComment&comment=961209
8/27/2023 18 Hole Round link to comment: https://forum.mygolfspy.com/topic/59890-mizuno-long-game-2023-forum-review/?do=findComment&comment=963316
9/8/2023 9 Hole Round link to comment: https://forum.mygolfspy.com/topic/59890-mizuno-long-game-2023-forum-review/?do=findComment&comment=966997
9/17/2023 18 Hole Round link to comment: https://forum.mygolfspy.com/topic/59890-mizuno-long-game-2023-forum-review/?do=findComment&comment=969696
9/20/2023 18 Hole Round link to comment: https://forum.mygolfspy.com/topic/59890-mizuno-long-game-2023-forum-review/?do=findComment&comment=970533

The Good, the Bad, the Inbetween (18 out of 20) 
Starting with the good, the build quality and appearance of the clubs is excellent. The blue is a bit of a departure from truly "classic" but the shaping and finish of all 3 clubs is high end. The acoustics and feel are also great through all three clubs. I was a bit skeptical of the "cortech" chamber but it seems to do what it claims to do, which is to reduce spin rates and make the impact more solid across the face. I found that was true in both the hybrid and the driver where I could hit it all over the face and the ball speed doesn't suffer greatly. A decent number of shaft options in all the torque ranges was also a plus. The adjustable hosel on the hybrid is a mega plus and I will be hard pressed to ever consider a hybrid that doesn't have that option. I also LOVE that they built their driver at 45". It makes it easier to control and I didn't feel like I was giving up a ton of speed with it. Big support to Mizuno for their support of a reasonable length driver and not getting sucked into this 46 inches business. 

The bad, for me, was the delivery time. I mentioned it above but the wait from the order to receipt was approximately 6 weeks for a "standard" build. I think that signals some fulfillment problems that may not be unique to Mizuno but were certainly noted. 

The inbetween for me is the carbon fiber top and the blue of the cortech chamber. Both of these are aesthetic so they aren't a huge concern but I think the blue is a little cheap looking in my opinion. It does catch your eye though and maybe that is the point. 

Play it or Trade it (19 out of 20)
Driver: PLAY IT. Extremely easy decision. It boosted my ball speed slightly but really it shines on mishits, feedback, sound, reasonable spin reduction and overall consistency shot after shot. 20 out of 20 for me. If I lost it tomorrow I would buy another one on the same day. Love love love.

Hybrid: PLAY IT. This is a missile launcher and goes fairly straight and on a bullet, lowish spinning trajectory which is what I want out of my fairway wood replacement AND it is adjustable. 19.5 out of 20 as I have a few minor quibbles with the look of it but that is very minor and it is a *little* one dimensional given its lower spin/hotter face setup. Performance is excellent for what I need it to do.  

Pro Fli-Hi: ....play it. Not as cut and dried of a decision but this mostly comes down to my inability to hit the center of this club for some reason. It is also fairly hot and forgiving so the ball still goes but you FEEL it when you miss and I have been missing it a lot. Could be the lighter weight shaft. This is easier to hit off the fairway so that is appreciated. I will continue forward with this club in the bag but it was very close. 17 out of 20.

FINAL SCORE:  91.5

Conclusion/Post Script/TLDR
I am extremely fortunate to have been able to participate in this test. I am quite thankful to MGS and I hope my effort on this review reflects that. I will say that I always thought of Mizuno as a "players brand" and was previously a bit intimidated by it. "Am I good enough to play Mizunos?" "Is it true that nothing feels like a Mizuno?" "Will these clubs get stolen the second I take my eyes off them?" You get the point. What I found was an incredibly forgiving, accurate and stable driver that gives me more confidence off the tee in the ST-Z 230. It was the most stark improvement over my current gamer. Also, a speedy weapon in the STZ 19* hybrid that offers a host of customizable settings that make it like 2-3 clubs in one. Finally, a utility iron that I am still working to get comfortable with but, on paper, enhances my game. Now that I have some Mizuno representation in my bag, I can work to dispell the rumors or stereotypes that Mizunos are only for elite players. They make great equipment and, at least the selections I made, have equipment that can appeal to a wide range of golfers. Please ask me any questions if you are even remotely interested in any of these clubs. 

 

 

Edited September 22, 2023 by vandyland

[Swood1994]

Mizuno Long Game – Official MGS Forum Review by Swood1994

Introduction 

Hello everyone, first and foremost I would like to thank MGS and Mizuno for the Opportunity to test these clubs. I have been a big fan of Mizuno clubs for a while and have played their irons for the past 10 years or so. On the forum I go by “Swood1994” but in my daily life I go by Stephen or Frank but that is a long story that will have to wait for another thread… This may be a little redundant if any of you fine folks have read the Red Rooster Sussex review I was lucky enough to take part in earlier in the year, here’s a link if you want to learn a lot about golf gloves in general!

So a little about me, and I’ll do my best to keep this short. I’m 29 years old and reside in Syracuse, NY. I am married to my highschool sweetheart and a new father to a beautiful 6 month old baby girl which has been the greatest part of my life thus far. I learned to play golf at a young age and have been playing ever since. Now that my hockey career has officially ended after years and years of beer leagues (aka “The Show” for all us washups) my knees can finally thank me as golf is my main hobby now. My day job consists of a lot of excel and Salesforce work as a Sales Operations Analyst in the automotive tech sector. This bodes itself nicely to Club/equipment testing, and was why MyGolfSpy was such a draw when I found it years ago. No B.S., just facts.

Now back to golf. Although our golf season is relatively short in Upstate NY compared to other parts of the country, I make due and try to maintain a 5-6 handicap year in and out. I am currently sitting at a 6.5 and can say my game has fallen off a little bit this year, but I have a really cute excuse (my daughter). My biggest fault in my game is off the tee, currently. Which is great considering we are testing the top end of the bag! I am a golf nut through and through like most of us here and love seeing if I can implement different equipment to better help my game. Although I have realized it is always my swing and I can finally admit that here and now. Just don’t tell my wife or else she won’t let me buy any more stuff, haha!

                                                    

So let's talk about the test we have upcoming. We have 3 clubs to look at. I opted for the ST-X 230 driver to help aid in straightening out my right miss. I kept the set up the same in a 3 wood and hybrid. Because these clubs are adjustable I will set them up the same as my current clubs. Right now I'm using all Callaway clubs on the top end of the bag. The big stick is a Paradym fitted with a Ventus Blue 7S shaft. Both my fairway and hybrid are Rogue ST max’s 16.5 3HL and a 20° 4-hybrid, respectively. Both these clubs have Mitsubishi Tensei Raw Blue 75 Stiff shafts.

To keep this overall review short, sweet, and to the point. Check out the post to my fitting notes here: Fitting

They say “nothing feels like a Mizuno”. Well my plan for this test is to walk you all through the senses of golf to see if the new ST 230 line truly is a winner.

To start all 6 clubs will be taken to my local Trackman to gather baseline numbers for comparison. As a data analyst this is a must and I promise I will try and not bore everyone to death with the numbers. Once those are established, I will work my way to the course. Some rounds I will use all Mizuno, some will be all Callaway and others will be a mix or both. For the top end of my bag, specifically Driver and 3-wood, Accuracy and Dispersion are my 2 biggest attributes while distance comes second. If I gain tighter dispersion while maintaining or staying within a couple yards of my Callaways the Mizunos will be crowned victorious. From the Hybrid perspective I look at workability and Accuracy. For the sake of testing all clubs will be adjusted to achieve the same distance gapping off of my 4-iron (roughly 210 yards). As I said previously I am a true Mizuno fan when it comes to their Irons. It will be hard for me to switch brands when the time comes for a new set. Because of that I am very excited to test out their new long game clubs. I used to play a Mizuno driver, 3-wood, and Hybrid in High School when I played for the golf team. I recently dug these out and hopefully will try and get some numbers on these for a small new vs. old competition. The Driver is a MP-001 Forged 8.5°, 3-wood is an F60 15°, and the Hybrid is a 17° CLK Fli-Hi. Let’s see if the Coretech Chamber’s claims of reducing spin rates, while contributing to a more solid, powerful sensation at impact are true! I am going into this test with a little bias towards my Callaways but am always happy to be proven wrong! 

