The hybrid club almost by definition has continued to evolve over the last 20 years since they were first conceived.
Nowadays they are more associated with long iron replacement than being the offspring of the wood family and the Mizuno CLK hybrid continues this industry trend.
The CLK name is meant to be an abbreviation of the old name for a driving iron called a cleek so you can pronounce it either way.
Which is handy as Mizuno has designed the CLK to blend into iron sets and their fitting systems are set up to suggest hybrid shafts to match whatever irons shafts come out of their Swing DNA analysis when you go for a Mizuno fitting.
The standard stock shaft is the Fujikura Speeder Evolution HB which is pretty good.
The blue crown of the JPX900 hybrid has been replaced by a steel grey version to emphasise the iron replacement focus and the overall profile is a little more rounded.
Actually the head shape changes quite a lot with the 19 degree 2 hybrid looking the most rounded and then the head gets small back to front as the loft increases up to the 25 degree 5 hybrid.
This seems a little back to front as normally you could expect to see the heads get larger as the loft increase to launch the ball higher. I am therefore not sure how many low handicappers will go for the 2 hybrid with that shape of head. However on the plus side the 3 and 4 hybrids look more like the irons they are trying to replace than woods so that is a good thing.
The CLK hybrid looks pretty good at address with the darks head, shaft and adjustable hosel all blending together well.
The adjustable Quick Switch hosel continues from the JPX900 and still offers eight options to change the loft by +/- 1 or 2 degrees and the lie by +/- 1 degree.
The Shockwave Sole has also come in for a makeover with the first wave turned into a much deeper slot.
It also has the effect of moving the CG closer to the face which should drop spin and probably accounts for those deeper heads on the lower lofts to get the CG back so that it can launch it higher enough.
Combine with a Maraging Steel face and according to Mizuno you should see an increase in ball speed of 1-2 mph.
The leading edge is bevelled off and sufficiently relieved and raised up from the rest of the sole to go through the turf easily enough without dragging.
The overall sound and feel at impact was very good and you have to admit that the iron focus has permeated through to the sound, which is much more solid and sharp like at iron, rather than the zing sound of the JPX900.
The CLK sound probably fits in better and the bigger Shockwave slot may not give you much choice here, but it sad to see the zing of the JPX900 hybrid go.
The previous club to have the CLK moniker was the MP CLK in 2010 and that was a better players club too. The CLK will be Mizuno's only hybrid going forward with the JPX EZ being sent out to the long grass, so the iron focus for hybrids is here to stay.
It may not have the MP prefix, but the Mizuno CLK hybrid is going to suit low to mid handicap players most and the higher lofted versions could slot into some of the JPX sets well too for those mid to high handicaps.
It is pricey so that may affect who buys it, but it really depends on what you want. If you like a more wood style hybrid, then I would probably stick with the JPX900, but if you want something that sounds and feels more like an iron then the Mizuno CLK would be worth considering.