Mizuno Long Game - 2023 Forum Review

[Beakbryce]

3 minutes ago, srooch2 said:

I’m glad you paid it forward! Speaks volumes about you friend. Cheers

Thank you. 

[GolfSpy_APH]

On 6/27/2023 at 8:40 AM, Silver Fawkes said:

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!

Great write-up so far! 

Curious about the spin rates for future tests. 1600 is really low and I would imagine a difficult playing spin rate. Do you like that low spin rate or are you hoping to see it get to the 2000 range? 

Looking forward to your insights and to see how it all pans out for you!

[Silver Fawkes]

4 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Great write-up so far! 

Curious about the spin rates for future tests. 1600 is really low and I would imagine a difficult playing spin rate. Do you like that low spin rate or are you hoping to see it get to the 2000 range? 

Looking forward to your insights and to see how it all pans out for you!

Yeah 1600 is quite low. I was figuring around 2000-2200 would be around what I'd get. It was one of a half dozen swings with each driver and sadly there wasn't any strike data to see where exactly I hit it on the face. Having that data is going to tell me a lot as well. 

I'll have a long launch session this week and I suspect the results are going to be crazy. 

[Beakbryce]

9 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

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.

Looks like you are well on your way. Very informative write up so far. Love the numbers. That spin rate is what killed the clubs for me. I can't wait to see the optimized profile with a shaft fit to you. I found your discussion of the sound fascinating. 

Maybe someday we retake the PAT together!

Edited December 23, 2023 by Beakbryce

[Beakbryce]

Just a follow-up. This picture of a white headed Mizuno driver taken at the Tour stop. I think I would have liked this better. Still think the Mizuno Blue color would be the cat's meow. 

[Silver Fawkes]

2 minutes ago, Beakbryce said:

Just a follow-up. This picture of a white headed Mizuno driver taken at the Tour stop. I think I would have liked this better. Still think the Mizuno Blue color would be the cat's meow. 

That is gorgeous! I can't wait for the weather to clear up so I can finish my review of the driver. It's been two weeks of snow, ice, and rain. I'm SO over it. 

[Beakbryce]

1 hour ago, Silver Fawkes said:

That is gorgeous! I can't wait for the weather to clear up so I can finish my review of the driver. It's been two weeks of snow, ice, and rain. I'm SO over it. 

Yup, had to put the raincoat on for 1 hole today, high of 58, cloudy. I almost didn't go. My buddies texted they just didn't want to play. I know, but compare that to 115 in September. It's all relative. I actually prefer 115 but there you go. It's why I moved to AZ.

Here's to better weather for everyone.

[ZMendle10]

15 hours ago, Beakbryce said:

Just a follow-up. This picture of a white headed Mizuno driver taken at the Tour stop. I think I would have liked this better. Still think the Mizuno Blue color would be the cat's meow. 

What a thing of beauty.

[russtopherb]

16 hours ago, Beakbryce said:

Just a follow-up. This picture of a white headed Mizuno driver taken at the Tour stop. I think I would have liked this better. Still think the Mizuno Blue color would be the cat's meow. 

Hard disagree. I'm very content with the looks on the Mizunos we tested and am 100% not a fan of white drivers.

[GolfSpy_APH]

@Silver Fawkes how are you enjoying things so far?

[Silver Fawkes]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

@Silver Fawkes how are you enjoying things so far?

I was going to post a final eval after our Snowman tournament on Saturday and I still will, but here's a sneak peak:

I haven't been able to get on a launch monitor with the driver but...

I absolutely love the 4h and 3w. They are super straight, decent with forgiveness, and look spectacular.

The driver I have struggled with however. The weather has finally opened up and I've been able to sneak out of work early to play two 9 hole rounds on Monday and today. It launches well, but the spin is just too low. It falls right out of the sky. And that tracks with the few swings I've been able to get in on a monitor that one time. Here's the thing though... It's performed this way entirely stock. In an effort to speed this process up, I am going to go through a driver fitting with it at my GolfUSA. I suspect the shaft may be a bit too stiff for my less intense transition though my swing speed is typically around 98-104mph. I also need help dialing in the hosel settings. 

I really want this driver to work, but if I kept it stock the way it is... I don't think it would. But I think I owe it to the forum to put in the time and effort to do everything I can to make it work. It'll be interesting to see if a change in shaft, swing weight, and hosel settings really can make the kind of ball flight difference I'm looking for. 