 

 

P.S. How sweet is that vintage head cover?!?

Unboxing - 8/16/2023

 

Photo Gallery Link

I have to somewhat touch on the lead time for the clubs. Normally I would be understanding given this is a test and supply chains are very unstable as of late but 6+ weeks for standard clubs is a little long. Some fellow forum members also alluded to experiencing long lead times with Mizuno. I can only speak to my experience but when I ordered my Callaway earlier this year I received it in 3-5 days of ordering, maybe I was a little spoiled.

All in all every thing came nicely boxed and correct to the order specifications so other than impatiently waiting everything else was good.

First Impressions - (17 out of 20)

I have been a big fan of Mizuno for a long time. As I‘ve said in my intro, I have played Mizuno Irons for a while now and you will likely have to pry them from my cold dead hands. They’re feel and sleek and simple styling is nothing short of perfection. Mizuno woods on the other hand have had their ups and downs in the styling department. I recall my dad purchasing the MP-600 Driver and it just did not fit my eye even at a younger age.

Now let’s talk about the ST-230 Line. Personally, I think Mizuno did a really good job with the styling of these clubs. All 3 clubs share the same styling cues with the main focus on the new Coretech Chamber. The claim to this technology is “Mizuno’s CORTECH Chamber encases a dense stainless steel weight with elastomeric TPU – taking stress from the clubface and creating an additional energy source. At the same time locating weight closer to the clubface to reduce spin rates. While contributing to a more solid, powerful sensation at impact.” I think Mizuno does a good job explaining the new tech, the question becomes does it work? Well, that is what I am here to find out!

A couple things really stood out to me in the unboxing, some good, some bad. First the good… Wrenches! I want to thank Mizuno for still including wrenches with their woods. I know some people do not care or have a bucket of them in the basement from buying clubs throughout the years BUT for the prices of these clubs I think they should all come with one. My main reason for this is the new golfer that maybe is coming off of older clubs and makes the jump to a brand new driver/wood. Without the wrench they can’t change the settings right away if needed. Now the bad… the adjustable sleeve. I’ve grown fond of the 2 cog tips like Callaway and Titleist use in order to not change the grip position on the club. I like the logo on the grip up for my thumb positioning and with the Mizuno’s the grip rotates as you change the settings. Not a huge deal for most but a deduction in my book.

 

Aesthetics (8 out of 10)

I am a big fan of how simple and clean the ST-230 line up is. All 3 clubs have the same styling cues and the 3 together look great. The Mizuno blue really pops encasing the Coretech Chamber. Looking down at the club you will see a gloss black front crown and as it fades to carbon paired with the Mizuno logo as an alignment aid. This is true for both the ST-X 230 driver and the ST-Z 230 3 wood. The 19° Hybrid has an all gloss black crown. Mizuno did an amazing job designing the headcovers. They are a little loud but I really like them. They’re high quality leather and the stitching is a nice touch versus the interchangeable tags.

ST-X 230 Driver

Looks

The ST-X 230 Driver has a slightly more elongated head shape and the face appears tall at address. The Glossy crown has not resulted in any glare issues so far during testing and is a nice change of pace from the Matte crowns in years past from other manufacturers. When compared to my Paradym it is a lot cleaner. The top line of the Paradym has a sharp cut off between the matte black and blue forged carbon at the rear. I do like the Chevron alignment aid a touch more than the Mizuno logo.

Feel

At first I wasn’t a huge fan of the feel or sound of the driver. It sounds a little muted and the ball feels almost dead off the face. I can’t differentiate between off center strikes and center strikes easily. Whether or not that is a good thing or not is still up in the air for me. If I had to describe it, it would be more a “WACK” than a “TING”. I am not the best driver of the ball but feedback from a club is important to me. I haven’t felt that trampoline effect where the strike almost feels like there is no ball there at all. The standard shorter shaft was a little surprising. In my research Mizuno claims a lot of their staff players do not play a driver length over 45” and so that is where the decision was made to set the standard at that. The numbers will tell all but the first few hits it definitely seems shorter than my current driver. I’m also not finding any more consistency than with a standard (45.75”) driver length. This is likely more me and my swing than the club but hopefully as time goes on this can improve.

ST-Z 230 3 Wood

Looks

The 3 wood shares most if not all of the same design cues as the driver. As I've previously said these clubs are indistinguishable from each other. When you see them you know they come from the same family. The 3 wood is pretty much a miniature version of the ST 230 driver in terms of looks.

Feel

The 3 wood for me has been a great club. Off the tee it's very forgiving. It is not extremely long for a standard 3 wood but it is workable and confidence inducing. Off the deck this club has a nice look. It sits very neutral at address and isn’t too small where you feel like you’ll miss the ball. So far I have had great success hitting all types of shots with the 3-wood. It has settled in nicely as the "fairway finder" for those tight tee shots.

ST-Z 230 19° Hybrid

Looks

The Hybrid quickly became my favorite club out of the 3. It has a player-esque look to it but without causing fear or panic when looking down at it like a butter knife blade would do. Granted that’s assuming we are the same skill level… It actually has the opposite effect for me and I feel as though I can work this club both ways and hit a variety of shots with it. Coming off a fixed-hosel Rogue ST Max hybrid where the face was very tall and almost iron-like, the Mizuno looks like a traditional hybrid.

Feel

This club is great. 230 yards out and I’ve been able to hit fades, draws, high shots, low shots, you name it. My only miss with this club has been a little out right but I have not touched the settings as it fits into my bag gapping perfectly. The head does feel heavier than my current hybrid providing me with stability throughout the swing. This has been a pleasure to hit off the tee and off the fairway (when I find it).

 

The Numbers (7 out of 10)

So this section has a lot to unpack. I tried to fit as much into one simulator session as I could. For the sake of not boring everyone to death with numbers galore I will do my best to keep it short. Knowing myself I’ll wake you up when I'm done…

 

Mizuno ST-Z 19° Hybrid

Let’s start out with the Hybrid. Best 5 shot grouping from each club and averages. The ST-Z 19° Hybrid was almost identical to my Callaway Rogue ST Max (20°) numbers wise in the standard setting and the +1 UP setting. The biggest take away for me was the adjustability of the Mizuno compared to my current gamer. I was able to tune it to launch higher maintain spin numbers and keep the distances the same. As far as dispersion, the Mizuno on +1 UP setting was the best. Both clubs and the Mizuno in 2 different settings were within 2-3 yards of each other on average, consistency!! For a hybrid that is huge for me. It is mainly a second shot par 5 club or long par 3’s. I look for this club to launch high and hold greens from 240. So far based on the data, it does just that.

Hybrid Data:

 

Hybrid dispersions:

Blue: Mizuno Standard, Brown: Mizuno +1 UP

Unfortunately Trackman color coded both clubs brown. Although the Callaway had ever so slightly better dispersion the Mizuno has better workability.

Mizuno ST-Z 230 3-Wood

This club saw a noticeable difference When changing the settings. It is not a long 3-Wood by any means but it is accurate. In its standard setting I was averaging roughly the same yardage as my 16.5° HL Rogue ST Max 3-Wood. Surprising the Mizuno in its +1 UP setting netted me 6 more yards of carry and 8 total yards overall with less spin than standard.

