Mizuno irons are among the best in the business, and their long-standing JPX line has been one of the best examples of irons which still look and feel great whilst offering lots of distance and forgiveness.
When you think of Mizuno, your first instinct might be to picture one of their butter-knife blades, but actually the JPX irons have been incredibly popular for a long time now and the new JPX925 line is seeking to continue that trend.
Who Are They Aimed At?
There are three models available in the new JPX925 range: the JPX925 Hot Metal Pro, JPX925 Hot Metal and JPX925 Hot Metal HL.
The Hot Metal sits in the middle of the range, providing a blend of forgiveness and ball speed for mid handicap golfers, whilst the Hot Metal Pro is a little more compact and the Hot Metal HL is designed for maximum forgiveness to help golfers launch the ball more easily.
The Tech
I'll warn you now, there's lots of it, so if you're more interested in how these irons actually performed then feel free to keep on scrolling to the next section.
If you're still with me, then you'll see that Mizuno have incorporated a range of existing and new technologies into these irons to help provide plenty of ball speed with new levels of consistency right across the face.
First up is a Cortech design, with the face being re-engineered to be 30% thinner than previous generations, whilst a new Contour Ellipse is built to provide extra ball speed in the middle of the face and maximise speed retention through the impact zone.
Tungsten weighting is added lower in the head in the 4-7 irons, which promotes a higher launch and a lower sweet spot to help produce a steeper landing angle for greater stopping power.
Other technologies include a seamless one-piece cup face revolving around the perimeter to keep up ball speed across the face, as well as variable sole thickness which increases the overall face flex.
Balanced weighting improves control and maintains forgiveness whilst improving the vibration and sound, which is supported by acoustic ribs which dial in vibration patterns for a 'solid, explosive impact sound'.
Mizuno JPX925 Hot Metal Irons Review
Looks
Feature a new colour system on the back cavity this year to distinguish the different models - the Hot Metal is white, the Hot Metal Pro is black and the Hot Metal HL is blue.
To be honest I'm not actually a huge fan of the look of the irons this year, the combination of chrome and brushed steel on the head and the design of the badge on the back just seemed a little bit messy to me.
I looked back at previous models and actually felt like the JPX921 and JPX923 ranges both looked a bit more premium - we'll put this one down as a rare miss for Mizuno.
Down at address, you get the type of confidence-inspiring long blade length and relatively thick topline that you'd expect from a game improvement iron, but I do think that it sits really nicely behind the ball and looks inviting to hit.
Feel
These irons feel hot and powerful off the face, which I think goes a long way towards helping you feel confident in your ball-striking too.
If you get a resounding sound and feel every time you hit the ball it can spur you on to hit it well, especially because you lose that fear of what a bad strike is going to feel like. It might not work for everyone, but it might work for you.
Performance
Starting off out on the golf course, the first thing that springs to mind with these irons are the forgiveness levels - I found that they were so easy to hit and even my poor strikes were still able to get up and around the green which is a massive confidence boost for anyone who struggles with their iron play.
There's a little bit of offset at address and so I found it much easier to draw the ball than I did to fade it, with my misses being pretty consistently to the left. The sole widths are generous and I felt like this helped with turf interaction, particularly when testing on a damp day where it is easy to catch the ball a little heavy.
As you'd expect you're going to see some pretty good numbers because the lofts are strong and they are designed to help you maximise distance and ball speed.
As a result I was seeing around a club extra in distance with the 7 iron, carrying up towards 180 yards, with the spin rates being very low at 4500rpm on average.
Throughout the test I was impressed by the front to back dispersion between the irons, with a gap of around 10 yards between my longest and shortest shots which is pretty good - especially when you think that irons like this can sometimes produce that hot shot from nowhere which goes way further than you'd expect.
One area where I struggled a little was with the 5 iron. Whilst the ball speed was really impressive at nearly 129mph on average, this was only translating to around 195 yards of carry because the ball was not spinning or launching high enough to stay in the air for me.
This is probably fine if you're a higher spinner of the ball or if you're looking more at total distance, but I would've preferred to see a little higher launch and more carry at the top end of the bag if I'm looking to hold the green.
Mizuno JPX925 Hot Metal Irons Verdict
The Mizuno JPX925 are undoubtedly another good iron from one of the best in the business, although if you own a set of JPX921 or JPX923 then I'm not sure I would recommend you upgrading.
I actually preferred the look of the older models whilst the performance was pretty similar from what I could see. I suppose that's almost a compliment to Mizuno - their irons have been so great for so long that they're struggling to find new ways to keep making things better!
If you've not used Mizuno irons before though, and you do need a little extra distance and most importantly forgiveness in your iron play, then I would recommend you give these a try because they feel powerful, and I found them so easy to hit.
Would I Use Them?
For me they were a little too chunky, and I was struggling with the lower spin rates especially towards the top end of the bag into the long irons. But if you're somebody who is struggling with consistent contact, the forgiveness levels could make them a fantastic option.
Mizuno JPX925 Hot Metal Irons Pros and Cons
STAR RATING: 4
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