Gorgeous-looking head of the Mizuno MP-68
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Mizuno’s marvellous MP-33 irons are rightly considered something of a design classic. Those beautiful, sleek blades are the model of simplicity – nothing flash, just pure performance in a body to die for. Imagine, then, the problem facing Mizuno’s design department when the time came for an update. Just how do you improve on near-perfection?
Their first move was to get rid of the Mizuno MP-67 and design a new club called the Mizuno MP-68. Engineers first took the very best elements of the club's predecessors, identified any flaws, ironed them out, added new technology and finally made it look gorgeous. Then it was time to sit back and watch the irons fly off the shelf.
Of course, there’s more to it that than. The Mizuno MP-68 is not just a new model for the sake of it. Great strides in design technology has enabled Mizuno to improve not just performance and consistency, but also the one area for which the Mizuno MP line is rightly famed: feel.
Where club design once relied on the craftsman’s eye, the all-seeing computer can now detect things that can’t even be seen. By using 'modal' analysis to record the vibration and sound frequencies going through a club at impact, Mizuno engineers are able to gauge the ‘feel’ and manipulate it accordingly. When Mizuno's Tour players 'blind tested' the new irons against the Mizuno MP-33, 80 per-cent preferred the Mizuno MP-68.
But tuning the head was just one part of the jigsaw. A muscle-pad behind the clubhead ensures pure feedback, while a more centred CG (centre of gravity) location makes for a penetrating ball flight. These qualities – which are clearly sought after by the skilled players – are immediately apparent when playing the Mizuno MP-68.
At address, it’s a classic look. The heads are small, particularly the pitching wedge (scaled down considerably to be a real ‘scoring’ wedge), the leading edges beautifully square and the topline thin. The Mizuno MP-68 looks like the real deal and plays like it too.
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Sole and toe profile of the Mizuno MP-68 irons
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Feel at impact can only be described as soft. It’s lovely, and with a repeatable swing the feedback is quite superb. You know exactly how you’ve hit each shot, and there is certainly no disguising a poorly-struck effort. Not that there are too many of those, thanks to the cleverly tweaked sole. The leading and trailing edges have been rolled while the midsole has been flattened. It sounds a little complicated but it essentially means that the way the club make contact with the turf (known as 'interaction' in the trade) has been analysed so that any drag on the ground is minimised.
There's also a consistency of strike off the clubface. There are no jumpers or fliers and the dispersion is predictably tight. The Mizuno MP-68s don’t feel like the longest iron on the market but at this level of play, distance is not a problem. Precision is everything, and the Mizuno MP-68 delivers.
The spin generated by the clubface is something else that deserves mentioning – even from the 7-iron, the ball was spinning landing.
Perhaps the greatest strength of the Mizuno MP-68 is its workability - the ability to move the ball through the air from right to left and left to right. With just the subtlest of adjustments in ball position, all manner of shot shapes can be delivered. And for the skilled player, that's crucial.
(Many thanks to Kevin Merry at The Grove for his help in the compilation of this review.
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 | Rating: 9/10 | |
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Summary: | The Mizuno MP-33 was something of a benchmark for a bladed iron but Mizuno can rest easy now that the Mizuno MP-68 has arrived to take over the mantle. These irons not only looking sensational, but in the hands of an accomplished player they can really sing. If you’ve got the game for them, it’s time to start saving.
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