 

The Mizuno ST-Z 230 3 Wood on the +1 UP setting for me gave me a little more distance (6 yards carry 8 yards total) and helped to tighten up dispersion a decent amount compared to standard

Red= Mizuno +1UP, Orange= Mizuno Standard

Without going into too much detail the Callaway was pretty comparable to the Mizuno. The biggest separator was the adjustability. By being able to adjust the ST-Z I gained around 8 Yards of distance over the Callaway. The accuracy was much better as well.

Red= Mizuno +1UP, Orange= Mizuno Standard, Blue= Callaway Rogue ST Max

 

Mizuno ST-X 230 Driver

Alright now for what everyone has been waiting for! The D-Stick, The Big Dog, The LUMBER!

So during my fitting I found that the +1 UP setting on the adjustment sleeve netted some decent numbers and dispersion. This held true during the Trackman session as well. Unfortunately Trackman had a little spaz out (possibly user error) and logged the +1 UP as individual Shots (and missed one).

Green= Mizuno Standard

When changing the settings on the ST-X driver the only noticeable differences were in Spin and Dispersion. I saw roughly 250RPM less spin and slightly less carry distance but the total distance was the same.

 

Now this is where things get interesting....

When compared to my current gamer, Callaway Paradym, the distance was shorter, by a decent amount... I think this can be attributed to the shorter length of the Mizuno. The Mizuno plays at 45” and the Callaway plays at 45.75”. When comparing the best 5 shot groups from each, the Callaway had a 2-3 MPH faster ball and swing speed and was longer by 19 yards of carry and 14 yards of total distance on average. The Paradym also had more centered dispersion (despite 1 shot in the grouping). This was each drivers in the top performing setting.

Another slight mis-label within Trackman on the tabs. Circle= Paradym

In summary All 3 Mizuno clubs performed well. changing the adjustable sleeve helped to gain some distance in some areas and tighten dispersion in others. Both the ST-Z Hybrid and 3-Wood gapped nicely to my current set up but allowed more flexibility via adjustment and shot-shaping.

 

On-Course (14 out of 20)

All right folks, now it’s time for the show. In this section I’m going to walk through everything that happened on the course, where the money is made. So let’s find out if “Nothing feels like a Mizuno.” 

Similar to the rest of this review I will be structuring this section into three parts, one for each club. We will look at on-course total distance, accuracy, forgiveness, workability, and others. We all know that indoors on a trackman can be accurate but that's assuming no wind, swinging indoors and other factors that can either make numbers look great, average, or suboptimal. I will add that I did shoot my career low (-3, 68) with these clubs but that was only one round. Alright enough talking let’s get down to business.

ST-Z 230 19° Hybrid (4 out of 5)

This club impressed me more with every shot I hit with it. My hybrid has always been a gap filler for my bag with its main use being for long par 3’s and and approach shots into short/medium length par 5’s. That range for me has always been between 230-240 yards. For background, my 3-wood (depending on loft) usually is my 265-275 club while my 4-iron is my 205-215 club. Looking down at this club gives you a small club head profile. It reminds me of a normal player-esque hybrid. This is a nice change of pace from my current gamer (Rogue ST Max) which has a taller face and is more iron-like in my opinion. Now this club has been accurate and workable. On the range and on the course I’ve been able to hit high shots and low shots. Draws and fades, you name this club performs. 

On the course The ST-Z Hybrid gave me exactly what I was looking for. I was able to hit, on multiple occasions, a few par 5’s in 2 from 230-235. Average Distance across the rounds on course was 227. The reason for the lower average is a few shots on the courses I play were 220 yard shots into the wind. The average yardage was also right on point with my carry numbers from the Trackman which checks out given the amount of rain we have had this year, there was not much roll out. I did notice that I wasn’t losing much yardage on toe or heel shots either. 

 

In the end this hybrid is not the longest but if you are looking for a workable and accurate hybrid this is a winner.

 

ST-Z 230 15° 3 Wood (4 out 5)

Coming off of a 16.5° 3HL, it was a nice change of pace going back to an adjustable standard loft 3 wood. But similar to most of the clubs in this line up the ST-Z 230 3 Wood was not a distance monster. Lucky for this club that is not something I really look for. Rarely do I have 280-285 yards into a green where I’m pulling 3-wood. I am not that guy..

On-course the ST-Z 230 3 wood is very versatile. I’ve been using it off the tee and off the deck. Average distance on course was around 266 with a long ball a couple times of 280 (off the tee and the wind was helping). Most of the off the deck shots were green hits and off the tee I was either in the fairway or 1-2 ft at most into the rough. It is a very accurate 3 wood but lacks in the distance department for a standard lofted 3 wood. My thought is it is due to its shorter shaft length, but with that shorter length I did see a little better dispersion/accuracy on the course with this club which is more important to me.

ST-X 230 10.5° Driver (6 out of 10)

Out of all the clubs in this test I think the drivers received the most attention. Most people look at distance and distance and more distance when it comes to new drivers. I was hoping due to a couple key factors the Mizuno would help me be a little more accurate off the tee. Unfortunately that was not the case. When hitting the driver off the tee I was seeing about 21% FIR with about 267 Total average and a scrubbed average of 287. Long balls with the ST-X were around 330 with help from the wind. This particular club was very easy to turn over Right to Left, sometimes too easy and not in a good way. I hit this club left more often than not and as someone who normally fades the ball it was a big adjustment to start aiming straight or even slightly closed. 

For me it was really hard to get used to the sound and feel of this driver. For me that more solid “THWACK” as it has been described provided very little feedback on solid hits. That resulted in difficulty trusting the driver in general.

On-Course Round by Round Stats

Round #1

Round #2

Round #3

Round #4

Round #5 & #6

The Good, the bad, and the in-between (15 out of 20)

This will be more of a short and sweet recap. The Hybrid and 3 wood are clean looking traditional clubs at address. They are easy to hit and confidence inducing. Both are very good points for me. They are not the longest but fit my gapping. The ST-X driver lacks the accuracy and forgiveness I look for in a driver all while having a dull and/or muted sound and feel. Standard shaft length being almost an inch shorter from Mizuno was really surprising. After doing some research their reasoning was due to their touring pros playing mostly drivers that are 45” and below so they carried that over to their consumer models. I did not see a lot of difference going from 45.75” to 45” with the exception of losing 2-4 MPH of ball and club head speed. Shipping was also a point of contention for me. It took roughly 6-6.5 weeks to receive the clubs which in my eyes is too long. Depending on where you live, that is a good chunk of the golf season. I understand that supply chains are very fickle this day in age but on the other hand I had purchased from other manufacturers this year and received custom orders within 5 days. This may have spoiled me.

Play it or Trade it (15 out of 20)

ST-Z 230 Hybrid (5 out 5) - PLAY IT. This club, for me, is great. I am very confident with it and have been able to hit every shot I want with it. Easy choice.

ST-Z 230 3 Wood (4 out of 5) - Play it. This wasn’t as cut and dry as the hybrid but due to its consistency and the ability to adjust the loft and lie versus my current gamer, this club fought hard and earned its spot in my bag.

ST-X Driver (6 out of 10) - Trade it. This club probably had the toughest matchup out of the 3 going up against the new Paradym driver in my bag. I gave it a fair shake but I just didn’t see any upside when compared to the Paradym. Just like most clubs in your bag you have to like the feel and sound of the club. For the ST-X it lacked the sound and feel for my personal preference. That combined with distance loss and similar if not worse accuracy, let the Paradym keep its top spot in my bag. I think someone with a consistent swing (duh) and a smoother transition who is not looking for a lot of distance gain would benefit from this club. I do not think it is a bad club. it just doesn;t work for me and my swing.