 

Stay tuned....

Edited February 1 by Silver Fawkes

[Beakbryce]

21 hours ago, Silver Fawkes said:

The driver I have struggled with however. The weather has finally opened up and I've been able to sneak out of work early to play two 9 hole rounds on Monday and today. It launches well, but the spin is just too low. It falls right out of the sky. And that tracks with the few swings I've been able to get in on a monitor that one time. Here's the thing though... It's performed this way entirely stock. In an effort to speed this process up, I am going to go through a driver fitting with it at my GolfUSA. I suspect the shaft may be a bit too stiff for my less intense transition though my swing speed is typically around 98-104mph. I also need help dialing in the hosel settings. 

Very like what I found. I hope a shaft change works for you. 

[Swood1994]

With the decent hiatus from October to January of no golfing here in Central New York. Started up a sim league and finally got to hit the Mizuno 3-Wood and Hybrid again and I almost forgot how good they are. 

Shot of the night last night was 4H from 225 with a baby fade to 8ft for a tap in birdie!

[Silver Fawkes]

Just now, Swood1994 said:

With the decent hiatus from October to January of no golfing here in Central New York. Started up a sim league and finally got to hit the Mizuno 3-Wood and Hybrid again and I almost forgot how good they are. 

Shot of the night last night was 4H from 225 with a baby fade to 8ft for a tap in birdie!

They really are SO good. The driver is the wildcard, but because I'm not swinging 110mph I think dialing in a proper shaft and sleeve setting will bring this thing to life. 

At least I'm hoping. 

[Swood1994]

9 minutes ago, Silver Fawkes said:

They really are SO good. The driver is the wildcard, but because I'm not swinging 110mph I think dialing in a proper shaft and sleeve setting will bring this thing to life. 

At least I'm hoping. 

Sounds like we have similar results across the 3 clubs! 

I may give the driver another shot this season but I really don’t think it will beat out my Paradym especially with the new ventus black velocore shaft I have for it . That will have to wait until nicer weather though. 

[Silver Fawkes]

I was able to get a review of the driver and some conclusions posted. As I said in my review, I cannot appreciate enough the opportunity to do this. Before I take on another forum review, I will be reviewing some things I already own that I think might be able to help people with their games. 

Thank you @GolfSpy_APH, @Beakbryce for this awesome opportunity!

[azstu324]

Hey folks! 

I know this thread has been ongoing for a while now and I'll be honest, when it started I just didn't have any interest in a Mizuno driver.. or woods. So I just didn't have a need to follow along. I played the first gen ST-Z and while it performed, I just didn't like the sound and overall shape. 

Well just the other day I was at 2nd swing looking to pick up a PXG Gen6 driver. Path of least resistance since I have shaft with a PXG tip. They weren't too busy so I decided to try out some of the new offerings from all the big boys. The 2nd driver I hit was the ST-Z 230. Overall I was extremely impressed with the consistency of numbers and how darn easy it was to find the center of the face. The big surprise was how fantastic it felt and sounded! Well I moved on to the other clubs and the whole time I just couldn't get the Mizuno out of my head. Finally I went back to the Mizuno just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. It wasn't. I just fell in love. Well I wasn't prepared or able to buy a new driver so I went to put it back and when I rolled the club over, it showed $250! I figured that was the used cost so then I found another still in the wrapping. Sure enough, $250! I looked for a 9.5° and couldn't find anything. Maybe that's why they were so cheap? Well then I looked on the website and found a 9.5° in the wrapping with the same shaft that I tested at the store for $250 in TX... So I immediately bought it! 

Question for those who have played this driver: was I too hasty or did I make a wise choice? When I hit it, I didn't feel like I needed any time to figure it out. It just was so comfortable to hit and so freakishly consistent.. for me. Even the misshits were extremely forgiving and retained distance very well. 

Are any of you still playing the driver? Or have you moved on for various reasons? 

 

Thanks! 

[Beakbryce]

1 hour ago, azstu324 said:

Question for those who have played this driver: was I too hasty or did I make a wise choice? When I hit it, I didn't feel like I needed any time to figure it out. It just was so comfortable to hit and so freakishly consistent.. for me. Even the misshits were extremely forgiving and retained distance very well. 

