Used vs. New Golf Clubs – Best Mizuno Irons of the Last 15 Years (Blades Edition)

Today, our expert Lou is comparing 5 different generations of Mizuno iron sets! ⛳

We’re taking a trip back in time with this one as we try to determine which set offers the best performance and we’re looking to see how much blade technology has evolved through the years! 📈💥

To take a look at the iron sets featured in this video, visit the links below: 👀

– Mizuno Pro 241 Irons – https://bit.ly/48feTIu
– Mizuno Pro 221 Irons – https://bit.ly/4pj31v4
– Mizuno MP 20 MB Irons – https://bit.ly/3VbUFrB
– Mizuno MP-25 Irons – https://bit.ly/3IkIqpB
– Mizuno MP-54 Irons – https://bit.ly/4nxhkuz

Need some help to find the right set for you? Be sure to consult our Club Finder tool: https://bit.ly/4ny6mFc

For all your golf needs, used or new, you can always trust Golf Avenue: https://bit.ly/4gior7A

Golf Avenue, Play it Forward!

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:35 Mizuno MP-54 First Impressions
1:59 Mizuno MP-25 First Impressions
3:31 Mizuno MP 20 First Impressions
4:50 Mizuno Pro 221 First Impressions
6:06 Mizuno Pro 241 First Impressions
7:36 Data Review
10:41 Summary
13:24 Conclusion