Conclusion

Mizuno made some good looking clubs. The 230 lineup is truly a family of clubs that go together. They share the same styling cues and are simple and clean. I have become accustomed to the 2 cog adjustment sleeve which leaves the grip always inline with the head. This becomes important because for clubs like the Mizuno where the adjustment sleeve twists the entire shaft, any players that use Align grips risk not being able to adjust the club and have the align strip in the right spot. The clubs are not the longest clubs on the market by any stretch. The hybrid and the 3 wood are accurate and easy to hit, which for me trumps distance. Especially in those 2 clubs. However, The ST-X driver leaves something to be desired. I was hoping with the improved Coretech chamber and the shortened shaft length I would see a drastic improvement in dispersion. Unfortunately that was not the case. The same accuracy I saw in the hybrid and fairway wood did not translate to the driver. In the end 2 out of the 3 clubs made their way into my bag and I’m looking forward to continued success with them.

 

I’d like to thank MyGolfSpy and Mizuno again for giving me the opportunity to test the ST-230 Lineup!

 

Final Score (76 out of 100)

 

Edited September 25, 2023 by Swood1994

[russtopherb]

First off, I just want to extend my thanks to Mizuno and MGS for this opportunity! I hope I can do these clubs justice with my reviews and how I use them out on the course.

I was particularly interested in this testing opportunity for a few reasons. First, my driver is a few years old now, and so far it hasn’t been bumped out of the bag by other drivers I’ve tried out. The chatter around Mizuno woods has been growing over the past few releases, and I wanted to see if I could get a first-hand look at whether or not the glowing reviews have been on the money. I’ve owned a lot of drivers over the years (too many, to be honest) and a Mizuno has never been one of them.

Also, prior to this opportunity I only had 12 clubs in the bag. I haven’t carried a fairway wood for a few years now, and go from driver to HyWood to 5h for my long game clubs. I’ve been wanting to get a fairway back into the bag for those tighter fairways, or those days when the driver has to get put in time out, as well as adding a 4h back into the bag since my son snagged my Callaway and won’t give it back. So we’ll see if having those additional options in the bag helps (or hinders) my scoring.

My current bag setup

About me

I’m a Marketing Manager by day, and I just celebrated 25 years of being married to the most amazing woman I know - she actually *encourages* me to go golfing (but I think she really just wants me out of the house sometimes). I have a 22 yo daughter who’s headed off for a semester in London this fall, and a 17 yo son that’s headed into his senior year of high school and can outdrive me by a good 15-20 yards (during our round a few days ago he was piping them 260-265, the bugger). Golf-wise, I’m a 16 hdcp who mostly gets out and plays for fun with buddies. My dad was a constant golf companion for me until we lost him unexpectedly late in 2022. I grew up going to the golf course with him and my grandfather and enjoying feeling like a “grown up” just by being around them, so for me golfing fills me with nostalgia whenever I’m out there.

My son and I getting in some golf time together!

I mostly play at a few public and semi-private courses that offer a wide range of layouts. Being in the Northeast, there are a lot of trees on the courses I play so accuracy off the tee is paramount. I tend to have at least 1-2 OOB penalties with my driver even on good days (we won’t talk about the bad days), so the forgiveness of the Mizuno ST-X 230 is what made me want to go that route when we had to pick which driver we wanted to test and review.

As mentioned I haven’t had a fairway wood in a bit, so when we were signing up I noted that I’d want a fairway wood and then a hybrid as part of the test. To be honest, if a 7 wood was an option I may have chosen that! But I’m comfortable with my choices.

Me and some of my closest friends playing in the scholarship fundraiser my wife & I organize every year

The Fitting

To say I was excited to be selected was an extreme understatement. Within minutes of getting the notification that I was selected, I was on the Mizuno website to find a fitter near me so I could schedule a fitting. As luck would have it, I was able to schedule a fitting within 24 hours at a Golf Galaxy down in Rhode Island, so I made my appointment and off I went.

I arrived at Golf Galaxy around 10 minutes before my 3pm appointment and I was checked in right away. Right at 3pm my fitter Ben came over and introduced himself, and we talked for 10 minutes about the purpose of the fitting. He asked some questions about my current driver (Callaway MAVRIK Max), my usual shot shape, and anything in particular that I thought he should know before we got started. I grabbed a 7i to warm up and Ben went to grab the ST-X driver & ST-Z fairway heads and shafts, while checking his Mizuno specs to make sure I was only trying stock no-upcharge options. He also grabbed some Bridgestone e12 Contact balls, since that’s my usual gamer, so we could make sure what we were seeing on Trackman would best relate to the course. At that point I took the only single pic the entire day, as I was so focused on what Ben was telling me I never once thought to pull my phone out once I started hitting balls (and I hit a LOT of them!). 

We got started right away with the ST-X 230 head in 10.5*, paired with the Kai’li Blue 50g in R flex. Once I settled in, my swing averaged around 96 mph and I was hitting a soft draw around 245-250 total. My fitter wanted to optimize the setup to reduce spin based on my club delivery, as I was around 3200 rpm with a smash factor around 1.45-1.47, to get some more distance. I should note that my driver strikes normally tend to be level, if not slightly down when I try to absolutely mash it, which I admit I was doing a little bit during the fitting. Ben noticed I was trying to kill the ball and joked around with me to keep things light, and we moved to the LIN-Q Red to see how that fared. I got slightly more height, but everything wanted to go right. That shaft felt very whippy to me, so we went back to the Kai’li Blue, but this time in a 12* head.

Moving to the 12* didn’t give us any better numbers as far as spin and carry as well as launch, and he thought my dispersion was the best with the 10.5* degree head so he tweaked the settings a bit before deciding that just 10.5* in the stock setting was best. As I loosened up more my spin got down to around 2600 which was still a bit high for his liking but he said some of that may be due to me defaulting back to the ball position I was used to with my current driver, as I was starting to hit the ball lower towards the toe at that point. I will say this - if you miss the middle of the face, the sound & feel definitely lets you know. Since we already had good numbers there that he was happy with, we moved onto the ST-Z fairway.

We tried the 15* 3W in a few different shafts, and the consensus was that the Kai’li was the winner there as well, I was hitting the ball straight but low line drives. I teed everything up, as I let him know it would most likely be a tee-only club. Then he tweaked the loft up to 17* and BAM - that club came to life, 215-220 on average with nice peak height and a softer landing. I was pushing it just a hair right, but Ben noted that he could tell I was starting to get tired and to take ball direction with a grain of salt. 

At that point I have to admit that I was more than tired, I was gassed after 90+ shots in just under an hour, and starting to get a bit frustrated as well - I toed a fairway shot that ricocheted out of the hitting bay and into the store. Ben laughed it off and let me know I wasn’t even close to the “distance out of the bay” record held at the store and we decided to call it a day. I didn’t get to hit the hybrid unfortunately, however he let me know based on everything else he had seen that the stock LIN-Q Blue shaft would almost undoubtedly be fine. 

All in all, it was a positive experience for me, even with getting tired towards the end. I’m very excited to have all the clubs in the bag soon to put them up against my current gamers. Even though the final setups are going to be fairly stock all things considered, the value of a fitting was absolutely not lost on me, and seeing the actual results of shots hit from various settings lets me know to just set it and forget it based on everything we saw.

Now that my setup has been sent in, it’s time to start that excruciating waiting game! 

Update August 16 - The New Mizunos Are Here!!

We've all been eagerly awaiting this day! Here's my unboxing video, which is nowhere near the quality of  @GolfSpy SAM and his Caleys, but I think you'll enjoy. 

I plan to upload some pics tomorrow when I have a chance to take some in the morning before I go hit some balls. Stay tuned!

