Mizuno Pro 225 Iron Review with Andrew Ainsworth

Hey, everybody. It's Andrew Ainsworth at Golf Academy. As always, a very warm welcome and thanks for coming back. For people who are new to the channel, watching one of my videos for the first time, welcome to you. While you're here, please don't forget to subscribe. That would be great.

I've recently posted videos on the new Mizuno 221 iron, the 223 iron, and finally today, we get to the 225. According to the Mizuno, it is their most forgiving of the three irons, and there's a good reason why they think it's more forgiving than the other two. Basically, it's a hollow golf club. It's a Hot Metal Blade Design is what they call it. It has a Soft Underlay, which we got on all three models that give this softer feel. It uses soft copper under the nickel chrome.

It delivers the purest, softest feel made famous by the legendary TN-87s. The Face and Neck in the 2 to 8 iron are Grain Flow Forged 4135 Chromoly . It is consistently 0.2mm thinner across the face, and it is combined with a COR Forged Hollow Body. The Mizuno Pro 225 has a Tungsten weight of 28.5g in the 2 to 7 iron to produce higher, more stable flight. When they get into the 9 and pitching wedge, they go into Pure Mild Select Carbon Steel Stabilizing Back. I'm guessing that the 9 iron and pitching wedge are not hollow, but I might be wrong on that.

They're saying the Mizuno Pro 225 is a blade for every angle. For all intents and purposes, this club looks like a blade from above. It is very compact. It has got a thin top edge, but it performs like a cavity back. That's what they're saying. What's really interesting is what they've done to the lofts on these clubs. The 7 iron is 34 degrees, which is pretty standard for a Mizuno Muscle Backstroke bladed iron. When we went into the 223s, the loft of the 7 iron went to 32, and they balanced that out, so that the wedge stayed at 46 degrees in both of those. These are considerably stronger. The 2 iron, I won't be going anywhere near one of those or a 3 iron, possibly a 4 iron.

As you go into the 30 degrees of loft, they have strengthened the Mizuno Pro 225 up to compete. 30 degrees now is the average loft on most cavity backed irons. That means that your pitching wedge is pretty strong, 44-degree pitching wedge, which definitely means that you're going to need a gap wedge at 49. Let's be honest, most golf sets these days require a gap wedge if you're going into stronger lofted clubs. That's the spec. They're obviously looking for distance here. Lengthwise, they're stuck with the traditional 37-inch for 7 iron right through the board. It's a good concept. It's something they had very good success with in the first HMB sets, which came out two three years ago, in the MP20 range. It's a well proven model.

Note: All prices mentioned here can change.

The only downside to the Mizuno Pro 225 at the moment is price. The way that they construct these clubs is a very expensive process. Generalizing a little bit, prices go with the 221 somewhere around £1100 a set. This is a guide price. That would be for two pitching wedges and 7 iron sets. It's roughly around £1200 for your 223s. These are the more expensive ones. It's somewhere around £1300 a set, and maybe even a little bit more. It could go to £1350. I'm thinking that will be the spread, £1300 to £1350 for 7 irons. That's a lot of money, £1300 for a set of irons. I think that is a lot. It's premium, I know, but I still think that's a huge amount of money to pay for a set of golf clubs, but I'm selling them. I sell golf clubs for a living, and I think that's a lot of money. Are they worth £1300? I'm not entirely sure they are. I'm going to hit some balls with them right now, and I'll answer that question at the end of the video.

The Mizuno Pro 225 was launched in this country just recently for fitting purposes. You can't buy these clubs at the moment. You can go and get a fitting at your local fitting center like mine. The shafts are limited at the moment. There's a huge choice in shafts, but with the golf industry in disarray at the moment because of the limited supply, there's only a handful of shafts available. If you do go for a fitting, make sure you ask the fitter what shafts are available. Even going into next year, we're going to see a short supply on shafts and grips all the way through next year. The fitter, if they're clued in, will probably be able to tell you what shafts are going to be available in February or March, when you'll get these clubs, rather than in September. Let's go and hit some of these.