Can't give you a yay or nay on whether it will be good for you. Sorry. In the end 5 people tested the driver models. I had a positive fitting session and thought I would hit it well. In practice I did not because my club head speed wasn't sufficient to overcome the low spin. I sent the driver on to another tester. Several testers fell in love with the club. If you have something over 100 mph I suspect you will put the ball in play as it is a dead straight ball flight, so you just need to figure out ball position to make sure dead straight fits your aim point. Please come back to the thread and let us know. The more knowledge we get on these drivers, the more it will help everyone who may want to buy one.

Have fun.

[azstu324]

3 hours ago, Beakbryce said:

Please come back to the thread and let us know. The more knowledge we get on these drivers, the more it will help everyone who may want to buy one.

Have fun.

Oh I will for sure! It's coming tomorrow. I think I feel a cold coming on.. (cough cough) . I heard that the driving range is the perfect medicine 

[Swood1994]

6 hours ago, azstu324 said:

Question for those who have played this driver: was I too hasty or did I make a wise choice? When I hit it, I didn't feel like I needed any time to figure it out. It just was so comfortable to hit and so freakishly consistent.. for me. Even the misshits were extremely forgiving and retained distance very well. 

Are any of you still playing the driver? Or have you moved on for various reasons? 

I tested the ST-X and wasn’t the biggest fan due to sound and overall feel of the club. It did perform for me however compared to my gamer it didn’t make the cut. (However the 3-wood and 4-hybrid are still holding spots in my bag). 

I think if you had a good fitting session and you liked the sound and feel of the club then you got a great deal! Everyone is different and no one club is a perfect match to all. Like @Beakbryce said be sure to keep us posted on your impressions on the course!

[vandyland]

@azstu324 I was very surprised at how much I liked (and continue to like) the Mizuno ST-Z 230. The adjustability is impressive but it does best for me on standard everything (9.5*). I have the LIN-Q red in it and the positives for me are that this driver is very good ALL AROUND. Not the fastest, the most stable, not the most anything but does everything very well. I would say it's best characteristic is how well it retains speed and keeps spin down on heel strikes. Also does very well on toe strikes. It is decently low spin but not crazy low spin and overall has just been a revelation for me. Would never have tried it otherwise but now I am bullish on Mizuno woods. 

Edit: I have since hit it against the Aerojet, Paradym and Ping G425 and wasn't swayed. I also like that the Mizuno is setup to 45" but obviously you can shaft it however you want. 

Edited March 13 by vandyland

[azstu324]

2 hours ago, vandyland said:

@azstu324 I was very surprised at how much I liked (and continue to like) the Mizuno ST-Z 230. The adjustability is impressive but it does best for me on standard everything (9.5*). I have the LIN-Q red in it and the positives for me are that this driver is very good ALL AROUND. Not the fastest, the most stable, not the most anything but does everything very well. I would say it's best characteristic is how well it retains speed and keeps spin down on heel strikes. Also does very well on toe strikes. It is decently low spin but not crazy low spin and overall has just been a revelation for me. Would never have tried it otherwise but now I am bullish on Mizuno woods. 

Edit: I have since hit it against the Aerojet, Paradym and Ping G425 and wasn't swayed. I also like that the Mizuno is setup to 45" but obviously you can shaft it however you want. 

Thanks Vandy! That's the exact same shaft that I tested and ordered. Yeah I noticed those same qualities in my short session. All of the other heads were very good at one thing or another but none of them seemed to check every single box except for the ST-Z. Like you said, it didn't crush in anything specifically BUT was probably 75% strong in every single category. I'm fortunate to have decent distance on my side (still) so I'm not interested in chasing that dragon. At this point, I'm most interested in retaining what ball speed I do have, finding an extra level of forgiveness, and having a look, sound, and feel that inspire me to practice and instill confidence on the tee. That seemed to be what I found with the ST-Z. I'm just hoping it wasn't a magic spell that will eventually wear off as soon as I put it in the bag. 

I'll definitely report back once I've had some time with it. 

[azstu324]

Got it in a on Wednesday. Took some swings with it in the garage with the Garmin R10 and everything from the store came right back to me. I'm hoping to get it to the range maybe tomorrow. My benchmark is that if it can keep up with the distance of the Maltby TC Pro, but yield better forgiveness, I'm completely sold! 

I also glued up my Otto Phlex stand-in last night so it will be a fun and interesting comparison tomorrow. 

V.S.