Initial pics of the heads

FINAL REVIEW 9/25/2023

First Impressions  (15 out of 20)

As noted above, the Mizuno ST-X 230 Driver and ST-Z 230 Fairway & 4 Hybrid feature some amazingly clean and modern looks. This line features the Cortech Chamber which Mizuno claims to help improve ballspeed, reduce spin, and provide a “solid, powerful sensation at impact.” 

The clubs arrived in the typical Mizuno blue box, packaged nicely and every single club came with it’s own adjustment tool. In an age where many OEMs are no longer sending out tools with new clubs, it was nice to get one. Three I felt was a bit overkill given they all do the exact same thing, but as someone who tends to “misplace” tools from time to time, it’s good to know I have extras.

I’m going to be up front about why the initial score is missing 5 points - delivery time. My fitter had warned me during our session that he was seeing incredibly long delivery times from Mizuno in comparison to other OEMs. He wasn’t wrong. It was rather frustrating to be sitting at home waiting almost 7 weeks for clubs that had standard spec components. It was even more frustrating to watch testers in other threads started *after* this one getting their clubs and playing them while we were still waiting at home. 

I fully understand concerns with supply chain still, but this was a rather long wait, especially given that we were testing and reviewing the clubs on behalf of Mizuno. I know that this wasn’t an isolated issue, either - some quick surfing of the web shows extended wait times across the board for Mizuno clubs. 

On the one hand, I do feel like a bit of a jerk complaining about something we were provided at no cost thanks to MGS and Mizuno. However, I want to be 100% truthful in this review, and that extended wait time of nearly 2 months definitely put a crimp in the amount of time we got to get these clubs out to the range and the course. My first initial impression of Mizuno as an OEM that valued forum user experience feedback was not entirely positive, hence the reduction in points.

Aesthetics (8 out of 10) 

I’m a huge fan of the overall look of these clubs, from the heads to the headcovers. The black and blue color combo looks fantastic, and I am admittedly a huge fan of the red/black combo when it comes to my bag and clubs. 

At address, I know some folks aren’t huge on glossy crowns, but I never had a problem with glare and I just loved how the finish showed off the carbon fiber. The soles are about what you’d expect from a “modern” club, showing off the Cortech chamber and the styling of the text. The clubs don’t look too busy or too “techie” if that makes sense. I know I’ve seen some clubs, drivers in particular, and thought “is that thing a Transformer or something????” I didn’t get that with any of these clubs.

Looking down at the 4h the first time had me nervous - I’m used to larger SGI style hybrids when I’ve played them, and knowing that this was more of a players style club almost threw me off. I’m happy to say that the performance has been solid, which we’ll talk about more later on. 

I adore the overall vibe of the provided headcovers. The colors pop and they are so easy to take on and off. The huge numbers on the top side of them make it very obvious what club is underneath. I have one friend who I play with 2-3 times per year, and when we got together he immediately said “whoa dude you got some new clubs!” when he saw my bag on the back of our cart. They do tend to show dirt pretty quickly, but also clean off very easily.

Sound & Feel - I’ve noted a few times that the driver has a very pronounced “thwack” sound at impact. It’s a bit muted and to be honest, I kind of like it. I’m not a fan of loud annoying drivers (hello, Ping!) and this driver definitely has a decent sound. However, I’ve noticed that the muted sound tends to make me think that I’ve not made solid contact or hit the ball far. When I played the driver head to head with my Callaway Mavrik Max and hit two shots alternating on each hole, I almost always thought that the Callaway would be further out. That wasn’t the case overall - each driver had their holes where one was further than the other, however the Mizuno was MUCH more consistent on dispersion, which I will gladly take. But the sound definitely gave me the impression that I didn’t have the distance I was looking for, drivers I’ve played in the past had a more powerful sound at impact and I think that threw me off for a bit until I had solid proof of distance.

On the feel side, I could tell when I hit something massively on the heel or the toe. Pretty much anywhere else though felt exactly the same. I suppose that can be both good and bad. I wasn’t so much concerned about contact which helped me swing a bit more freely, but when I caught one off center I didn’t get much feedback about it at all.

The fairway wood and hybrid both have solid sounds at impact. I can’t say they’re anything out of the ordinary in either category, and both also felt solid at impact as well. The hybrid is a bit more muted at impact due to it’s size, however it’s nothing that felt or sounded hollow like some other hybrids do. I know we tend to focus more on driver sounds at impact because that club in particular can have a lot of variance based on the manufacturer, where you hit it on the face, etc. however the fairway and hybrid are what I’d call your typical clubs in those slots - great sound, solid feel, excellent performance.

The Numbers (9 out of 10)

I’m going to break this section down by club. 

Driver - My average drive with the ST-X 230 is 247 yards. As someone who tops out around 97mph when I go all-out, and tends to have a level AoA, that’s pretty darn good. Even more importantly, the accuracy of the driver has been above average for me in comparison to previous drivers, including my Mavrik Max which has gone head-to-head with the Mizuno twice on the course. 

Ballflight as I’ve noted before tends to be a little bit on the lower side, but that’s more due to my natural swing than the club. I have to say that the Kai’li shaft does a fantastic job paired up with this head, and proof that a fitting does indeed matter. When I tried the Lin-Q Red as noted in my fitting notes, I got a higher but weaker flight that wanted to tail off to the right on nearly every shot. I’m not someone who works the ball - I want STRAIGHT and I want NOT IN THE TREES. On that front, the Mizuno delivers. 

The slightly shorter overall driver length I feel is a big part in helping with consistency as well as being able to find the center of the face more often. Am I giving up yards due to that? Not in comparison to my Mavrik Max which is a few years older. Could I be giving up yards in comparison to another OEM’s latest offering? It’s possible, but in reality I’m happy knowing I have a driver that I have a TON of confidence in. That’s well worth it to me. My fairways hit percentage went from 57.1% to 73.3% with this driver in the bag. Pretty significant! Although some people may consider this particular head to be draw-biased, I don’t find my shots heading any more left than they have with other drivers. I’ve definitely had less shots headed right than I can remember, however if you’re concerned about a potential bias towards the left side of the fairway, don’t be.

Fairway Wood - My 3w fairway lofted up to 17* has been an absolute fairway finder. Shots are dead straight and have a little bit of runout, averaging around 221 yards for me. Like the driver, flight is a wee bit lower for me even lofted up, but the consistency is there. With my swingspeed, the fairway is more of a tee-only club and I don’t want my comments in other posts about chunking it up the fairway to be a comment on the club itself. I just don’t hit a fairway wood off the deck often, and I never really have. 

4 Hybrid - The ST-Z 230 hybrid was the sleeper of the bunch for me. I went into this having the least expectations for this club given my history with hybrids and I have come out of this so impressed with it. Hybrids tend to fade for me when I hit them well, and hook off the face of the planet when I don’t hit them well. I’ve had neither instance happen with this club. Well struck shots just take off and are absolute ropes. I’m averaging 196 with the hybrid off the deck and this slot has become an absolute strength for me. 

On-Course (19 out of 20)

I think all of the above information in the previous sections helps to justify my score here. I have full confidence in these clubs in nearly every situation. I dinged the score by 1 simply for the so-so results of the fairway wood off the deck. In hindsight, I almost wish I had opted for the 5w instead of the 3w, but even then I’d still probably prefer the hybrid off the deck to a 5w. And that’s more on me than anything else vs the club. I will say that I do miss the rails of my Hy-Wood which helped me get through the turf a lot better on fat shots, something I miss with the ST-Z 230 fairway. 

With these clubs in the bag, I shot what I’m pretty sure is my personal best 9 hole score at 40. I hit every single fairway but one during that round, and the only one I missed was still 100% playable and my shot from there had me on the fringe. I have every confidence with these clubs in my hand. 

