Elegance has a new name

Among the major clubmakers, Mizuno is perhaps the most difficult to keep track of.

Mizuno loyalists –  golfers ‘caught’ by the company‘s classic MP blades at a young age, and so smitten with their look and feel they never felt the need to look elsewhere – will know the dimensions and details of the company’s inventories down the years certainly, but those less vigilant will probably need reminding of what’s currently on the books.

The JPX line (an anomaly in that it was introduced in 2010 as a game-improvement range but also began making clubs for better players, including a major champion!) – in 2016, and now includes models with ‘Forged’ and ‘Pro’ in their names, is one of the most successful families of clubs in the game. And the new Pro Signature Line is set to join it.

How they measure success will be different, though. While JPX has ‘traditionally’ targeted a broader audience and been market-driven, the Pro Signature line is more about gaining favor with the purists who have always held Mizuno in such high esteem.

One day, the Signature Series will consist of four models – two cavity backs and two musclebacks. For now, though, we have the first two, the second of which was recently announced but which won’t be available, either online or at retail, for a few weeks.

The Pro S-3 was introduced in January and has been remarkably successful with over 83% more sales than the iron its replaced – the JPX 923 Tour (yes, the Pro/Signature/MP and JPX boundaries have become so blurred in places a Signature club has replaced a JPX club and, in this case, the Signature brand has been a major attraction).

A better-player’s club that was forged from a single piece of 1025E Pure Select Mild Carbon Steel using Mizuno’s well-known Grain Flow forging process, and featuring the copper underlay that helps give Mizuno irons such exceptional sound and feel, the S-3 has a shallow-ish cavity that affords the golfer a degree of forgiveness.

The rise in sales is astounding but Chris Voshall, Golf Club Engineer at Mizuno, is only partly surprised.

“Only because the clubs share so many features that it would seem they should perform similarly in sales,” he says. “But this speaks to the power of the aesthetics of a design. The player looking for this type of simple construction and pure player profile also tends to be the player seeking a cleaner, simpler, pure back design. So the change in branding was definitely a positive.”

Forged from a single piece of 1025E Pure Select Mild Carbon Steel using Mizuno’s well-known Grain Flow forging process, and featuring the copper underlay that helps give Mizuno irons such exceptional sound and feel, the S-3 has a shallow-ish cavity – a feature that has appeared only in the JPX line for a while – which affords the golfer a degree of forgiveness.

The S-1, meanwhile, is the replacement for the muscleback Pro 241, introduced in January 2024 and, as such, is the dreamy, flawless (but slightly scary-looking) iron we associate with Mizuno.

Like the S-3, it is forged from 1025E carbon steel and has a copper underlay. So the feeling of finding the sweetspot, which the owner of a club like this is apt to do, is incredibly satisfying.

There is a modicum of offset and the thin top-line gets a tiny bit thicker as the club shortens to push the Center of Gravity (CG) up a little, thus flattening your short-iron shots. And, though the blade length is very slightly longer than it was in the 241, you probably won’t notice it – we are talking compact. The toe-end is a little sharper, too, a look that seems to be gaining traction at the elite end of the game.

You’ll notice the Channel across the back of the clubhead (it might put golf course architecture enthusiasts in mind of a Biarritz green). The weight lost is re-positioned in the upper half of the clubhead, which promotes greater vertical stability, adding to the club’s superlative feel.

The sole of the S-1 differs from the S-3’s in that it’s noticeably flatter. The leading edge is also a little sharper and there’s an extra degree of bounce, which helps minimize digging – good ballstrikers playing off tight lies should love his combination.

While JPX clubs have stuck to the industry-standard two-year update cycle, Mizuno says S-Series clubs will be good for four years. A lot can and, no doubt, will happen in the next four years. But we guess that, come 2029, we’ll still be raving about these beauties.

$215/club (4-PW)
Lofts – 4-24˚, 7-34˚, PW-46˚
Shaft – KBS Tour 120
Right and left-hand
Pre-order beginning August 28; at retail on September 11
mizunogolf.com