Mizuno are well known for their wide range of forged irons, and their most recent instalment is the Mizuno Pro S1, designed specifically for better players. Having been an avid user of players style irons I was really excited to test these out on the course.
The brand say that these irons will provide golfers with precision and workability in a compact shape, along with their iconic feel.
Who Are They Aimed At?
Following on from their recent Pro S-3 irons, these irons have been designed in an even more compact shape, specifically for better golfers. Therefore if you’re in the market for a new set of players irons that look incredible in the bag, and maintain some forgiveness – then these could be the perfect fit for you.
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The Tech
The Pro S1 features a new Channel Back design to provide a consistent CG location, solid feel and vertical stability. This mass repositioning behind the face is said to improve launch consistency for better distance control. It also offers a firmer, tour-preferred feel at impact with enhanced responsiveness without losing the purity of feel.
Mizuno claim that they have carefully refined the entire design through tour players’ input. Compared to the previous Pro 241, the S-1 sole has a flatter camber, sharper leading edge and additional bounce. This design encourages more forgiveness by reducing the chance of the club digging into the ground.
They suggest this will ensure smoother turf interaction, so it will be interesting to see how it performs in testing. This design is also said to be even more beneficial for golfers with a shallow angle of attack.
The irons are finished in a Nickel Chrome Soft White Satin, that offers a premium, tour-inspired aesthetic. Beyond its visual appeal, the satin finish reduces glare at address, helping golfers maintain focus in all lighting conditions.
Mizuno Pro S1 Irons Review
Looks
I’ve always admired the look of Mizuno irons, but I’ve veered towards mainstream brands due to the overall brand appeal. This is the first time testing Mizunos properly against my own set of Titleist T100 irons. I was really interested to see how they performed against a set that is a considerably smaller than my own.
First of all, they look fantastic. I love the matte finish from the back of the club with retro-Japanese ‘Mizuno Pro’ font. It looks like it was built in one of the world’s finest forging factories. The channel back design instantly stood out to me, giving the iron a ferocious look overall.
The leading edge has a slight camber that wasn’t too off-putting, with a medium sized sole for a bladed iron. Alongside this is a compact head shape with a sharp toe and thin top line. Instantly giving me a perspective that these irons should only be used by elite golfers.
Down by the ball, I found the irons to sit really flush to the ground. I did find them frightening to look at however, reminding me of an original set of Ping Blueprint T irons. They were a set of clubs I actually moved away from due to their lack of forgiveness on off-centre strikes.
Feel
My first few shots on the range did not feel ‘unforgiving’ however, in fact I noticed straight away I wasn’t totally middling it, but each strike was flying exceptionally well. I also picked up on feeling less vibration through impact in comparison to my T100 irons. If I was to describe this feeling it would be slightly numb.
I could also tell there was quite a difference in terms of turf interaction. It felt much sharper into the turf compared to my T100’s, but wasn’t too deep and still quite shallow – creating nice compact divots.
Performance
To test these irons out properly I was able to hit a number of shots out on the course and even hit some Titleist ProV1’s with Foresight’s GC Quad to collect the numbers.
Moving up the irons, I did notice a slight drop off in distance on mis-hits, however average strikes were still seeing between 176-181 yards with 7-iron and 199-209 yards with 5-iron. Both were very similar in terms of carry distances that I’d expect from a much thicker players iron.
One thing I did pick up on was the low spin with all the irons in the set. However, I’m not looking too much into this as I’ve noticed a lot of irons seem to be spinning less this year with the new Titleist ProV1. A problem easily avoided by a different shaft choice or change in golf ball.
On-Course Performance
Out on the course I managed to hit a few different shots off sloping and thicker lies. I found them very easy to hit off shallow grass, the turf interaction was definitely very satisfying.
My carry distances were all very accurate too, I hit a couple of balls and always found my distance control to be with 3-5 yards of each other. The longer irons were surprisingly easy to pick up off the turf for a blade, with no issues in launching the ball in the air. Which is something I’ve struggled with in my longer irons previously and chosen to play a Titleist T200 4-iron in recent months.
Flight wise, I was generally seeing a low-medium penetrating flight without too much deviation at all. Each shot seemed very similar overall, and over the 9 holes I didn’t have a single shot that really worried me in terms of performance.
Mizuno Pro S1 Irons Verdict
I hope from reading this review you can tell I was a fan of these irons. They look fantastic, offer some impressive forgiveness and consistent carry numbers – especially for blades.
My only concern in playing these irons would be more from an aesthetics and feel point of view. The heads are quite small and by the end of testing I still felt quite off-put by the sheer minute size of them.
I also picked up on the fact that these irons didn’t give me the same feel as my Titleist irons. The vibration at impact is definitely less than my T100s, but I quite enjoyed that extra feedback.
These irons come in at a pretty hefty price of £215 per club! So if you’re thinking about grabbing a set of these irons, I’d 100% make sure you get those spin numbers spot on and look at custom fitting if possible.
Would I Use Them?
These irons are definitely under consideration, I loved the performance aspect of them, however I’m not sure i’m confident enough still to play these in competition.