For me, thinking about Mizuno was always in relation to their amazing irons. I had almost pulled the trigger on some JPX-EZ irons a few years back, I even had them in my cart and was ready to check out but I backed away at the last minute. So I never really considered their non-iron clubs. This Long Game Test has completely changed that perception for me. 

If I could change anything in any of these three clubs, it would be the driver feedback and feel. As noted earlier, there’s not an incredible amount of feedback on mis-hits and I think I would prefer that, especially as I get better off the tee. I know some golfers really want that feedback when they’re off-center, and I can understand why. 

The Good, the bad, the inbetween (18 out of 20)

I already dinged Mizuno for the wait time earlier, so I don’t want to do it again here. So I’ll just point out that overall, the look and feel of these clubs are great. I’m a big fan of the Lamkin hybrid grip on these clubs; I had neglected to order my usual midsized grips when I placed the order, and I’m happy to say that I’ve really enjoyed playing them with no issues on grip pressure.

The sleeve adjustment system on all the clubs has been touched upon already by my fellow testers, so I’ll just add that while I got used to it fairly quickly, I still prefer a cog like Callaway’s that’s immediately self explanatory. Visiting the Mizuno site and viewing their graphics got me set up pretty quickly when I made adjustments to the driver and hybrid that went beyond what we settled on in the fitting, but I honestly would have preferred to get those adjustments made without needing to refer to something besides the sleeve itself. I’m not too critical about shaft graphics and grip position however I can understand why some folks are; if those factors are concerns of yours, then this adjustment sleeve may pose an issue for you.

Play it or Trade it? (19 out of 20) 

I’m happy to say that all three of these clubs are staying in my bag for the foreseeable future. Performance compared to the clubs they’ve replaced has been comparable if not better, and having a 4h I can rely on has been immense for my game, especially on longer holes where distance is a premium. I’m no longer facing an in-between situation like I did when I went from an 18* club to a 25* one. 

Based on my own experiences, these clubs will fit a wide variety of golfers - if they can fit a duffer like me, and help me drop almost 4 points of of my handicap while keeping them in the bag, they’ll most likely fit YOU as well. I know that the spin on this line may be a bit much for some of the faster swingers out there, but I think overall a lot of golfers should seriously consider Mizuno woods and hybrids when they might have been left out of the conversation in favor of some of the more well-known OEMs. 

Final Score (88 out of 100)

The Mizuno ST-X 230 and ST-Z 230 woods and hybrids may not claim the title of the absolute longest clubs on the market, but they excel in forgiveness and consistency, making them an excellent choice for a wide range of golfers. With their innovative design and advanced Cortech technology, these clubs offer impressive forgiveness on off-center hits and deliver consistent performance, ensuring that players of various skill levels can benefit from improved accuracy and distance. Whether you're a high handicapper seeking forgiveness or a seasoned golfer aiming for more consistency in your game, the Mizuno ST-X 230 and ST-Z 230 clubs are likely to be a solid fit for your needs on the course.
 

[Silver Fawkes]

Mizuno Long Game – Official MGS Forum Review by Silver Fawkes

 

A Little About Me:

Greetings fellow Spies. I want to start by saying how excited I am about the opportunity to test these clubs and give my thoughts on them. I’d like to give a huge thanks to the MGS staff for giving me a chance, and to Beakbryce for forwarding these out for someone to re-test.

I’m a 46-year-old guy from Northwest Arkansas. My wife and I have two lovely children, our 12-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter. I am operations manager for a small botanical garden and my wife is a pediatric oncologist. Our weeks are often filled with soccer games, swim team, art classes, and our kids' friends coming and going with sleepovers happening a few times a month. It might seem like a busy life, but I actually have a lot more time to play and practice golf than one would think.

Speaking of golf (which is what we’re here for after all), I am a late comer to the game. I grew up playing basketball and football. I had stretches where I took up skateboarding and other fringe sports, and in my late 20s I got into ultra marathons, cycling, and triathlons. But overall, I never really had any exposure to golf until I met my wife.

My wife's family takes a family beach trip every summer and the first couple of years I went I quickly learned that my father and mother in-law, as well as all of her brothers, viewed that week as a golf trip every bit as much as a beach trip. After two summers of being bored on the beach during the day, I figured I’d learn to play a little bit so I could go have some fun. I had no idea how hard the golf bug would grab ahold of me. We moved from Houston, TX to the Memphis area living 4 blocks from a golf club where I learned to play over the next 4 years and began to break the coveted 80 mark. We moved from the Memphis area to Dallas and I thought it was a great opportunity for a career change into golf given how passionate about it I was. I found a job working as an outside cart guy and quickly got promoted to assistant pro, and eventually moved on to a prestigious private club. I joined the PGA management program getting to level 2 though I failed my PAT twice, once by 1 stroke and the next by 9 if I remember correctly. Golf life was going well, but we had an opportunity to move back to Arkansas to be close to family again. We jumped at the opportunity, but unfortunately that was the end of my golf career as there simply weren’t any golf job openings available in the area.

I'll add some golf pictures I've accumulated over the years. Here's the group of us assistant pros at Timmaron Country Club in Dallas. What a fun group of guys that was to work with.

One of the crazier things I've ever seen was a house that went up in flames right off the fairway on hole #2. 

My passion waned and I gradually played golf less and less to the tune of half a dozen rounds a year, never practiced, and my index fell from 7 down to 16. Though I did finally get my first hole in one this year during Member-Guest. That’s been my golf life for the last three years until my wife and I took a trip to Big Cedar Resort for our anniversary this year, and we played Payne’s Valley. After that round, I was reinvigorated. I’ve practiced essentially every day since and quickly realized that I’ve mostly forgotten how to swing a golf club. Now I get to take that journey all over again and it’s honestly kind of fantastic because this time around I’ll be learning to swing the most efficient way rather than devising methods to accommodate my swing flaws. I’ll be a better golfer than I ever have been.

And here is Payne's Valley...

My Goals for this Test:

I’m going to be approaching this from a bit of a different angle. I’m actually quite happy with my current long game clubs. I play the Ping G400 series in driver, 3 wood, 7 wood, and 4 hybrid. I also play Mizuno Mp-18 MMC irons, Edel wedges, and an Edel putter. I find my Ping’s to be very forgiving, easy to hit, and pleasing to my eye. So as I’ve come back to golf with a vengeance, I can’t help but wonder how well the technology changes in this newest generation of clubs stacks up against clubs from half a dozen years ago particularly with Mizuno’s long game clubs since I have such a fondness for their irons. We know regulations haven’t changed. Manufacturers are still working with the same COR and MOI limitations. That means what I’ll be looking for the most is how these clubs perform on strikes away from the center of the club face. How much distance is lost on off-center hits? How large are the dispersion patterns on those hits? How much do the built in club adjustments change these variables? What are the launch and spin characteristics of these clubs, and how much can those be altered by the built in club adjustments? And then ultimately, are there performance gains or losses compared to my current clubs. I will be using a multitude of different environments to test these clubs including my home course, driving range, indoor launch monitor facility, and my home garage swing practice area.

These clubs actually arrived today, so I can't wait to get started!

First Impressions:

Visual aesthetics 9 out of 10:

When you envision the classic golf club aesthetic, you won’t find another manufacturer that evokes that image better than Mizuno, and while that image usually comes in the form of irons with small club heads, razor thin top lines, narrow soles, and muscled-backs, their latest line of woods and hybrids carries that same banner proudly. Looking down you won’t find any visual gimmicks or asymmetrical angles, only the teardrop shapes and flowing lines of traditional woods and hybrids.

