Hot on the heels of Mizuno's low-spinning ST180 driver comes the announcement of the GT180 series of metal woods.
Mizuno GT180 Driver
It is now common in metal wood design for manufacturers to offer golfers the choice of relatively simple no-nonsense clubs and more detailed, adjustable set-ups as with TaylorMade's M4 and M3 drivers.
In this case the Mizuno GT180 offers a more sophisticated design than found in the head of the low-spinning ST180, offering an expanded capacity to manipulate weight throughout the head of the driver, ideal for golfers visiting fitting studios to customise their clubs precisely to their individual swings in the search for extra performance.
The extreme levels of adjustability on offer in the GT180 driver give an expanded range of draw, neutral and fade settings in low, mid and high spin flights.
Twin movable 7g weights have a wider span of locations for greater impact on spin rates and fade / draw bias, while the Quick Switch Adjustable Hosel allows 4˚ of loft adjustment and 3˚ of lie adjustment to match every golfer’s unique launch conditions and visual preferences.
A Quick Switch adapter offers eight different locations to allow precise customisation of loft and lie and to fine tune ball flight like never before. The finishing touch is an expanded line of high-end shafts including the Mitsubishi Tensei CK, Kuro Kage Silver Dual-Core TiNi and Bassare E-Series 42 that can be fitted at no extra cost.
Like the ST180, the GT180 uses a Forged SP700 Ti face, a precise multi-thickness face that promotes accelerated ball speeds across the entire hitting surface.
Another performance feature that is currently being pushed to the forefront of golfers minds are elements of face design to help compensate for mishits. Although this now appears in vogue, Mizuno are keen to point out it is nothing new.
Mizuno R&D director David Llewellyn explains:
We’ve been compensating for golfers’ regular mishit patterns for years by giving the toe and heel sides of the face a bit more bulge than the centre of the face. This counteracts the greater amount of gear effect that occurs further from the face’s centre, thus giving the ball the appropriate amount of side spin to curve back to the centre. It’s a big topic of conversation now – but not something we've advertised. Just one of those design increments that happens over time.
Mizuno GT180 Fairway Woods
Mizuno's GT180 fairways continue the theme of customisation that the company say promises a new law of gravity, providing golfers the scope to vastly reduce or increase spin rate depending on the course demands.
Evolution of both the Mizuno Wave sole and sliding weight technologies has reduced the lower end of spin rates for a more efficient trajectory at high ball speeds.
A re-designed first wave in the sole and the lightweight Internal Waffle Crown combine to push weight low and forwards, moving CG to create a lower trajectory, while also generating low spin and increased ball speeds through the thinner, more responsive 1770 Maraging steel face.
17 grams of sliding weight creates a wider range of of spin rates to fine tune ball flight, with the Quick Switch Adjustable Hosel allowing 4˚ of loft adjustment and 3˚ of lie adjustment to match every golfer’s unique launch conditions and visual preferences.
Like the driver the GT180 fairway is offered with an expanded line of high-end shafts that can be fitted at no extra cost and a TS (tour style) model is also available that has a more compact, lower lofted head.