What’s up guys? L here for Golf Fam and we’re back with another iron comparison. After looking at ping in their GI irons in the last episode, today we’re tackling one of golf most beloved brand, probably one of the most historic and mystical brand of all time, Nizuno. And we’re looking specifically at their Pro and MP series line of irons. So, let’s not waste any more time and let’s look at our irons because I know you guys are excited as I am to get them tested. So, let’s first look at the first irons we’ve tested today. So, the first set I tested was the Mizuno MP54 released in 2014. I have to address right away that they were the most forgiving profile of all the irons we tested, but that didn’t necessarily translate to the results I got from them. Actually, I have to say that the pitching wedge was pretty damn good. Honestly, I can’t really complain about much. It was decently accurate, felt great at impact, and it got the longest total distance from all the pitching wedges I tested. Slight little note was that the spin rates were a little low for the pitching wedge to my liking that is, but the dispersion zone was pretty tight overall. So, kudos to the MP54 for that. So, for the 7iron, it is once again the longest club of all the ones we tested today, but it wasn’t the most forgiving, which is quite surprising considering the profile that the MP54 have. As for the 5iron, it’s a total different story here. You would expect it to be the longest one of all the ones I tested, considering that it has a forgiving profile and the slightly chunkier club head, but it never translated into longer distances. Actually, it was the shortest five irons of all the one I tested. Um, so that was really surprising to me considering what I got with the seven in the pitching wedge. So, overall, the MP54, uh, very intriguing to me. I think they’re starting to show their age a bit. Probably would have used them with a different shaft, maybe with different results, but overall definitely not my favorite, but they’re the first ones I tested so far. So, let’s see what we got with the rest. Moving on to our second set, we have the Mizuno MP25, which were released in 2016. I have to say that with this set, it was much more forgiving than I expected. I really did not expect any forgiveness at all. I guess they’re slightly chunkier profile, provided a bit of forgiveness that I was not expecting. The other thing I had to note was that someone with a slightly lower handicap than me would probably around low single digits or around scratch would probably find these clubs very very enjoyable. I think they would find that they provide just a touch of forgiveness that they would probably need or want on the golf course. Someone with higher swing speeds than me would probably also find a lot of comfort out of them. I don’t think I got exactly as much distance as I probably would have liked out of those except maybe for the 5iron and we’ll cover that in a second. But overall, someone with fast swing speed and very consistent swing will like this set. But overall, the pitching wedge and the 7ir, nothing really out or ordinary to say. Maybe a bit inconsistent in terms of distance from one stroke to the next. So again, someone with very consistent swing or a very fast swing speed will really enjoy this set. But I have to say that the five iron was very impressive. It was within five yards of my personal gamer. And my gamer is much more forgiving than this set right here. It is a forged set, but it’s much more forgiving. It’s the tailor made P770s. These ones have much more of a blade profile and not nearly as forgiving. But the fact that the 5iron was almost the same uh is really, really impressive, especially for a blade set of irons. So, that’s pretty much it for the MP25. Let’s move on to our next set and see what we got. Moving on to our third set, we have the Mizuno’s MP20, which were released in 2020. Here we have the pitching wedge. Again, pretty much more of the same. Very accurate, very consistent. I felt like this one uh was probably the easiest one to control of all the ones I’ve tested so far today. Very nice control over the golf ball. Not the longest necessarily, but very easy to control, which is really key when you’re talking about a blade. As for the seven iron, it’s a bit of a weird situation here. I’d probably have to hit it again just a few more times just to wrap my mind around how I feel about it. Honestly, it wasn’t the most accurate. The distances were not good at all. Honestly, way shorter than what I expected even for a blade iron. Um, so I have really have to have another look at it and see how I feel about it because for the five iron, I think it was the best club I hit of all the tests except for maybe one. Uh, and we’ll touch on that shortly. But that 5iron was really impressive. Very consistent, quite the good distance. Uh, felt easy to launch. So really, really good points there. Uh, so the pitching wedge and five iron from that set are outstanding. But the seven iron, there’s just something so wrong that really turned me off that set. But overall for the MP20s, we’re looking at a very, very good set of blades. Maybe the 7R would probably just need to be tested a few more times by me uh so I can make my mind on it. Next on the list, we have the Mizunos Pro 221, which were released in 2022. I have to say that I was really, really, really surprised by this set. Honestly, it didn’t feel that outstanding when I was testing it. just felt all right compared to the other ones in this test. But from the quick look that I got at the dispersion zone and the data, I think we might be looking at the most accurate set from the test. Honestly, the pitching wedge is pretty similar to the other ones we tested. But in terms of consistency from one strike to the next, it was very, very, very good. Probably up there actually amongst all the other pitching wedges. For the seven iron, it was really nice. It felt great at impact. really felt like I was able to work the ball both ways, send it where I wanted it to do. Um, honestly, I said that the MP2 5iron might be my second favorite club from this test. I think the 7 iron from the 221 will be my second favorite and my actual favorite will be coming up shortly. Uh, as for the 5iron here, again, pretty decent results overall. Nothing too frustrating. I really appreciated the feel out of it. Um, it wasn’t outstanding, like I said earlier, but it was pretty good overall. Not the worst feeling one, not the best one, very just good. And in terms of distance and consistency, especially dispersion zone, it was by far the best five iron from our test. Last but not least, we have last year’s release, the Mizuno Pro 241 here. Again, with this set, the pitching wedge pretty good overall. I do have to say that it felt extremely light to me. The club head specifically felt very, very light. Um, but I was able to work the ball nonetheless. Only downside from this lighter combat was probably bit of a lack of consistency when it came to distance. Um that was a bit annoying, but otherwise very very impressive stuff with the pitching wedge here. The seven iron from the Pro 241. I’ve been talking about my favorite clubs for the past two clubs. Well, this is the one. That seven iron felt perfect for me. Felt like I was able to stripe it every single time, send the ball exactly where I wanted. Honestly, it felt like this club was fitted for me, but I just picked it off the rack here at Golf Avenue in the warehouse. Right. Uh so overall very very very nice for that seven iron. But as is often the case with blade irons, uh the five iron did not feel nearly as good. Honestly, it felt like it was the one I struggled with