The crowns are given a high gloss finish. This might be a distraction for some as the gloss can reflect sunlight, but I didn’t find it bothersome even coming from woods and hybrids from Ping that have a black matte finish. Beneath the clear gloss we find Mizuno’s running bird logo as the ball alignment mark on top of the black skeletal structure of the club. The look of the skeletal structure geometry on top is a bit reminiscent of Taylormade’s M series of drivers that almost appears like the back of an arrowhead. Moving further toward the rear of the crown, Mizuno, like many other manufacturers, has carved out the back half of the top of the clubhead and replaced it with carbon fiber which they proudly display under the clear gloss. Around the edges of the carbon fiber they’ve placed some thin pinstriping with a small STZ logo.

As we come around to the sole of the club, there’s quite a bit going on here both visually and structurally. As on the crown, the sole has a large plate of carbon fiber proudly displayed with the same high gloss finish. There is a weight at the rear of the club head that’s very common among modern woods. The skeletal structure includes two distinct channels that mimic the arrowhead theme, but one of them is filled in with a very distinctive translucent Mizuno blue material with what appears to be some kind of weight embedded inside of it… more on this later. We also find a screw on the sole that allows adjustment of lie and loft via the shaft adapter, again another feature very common on modern drivers. The sole also includes some visual branding with another running bird logo and a larger STZ graphic design.

Coming around to the face of these clubs, they are all black with the typical scoring marks that frame the sweet spot of the club face quite well. The marks on the driver face are a bit different with a geometric pattern that gives off a very high-tech sort of vibe. Overall, nothing special or out of the ordinary here.

 

It was pretty difficult to find anything that I did not like. I like the classic shapes, especially in the hybrid. The size of these clubheads are identical to my Ping G400s, but at address they appear to my eye to be smaller than my Pings. I guess if I had to nitpick something it would be how the frame design reminds me a lot of the Taylormade M's. It might have been cooler if they made that section of the frame more rounded where it meets the carbon on the crown. Otherwise, they look wonderful.

The Sound 8 out of 10:

The sounds of golf is something that’s made an impact on me since the first time I hit a golf ball. My college major was classical guitar performance, so I am acutely aware of the effect sounds can have on a person. It might seem strange, but in golf the sounds that come from a club hitting the ball have a profound effect on the golfer. To illustrate that point, one of my favorite golf personalities on YouTube, Mark Crossfield, did a golf sound experiment a number of years ago. He and a few other golfers hit the same ProV1’s with several different irons from different manufacturers ranging from blades to super game improvement irons, and they did so while their ears were completely muffled so they couldn’t hear a thing. The results were pretty shocking. They couldn’t tell a difference in the “feel” of a club. Didn’t matter if it was a forged or cast, chunky or razor thin. The “feel” that we get from our clubs is directly related to the way they sound.

In the same way that “nothing feels like a Mizuno” is a selling point for their irons, to me no woods have ever felt like a Ping. When I hear lot of other manufacturers woods, they often have one of two sounds: a “shhhoooooock” sound or a “thwaaaack” sound. Ping woods and hybrids on the other hand have a metallic sound, but it’s a sweet metallic sound with a relatively low pitch. My Mizuno CLK 5 hybrid by contrast, also has a very metallic sound, but the pitch is much higher. That higher pitch makes the club “feel” harsh to hit compared to my Ping 4h. Given my Mizuno 5h is the only wood/hybrid I’ve ever hit from Mizuno, I was expecting to absolutely hate these clubs…. boy was I wrong.

The first hit with the driver had metallic overtones, but wasn’t like my Pings or my CLK hybrid. It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Then it hit me. It sounds strangely similar to my Mizuno MP-18 MMC’s. It was the first time I had ever heard a wood/hybrid sound similar to my irons. After digging around online, I discovered some interviews talking about how Mizuno engineers put quite a bit of effort into the sounds these clubs make, and it shows.

I won’t go as far as to say they immediately topple Ping as my favorite sounding wood/hybrid right out of the box. But as I spend more time working with these clubs, I can see (and hear) a path where that might actually happen.

 

Coming soon I'll be testing some performance metrics, and how those stack up to my Pings. Given the look and the sound of these so far, I have to say my expectations are rising quite a bit more than I thought they would. 

 

Quick Driver Test...

I was able to make it down to my local golf shop today and though I wasn't able to reserve enough time for a full numbers test, they did give me a little bit of time to get some quick number comparisons between these drivers. The results were VERY interesting. I didn't go super hard at these. I tried to use my regular driver swing, and I hit them both slightly off center as is my normal pattern. Here were the results from the best swings I had with each. 

PING G400 Driver - 10.5° loft - standard adapter setting - PING Tour shaft R flex. 

 

Mizuno ST-Z 230 - 9.5° loft - standard adapter setting - Mitsubishi Kai'Li Blue 60 S flex.

A couple of things stuck out to me. Ball speed was exactly the same. I half expected this to be very close. Strangely, despite being a degree lower in loft, I got a higher launch angle from the Mizuno. I also got a bit more carry, but the spin rates were wild. Mizuno designed this driver to be a very straight, low spinning driver and that's exactly what they made. And even with the 400 rpm drop in spin, I was still able to get more peak height. 

I have to say just with a handful of swings on a launch monitor I am very impressed. Thankfully I am off work until the 3rd of January, so I will finally have time to do a very thorough test of all the clubs with enough swings to work out an solid average. I can't wait!

 

4 Hybrid Comparison

I was able to rent some time at a simulator bay and get some numbers on these clubs. I made the mistake of warming up through my entire bag before starting this test, so by the time I got halfway through the 3 woods I was so worn out that I could barely put a club on the ball. Unfortunately, that means that my only good data was with the hybrids. For transparency, I took 15 swings with each club. I threw out the three worst and took the averages. I also had three swings that were complete mishits (two with the Ping and one with the Mizuno) so I threw those out as well. I'll go back this week, with some wisdom, and put some numbers on the 3 wood and driver, but for now here's how the hybrids stacked up.

The first thing I notice with the Mizuno hybrid is that I'm not a fan of the shaft. I'm not a shaft nut or anything, and I know shaft discourse can bring out the zealot in some folks. All I know is the kind of bend I like to feel in a shaft during transition and through impact. If a shaft is too stiff it feels like I'm swinging a broom handle. If a shaft is too soft it feels like I have to make weird adjustments to square the clubface at impact. I don't have a violent transition so despite being a "fast" swinger I don't generally like stiffer shafts. With the shaft in the Mizuno it just kind of feels weird. I can't really put my finger on it or describe it. It's an R flex shaft just like my Ping, but (I'm going to try and describe this as best I can) it feels like it doesn't bend in the same way as my Ping. Now I don't know if its stiffer in the tip or the butt and that's why it feels different. I just know it does and I'm not a fan. I have a Mizuno 5 hybrid with a red Tensei shaft in it that I absolutely LOVE so I may put that shaft in this and do another test.

The second thing that I notice is that I am absolutely in LOVE with the sound of this club. I've talked about how the sound of clubs affects me and why, and this thing really ticks all the boxes for me. The more I hit it, the more I actually prefer it to my Ping. That's something I never thought I'd say.

Now let's look at the numbers... and I'll say they were not what I expected at all.

There was only 1 mph difference in ball speed between the two in favor of the Ping. Carry distance was 5 yards more with the Ping as well. But the thing that really jumps out to me is the spin. I'm getting just over 500 more rpm of backspin with the Mizuno. That was really odd to me since their Cortech Chamber technology is designed to reduce spin. It absolutely did not in this club which I am thankful for. The spin rates you see listed here are off a mat, so we all know to add around 1000-1200 more spin off of grass. 

Ultimately I'm not concerned about "distance" from this club. It's a 4 hybrid and I know it's going to go a certain distance within a few yards. But this is an approach club, and I want the ball to stop close to where it lands. 