Edited March 15 by azstu324

[azstu324]

Took the STZ230 out for its first round today and man this thing is pretty awesome. I'm not going to say that it's much longer than the PXG but the misses are so much smaller! The feel and sound outdoors is intoxicating! 

I'm starting to think this thing could really work for me! 

[vandyland]

13 hours ago, azstu324 said:

I'm not going to say that it's much longer than the PXG but the misses are so much smaller!

Always good to see someone have the same experience as me. For a player that hits like 70%+ of their fairways and always hits the center of their driver, they may want to look elsewhere for more SPEED. But for us mortals, this driver still keeps up but is astounding at how it can still pump the ball out there and then I look down at the ball mark on the face and it is high toe. I have had ones where I swear I almost missed the face and they still went about 90% of normal distance and didn't have some crazy gear effect on them. 

[azstu324]

29 minutes ago, vandyland said:

Always good to see someone have the same experience as me. For a player that hits like 70%+ of their fairways and always hits the center of their driver, they may want to look elsewhere for more SPEED. But for us mortals, this driver still keeps up but is astounding at how it can still pump the ball out there and then I look down at the ball mark on the face and it is high toe. I have had ones where I swear I almost missed the face and they still went about 90% of normal distance and didn't have some crazy gear effect on them. 

Yeah so I conducted a little experiment 2 separate times yesterday. I was by myself with a 2 some in front and nobody behind me so had some time to goof around. On one hole I hit a perfect drive down the middle. But then I purposely hit a shot off the heel and then the toe. All 3 balls were literally within 15 feet of each other. That's not much at all. The heel and toe shots did what they do.. heel went right and toe went left.. but they weren't anything resembling a duck hook or high slice. More like a playable draw or fade!

The 2nd experiment actually started with a low heel that went right and just settled in the first cut. 2nd shot was a towering bomb down the middle and probably the longest drive I've ever had on this particular hole. Even the miss was longer than most of the previous drives I've had on this particular hole. You can't tell from the pic but the entire fairway is an uphill grade so rollout is very minimal. Most other drivers, that low heel would have been in another fairway.. in this case that would have been in a lake that you can't see on the right. If this is a "bad miss" for this club, I'll take that all day every day!

 

[Shrek74]

14 minutes ago, azstu324 said:

Yeah so I conducted a little experiment 2 separate times yesterday. I was by myself with a 2 some in front and nobody behind me so had some time to goof around.

How on earth are you a single with no one behind in peak season? That's crazy!

[azstu324]

18 minutes ago, Shrek74 said:

How on earth are you a single with no one behind in peak season? That's crazy!

Ha ha yeah I know. So being a Monday helped.. and I wouldn't necessarily call this course a "desirable" or popular track. It's an exec but kind of a hidden gem too. They maintain a $25 green fee through the winter for walking players. On the surface it looks kinda rough so I think a lot of folks steer clear.. but the fairways and greens are really well kept and it is actually a fun layout that allows you to move through your whole bag. It's only got 4 holes that a driver is practical on. But it's got other par 4's that require a 3 wood or iron off the tee due to having really tight, blind dog legs. For $25, it scratches the itch during "winter" here in AZ when all the other courses are $100++++

[Shrek74]

7 minutes ago, azstu324 said:

Ha ha yeah I know. So being a Monday helped.. and I wouldn't necessarily call this course a "desirable" or popular track. It's an exec but kind of a hidden gem too. They maintain a $25 green fee through the winter for walking players. On the surface it looks kinda rough so I think a lot of folks steer clear.. but the fairways and greens are really well kept and it is actually a fun layout that allows you to move through your whole bag. It's only got 4 holes that a driver is practical on. But it's got other par 4's that require a 3 wood or iron off the tee due to having really tight, blind dog legs. For $25, it scratches the itch during "winter" here in AZ when all the other courses are $100++++

That's pretty nice to have close by like that. I was in the West Valley and this time of year you couldn't touch a course for under $100. Plus there really weren't many Exec's or Par 3's around. So I was rather stuck.

[vandyland]

Looked at the 2024 Driver testing and was pretty shocked at how the Mizuno was kind of a non-competitive entrant. Could be because it doesn't truly EXCEL in any one category except maybe off center strikes. Seemed like Ping sucked up all the oxygen in that test so maybe I should get a Ping head to test alongside the Mizuno for the good of the group. I will try to convince my friend who is always buying clubs to get a Ping G430 Max or LST.