the most. Aside from the MP54, obviously uh that five iron felt like it was a little harder to control. Felt very very wild of the club face. And as some other ones in this test did also feel wild, this one felt wild in a way that you really couldn’t control it or have any idea where the ball would end up as some of the other ones you would simply have a little offline strike. This one can really go far offline and um the smallest mistake as you can expect will cost you the Now that I’ve given you my first thoughts on all the clubs I tried for this test, it’s time for you guys’ favorite segment. It’s time to look at the data. So, let’s not waste any more time and look at the performance of our pitching wedges. When we look at the chart, there’s something that’s quite obvious right from the jump. And it’s the very tight dispersion and discrepancy between the longest and the shortest pitching wedge. As I said, the performance of all of them were mostly very similar. Some were a little more consistent in terms of uh dispersion zone. But overall, in terms of distance and the performance, it’s very similar from one to the next. So, the total distance discrepancy between the longest and the shortest pitching wedge was only 2 yards. So, that’s a really tight window if you want my opinion. I will also say that the older models were slightly lower in terms of spin rates, which in my opinion is a bit of a downside if you’re looking at a good pitching wedge, but nevertheless, these still managed to produce very good distance. The longest discrepancy we had between the carry and total distance for the pitching wedges was about 10 yards, which is pretty staggering for a pitching wedge. But we also got five yards for the MP20, which is kind of the target you’d be looking at. And the high spin rates from the MP20s were also impressive. So, I think they’re right there. That probably give the crown to the MP20. Uh, just when it came to the pitching wedge. Moving on to our seven irons, I think there’s something that will jump out to you guys right away, and it is the ball speed of the 241. I did say that the 241 felt like the best feeling seven irons to me. Felt like it was easy to launch. Felt like it exploded off the club face. Well, there’s a reason why. Because it actually did explode off the club face. It only got the second fastest swing speeds from me, but it managed to turn that into the highest ball speed of all the seven irons we tried during this test. Was it the most accurate? Again, maybe not. But overall, it was very, very satisfying to me and felt very, very good at impact. I will have to point out that here again, the MP20 lacks so far behind the rest of the group. I really probably should have hit it a little more and give it another chance. Hit another round with it just to see if something was wrong with my swing initially. But it’s really disappointing to see it trail so far behind considering the performance of the pitching wedge and the five iron. Five irons. I think one of the things that will jump out right away is the performance of the older models except the MP54 obviously. Um, the MP25 and the MP20 did shine in that department and allowed their 5iron to really uh show what they were made of. The MP20 was so good actually that it almost matched the performance of my very own clubs which are much less forgiving than the MP20s. I will say that I was quite disappointed by the more recent models. Uh, the pitching wedge and the 7iron from the 241 or the 221 were really good at transferring the energy from my swing into the golf ball at impact. But for the five iron, it was a different story. Uh maybe because I wasn’t as accurate as I could have been. Maybe I couldn’t find the middle of the club face as much as I wanted. But nevertheless, the energy transfer for the long five irons from the more recent models was not nearly as good as it was with the medium length irons, the short irons, or even the wedges. Now that I’ve given you a closer look at the data and provided you with my feedback from hitting the clubs, I think we only have one thing left. It’s to look at the learnings that we’ve made from today’s test. First up, and most obviously, I think we can all agree that the more recent Blade Technologies have made the clubs much more forgiving. As I went along during my test, I noticed that the more recent models felt much easier to hit, like they were also much more forgiving. Off center strikes were still costly, but not necessarily as much as it was with the older models. Yes, the MP54s did have a more forgiving profile, but that didn’t necessarily turn out the way I thought it would or it didn’t really deliver in the way I thought it would. Neither on the charts or on the dispersion zone from the data that I got from my test. But you have to keep in mind that the more recent your model is, the better it will be at providing you with an extra touch of forgiveness. Our second point has to do with the age of older models and how they compare to more recent ones. Usually when we do those sort of comparison tests, whenever we reach the summary point of the test, I’m always very confident and saying that you guys can shop for 10-year-old models that will match the performance or come very close to matching the performance of brand new models at a fraction of the cost of those new models. But with this test, I think I’d probably have to walk that back a bit. Not all the way back, obviously. I still think you can go back five years with something like the MP20s and find a model that will provide you with very adequate performance that will match the performance of the newest models on the market. But do keep in mind that those older models will probably not provide you with the same level of forgiveness, but the difference might be so minimal that it might not be worth the price for you at that point. Last but not least, and I really think it goes without saying, but you need to play irons that are suited to your skill level. It’s essential to your enjoyment that you’re playing the irons that will allow you to get the most out of your game when you’re out on the course. Are you a brand new player? Are you a handicapped golfer and you’re still struggling out there? Don’t go shopping for blades unless you really want to grind, grind, grind, and grind some more. Um, I would recommend you probably check out the Ping irons from our last video where we compared game improvement irons. Those are definitely adjusted to your needs. But if you’re someone who’s really looking to go down with the handicap, maybe even reach that famous scratch level, um, you could definitely consider Blades if you’re looking to be as accurate as possible on the course. Um, just keep in mind that most pros are not even playing those models anymore. they’re slightly going towards models that will provide you with slightly more forgiveness because even the pros need all the help they can get when they’re out on the golf course. And last but not least, I just wanted to take a moment to thank you guys for watching at home. We do put a good bit of effort in those videos. So, we always appreciate when you guys take the time to watch and we also really appreciate it when you take the time to leave a like and if you appreciated today’s content, why don’t you go ahead and subscribe to Golf Admin’s channel. We’ve got plenty more comparison videos coming up for you. So, make sure to be on the lookout for those. And of course, if you have any suggestions or have any ideas that you’d like for us to try out, make sure to leave it down in comments and we’ll be happy to check it out. But as always, for Golf Avenue, I’ve been Lou. Until next time, see you. [Music]