I prefer the look and the sound of the club. I do want a different shaft in it however, but given the spin numbers and dispersion are relatively the same, I will be gaming this club from here on out. 

 

3 Wood Comparison

I was finally able to get back to the launch bay and get some numbers on the three wood. I have to say I was very impressed. As I used the same parameters as the 4 hybrid except I used a tee for all shots with the three wood. I use a three wood like a mini driver. I rarely hit it off the deck except on long par 5's. With that in mind, I am looking more or less for numbers that are closer to what I would get from a driver. 

As you can see, this club performed more like what I am expecting from a three wood:

On average the Mizuno gave me 4 more MPH of ball speed, over 900 RPM's less backspin, and 12 more yards of carry. That's exactly what I want for the way I utilize my 3 wood. 

I do want to add that the forgiveness in the Ping is markedly better. Off center hits tended to stay closer to the centerline, and lost less distance. If I were to play this club off the deck much more, I would go with the Ping. The spin rate gives better distance control and the performance on off center hits would be far more important hitting off the deck. 

That said, I will be gaming this club due to how I want to use it.

 

First Round Impressions

I was finally able to get out and play an actual round with all three clubs yesterday. The performance on course mirrored what I expected to see from the launch monitor. The higher spin on the 4 hybrid really held well around the greens on two of the par 5's that I decided to go for, and the one long par 3. Because of the way I use my three wood, I decided to go ahead and use it on several of the shorter par 4's with absolutely excellent results. It is SO long and straight off the tee. I found myself with very similar approach distances that I get with my Ping driver. 

The downside is that I did not have a great deal of success with the driver. On the course, I found it difficult to get the face closed for some reason, and several of my drives really hung out pretty far to the right (though they did stay dead straight). Given the spin rate that I was getting with a few swings the first time I was able to get it into a launch bay, I was concerned that I was going to get these low launching knuckle balls that just died out of the air. I found that to be the opposite. I was able to really launch the ball high and watch it climb. I am definitely going to need some time to get the right feel for the driver, and get a launch bay session for comparison. The real world results were quite a bit different than I expected.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the performance of these clubs. I will continue to game them and give updates!

=====================================================================

Driver Update:

First let me begin by saying that I apologize for the time it's taken me to get the driver part of this review completed. As some of you have seen from my posts in other places, the weather in Northwest Arkansas made golf completely unplayable. On top of that, between my job and kids I just could not find the time to break away to the indoor sim place. 

I am happy to report however that the last week and a half of weather has been pretty spectacular aside from this past Saturday when my friend and I played in our winter two-man scramble. But in this time I've been able to get a few 9 hole rounds in, play in the scramble even though it was raining most of the time, AND (I'm very happy to report) I've been able to get my third garage bay set up as a home sim space with a Garmin R10 including the ProV1 RCT balls. I will have a review on that in a different post as well as some DIY things I've been able to build to take advantage of that space that saved me quite a bit of money. 

On to the driver... After being able to spend some solid time with this driver, I was really underwhelmed and disappointed... at first. After reading some of the other posters reviews, I felt like the low spin nature of this driver wouldn't be a huge issue for me as my swing speed is relatively fast (98-104mph on average). I was wrong. It seemed like every time I hit this thing it started to launch the way I am used to with my Ping, but the flight just flattened out and it died out of the air. I played around with some hosel settings but to no avail. Then it hit me. What if I changed the shaft?

The head itself is designed to reduce spin significantly, but shafts also have their own spin profiles. The  specs on the Kai'li Blue shaft in stiff flex shows to be mid launch and spin, but it just didn't perform that way for me. I planned on taking it to my local GolfUSA for a driver fitting, but lucked across a UST Maiyama Helix in R flex with a Mizuno tip for cheap. The profile of this shaft is very similar to my Ping Tour 65 in R flex so I thought I would give it a shot just to see if it made any difference before I went for a fitting and spent significant amounts of money on a fitting and a brand new shaft. The results were startling...

I took some time tonight and hit drives in my garage on the R10 with both shafts:

The Kai'li Blue:

The average backspin rate for this head with this shaft for me was a whopping 2035 RPM. That's skewed a bit by the 2800 hit that I can only assume was really low on the face haha.

Here's the UST Maiyama Helix:

With an average closer to 2600 RPM the results are pretty clear. The Kai'li Blue is the wrong shaft for me with that driver head. The ball flight on the sim confirmed this as it launched well, and then continued to climb in the way that I'm used to seeing. 

=======================================================================

Conclusion:

I want to SINCERELY thank MyGolfSpy, the moderators (especially Jamie for giving me a chance), and Beakbryce for paying these clubs forward for someone else to use. This was an eye opening process for me. This is the first review I've ever done, and I gotta say it's been extremely fun and a wonderful learning experience.

I began this review by wanting to compare and contrast the difference in long clubs between a period of 6 years when I first got my Ping G400s to see if it would be worth the expense to upgrade. And I have to admit that I simply do not see enough of a performance gain that would justify spending the amount of money it would take to replace all of my long game clubs, but I would replace my 3 wood with the Mizuno in a heartbeat. The lower spin in concert with how I use the club as a mini-driver/fairway finder is exactly what I want from that club and it is flat out superior to my Ping. 

While I cannot recommend going out and buying an entirely new set of long game clubs (from any manufacturer), I would say that if you find a particular club just isn't performing quite the way you think it should or would like to see for your game... take a chance and go experiment with a fitter. I can guarantee that there are gains in the margins to be found. 

And if you're looking for a dead straight, low spin 3 wood for use off the tee... you CANNOT go wrong with the Mizuno ST-Z 230! And while you're at it... play around with some different shafts in the driver and 4 hybrid. You might be surprised!

Edited February 7 by Silver Fawkes

[OdinSnipes414]

Congratulations guys super excited to see you guys slamming around the big sticks!

[Ignacio]

Congratulations to those chosen. 

[sirchunksalot]

Congratulations testers! This should be an interesting review and I'll be looking forward to hearing how your long games improve. 

[Triple_Putt]

Congress testers! Looking forward to reading what you all find 

[Big moose]

Congratulations testers can't wait to hear what everyone thinks about these clubs. I never even gave Mizuno a shot when purchasing new clubs so maybe this will change my mind. 

[ParFore74x]

Congratulations testers. Looking forward to your thoughts on these Mizunos!

[ejgaudette]

Congrats everyone, hope you will be hitting par 5s in two very soon!

[MattF]

Congratulations all.

[IndyBonzo]

Congratulations testers!  What a great test.  Get after it!

[MDGolfHacker]

Congratulations!  Great group of testers!  Looking forward to your reviews!

[BallsLeon]

Congrats testers!

[MaxEntropy]

Congrats all!

[dback]

Congrats testers! Love my mizuno driver and 3 wood!

[TSauer]

Congrats, y’all! 

[Willie T]

Will be watching closely to see how the Miz bigs compare to what each has in their bag already!  Congrats - let ‘Em rip, tater chip! 

[golfinnut]

Congrats everyone!  Looking forward to your reviews   

[DoubleBogeyDad]

Congrats testers! Can't wait to see who finds some distance or makes a big reshuffle up top!

[ZackS]

Congrats testers, these woods look good. It sounds like Mizuno has made some big steps in the woods. Interested in the seeing if the testers agree. 

[DotesMaGotes12]

Congrats testers! Love Mizuno irons and excited to see the results of the long game from Mizuno!

[William L]

Congratulations!  I look forward to your report 

[Josh Ross]

Congrats testers! Can't go wrong with Mizuno, excited to see your feedback!

[GolfSpy_KFT]

Great group of testers here! Congrats all!

[NickyBobby]

Congrats testers. Excited to hear how they perform!

[JohnH1]

Congrats to the testers. Definitely be following this one.