It's time to hit a few balls with this Mizuno Pro 225. I have here a 7 iron. There's something a little different about the shaft today. What have I got in here? I've got an N.S. Pro NEO in stiff, all standard UNCLEAR, standard length Callaway Chrome Soft balls on the deck on my new GC2 HMT Foresight software, which I've just recently upgraded. The place is called Beaver Hills Country Club. It sounds like something out of Caddy Shack, doesn't it? I just Googled it, and it turns out that it's actually a real golf course in America somewhere, but it's temporarily closed at the moment in the real world. However, it's open today in the virtual world of Andrew Ainsworth's Golf Academy.

Now, it's 181 yards to the flag, which is pushing it for an old boy like me with a 7 iron, isn't it? But, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I'm working on my golf swing, which is always dangerous. I've always had a very short golf swing, and I'm trying to lengthen the backswing at the moment. I know I can do it physically, but that's a pretty full back swing to there, wouldn't you say? Generally, I get to about halfway back and then everything gets very handsy, wristy, and I tap the ball too much from the inside. I'm having a little go at extending the length of the backswing at the moment, which has been bringing some mixed results. We'll have a little go at it using the Mizuno Pro 225 for your entertainment. Here we go.

It's a pretty good strike. What does that backswing look like? I'm going to have a look at the video myself in a minute. It does feel like a bit of a leap of faith, taking the Mizuno Pro 225 back that far for me. The club speed is definitely increasing with my new and longer backswing. 89 miles an hour. I didn't strike that particularly well.

Back to the Mizuno Pro 225, what does it look like over the ball? It's pretty classic. It looks like a blade, which is good news because that's what it's supposed to be. It's a good looking club, minimal offset, real Mizuno-esque looks to it.

Let's go again with the Mizuno Pro 225. Now, that was an interesting one. That was so thin. It was right off the bottom of the club. I don't think I could have hit that anymore off the bottom. The first two strikes were way bottom. That one was like 1st or 2nd groove, and it still managed to do pretty well, didn't it? What did we get out of it? We got 90 miles an hour for club speed. We got a 113 ball speed. We got a carry of 158 from a really rotten strike. Predicted run out distance of roundabout 167, so it will be interesting just to see if I can get one of these out in the middle with my new backswing.

That isn't it either. Again, it's a good result from a complete sloppy miss hit, just about clambered up onto the front edge of the green. There we go. Tell me that backswing looked a bit longer. The other thing I'm getting from this longer backswing is a slightly higher ball flight as well, which is a strange phenomenon. It's brave for me to try and put that word out. Again, 89 club speed, 116 ball speed, 165 carry, spinning at 5800. The Mizuno Pro 225 is a very good club out of the three, the 221, the 223, and the 225. As you'd expect, this is the most forgiving one, and I've put that to the test today, haven't I?

Note: All prices mentioned here can change.

What sort of player will suit the Mizuno Pro 225? I guess it's the golfer who wants to play a traditional looking golf club, but doesn't want to sacrifice forgiveness and doesn't want to sacrifice yardage. You've got that in droves with this if that's what you're looking for, brilliant. If you're just looking for forgiveness and you're not worried about looks and feel, then you'd probably go with a club like a PING G425, which is going to cost you around £800 a set rather than £1300. I understand why this club is so expensive.

I just think it's a little bit more than it needs to be, but I know golf manufacturer's costs have gone up and manufacturing costs have gone up, but £1300, I think, will put quite a lot of golfers off. I know there are sets out there from Titleist and Callaway which are up to that, but it's pretty premium. There will be golfers who won't bat an eyelid. They've got plenty of money in the south. £1300 is no big deal for some. I guess when you work out the longevity of a golf club, a club like this should be lasting you ten years, eight to ten years, so £130 a year for ten years if you break it down that way. It's pretty good value with my salesman's hat on.

There you go, it's the Mizuno Pro 225, a very interesting club. I've enjoyed testing it's playability. I did have a few in testing before warm up where I was getting the carry distance. I got club speed up to 92 miles an hour with a 7 iron, which is high for me, and I was getting the carry distance up to 170, so it's a powerful iron. There you go. Thanks for watching the video today. It's very interesting to hear your thoughts on this club. I said at the beginning of the video, if you're new to the channel, please consider subscribing. Thanks for watching the channel this year. I appreciate your support. All the best. Bye for now.