Mizuno JPX-900 Driver Review

I’ve gotta be the worst golf blogger ever – at least in terms of my clubs. Nearly every club in my bag is a few generations old, so when I got my hands on a new Mizuno JPX-900 Driver, I was pretty stoked to put it to the test.

For those of you who haven’t read my club reviews before, you should know a couple things.

First off, I’m not an expert. I’m not the guy that will tell you every single minute spec and the minor differences between the new model and last year’s model.

I’m not hooking every thing up to a Trackman and calculating distances down to the tenth of a yard.

Rather, I write about clubs from the normal guy’s perspective.

I’m an eight handicap, and I play a lot of golf. As mentioned, I’ve been playing mostly with older clubs, so I’ll be making direct comparisons to my nearly 4 year old Taylormade R1.

Because let’s face it, most of you probably have a driver that’s a few years old, and you want to know if something a few years newer will actually make a difference.

If you want a review from someone who reviews clubs on a more regular basis, check out this one from Plugged In Golf.

So now that we’ve established what this review is (and isn’t), I’m really excited to jump in and tell you about my experience with the new Mizuno JPX-900 Driver

First Impressions of the Mizuno JPX-900 Driver 

I got back from nearly a month of traveling and was pretty stoked to see a big Mizuno box waiting for me.

I’ve never personally played with any Mizuno clubs, but I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about their irons, so I was excited to check out their new driver offering.

Upon taking it out of the box, the first thing you immediately notice is the amazing matte blue of the driver head.

I could see this being a love it or hate it color, but personally I think it looks phenomenal.

During the first round I played with it, I was playing with a couple guys who had blue Nike drivers, and we all agreed, the matte Mizuno blue was much sexier.

One guy said it best when he said “it’d look perfect on a Porsche 911.”

The shaft is equally prominent with a fiery red and orange Fujikura Speeder Evo 2 shaft coming stock (mine came with the Speeder 661).

And even as a self-confessed non-gear snob, I know these shafts are the real deal.

JPX-900 Adjustability 

It’s pretty clear that with the JPX-900 Mizuno was directly targeting Taylormade’s M1 in trying to create the most adjustable driver possible – which they’ve definitely succeeded with.

Slice, Hook, Fade, Draw, Sky High or Wormburner – you can adjust this thing to account for pretty much any swing type with 16 grams of moveable weight and up to 2 degrees loft adjustment.

I found it easy to make adjustments, but for the average person, you’ll get the most out of it if you head down to your local range and have it specifically fit to your swing.

In the few rounds I’ve played and a couple range sessions I really appreciated some of the adjustments I could make though. I’ve been working on fixing my slice and learning how to hit a draw. This has led to some overcompensation that a few quick changes of the weights in the driver have allowed me to account for.

But for the most part, I’ve been trying to leave everything stock, so that I can get a really good sense of what this thing is all about.

Buy the Mizuno JPX-900 on Amazon Here

Mizuno JPX-900 Performance

As I mentioned I’ve been playing with an R1 for the last 3 years or so, and only occasionally hit other drivers.

I upgraded my 3 wood to a Taylormade M2 earlier this season, and the difference was unbelievable compared to my old Nike VR.

The Taylormade had a solid almost dull thud that gives me incredible feel and sounds great.

I was hoping to see this same change and feel with the driver. The R1 is still a great driver, but it just doesn’t quite have the feel off the face as some newer drivers.

So with that being my frame of reference, I took the Mizuno out to the range, teed the ball up and took a rip.

“Oh, whoa.”

I literally said that out loud.

Then I hit another one, which was proceeded by some sort of giddy cackle.

From the very first shot, everything about this club felt good.

The shaft had the perfect amount of flex, the sound of the ball was phenomenal, and that feel off the face I was looking for? Had it in spades.

I guess we can owe that to their “harmonic impact technology” – or marketing speak for “it sounds good.”

I’ve found that after a few rounds with it, and even through the midst of making some swing changes, the Mizuno driver is forgiving on my misses, and it’s long when I connect.

By the end of my first round with it, I was pretty surprised by the numbers I was getting.

The 16th at Witch Hollow is a perfect example. We were playing in fairly cold, damp weather. Drives were getting zero roll, and although there was not much more than a light breeze on this day, this is a hole that usually plays directly into the wind.

266 essentially all carry – which under these conditions is really good for me with my average drive over the last 20 rounds being 256.

Here’s another one, where well into the round it was giving me the confidence to pick a line straight over the bunkers, which set me up for my only birdie of the day.

Check out my review of Arccos if you want to see how I got the above stats.

The Mizuno JPX-900 (they need to work on that name) did exactly what I want a driver to do: it inspired confidence – and the more I’ve hit with it, the more confident I’ve become.

Looking at it objectively, is it  longer than my R1? Yes.

Is it that much longer than my R1? Nah, probably not.

Is it more adjustable than my R1? A little bit, but frankly while this can help it appeal to a wider audience, this is of less importance to me than everything else. However, it is reassuring to know that while I’m working through changing my swing, I can adjust the club to compensate when I’m on the course – in order to not make a complete fool of myself.

One thing worth noting, is that I have found that my misses with the Mizuno go much farther than with my R1. And even bad shots had me saying, “wow, that actually turned out pretty well!”

Add those things to a driver that has a much better sound and feel than my old Taylormade, and you’re left with a club that I can’t stop talking to people about.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this is hands down the best driver I’ve ever used. Once again, keep in mind I haven’t tested nearly as many clubs as most other golf bloggers out there – so this truly is a review from an average golfer.

It’s also a true head turner.

At this point, everyone has seen the M1 and M2. But the Mizuno is different. Every round I’ve played and each range session I’ve had, someone has asked me about it or made comments about it.

Mizuno is known for the irons, but not as much for their drivers – so this piqued a lot of people’s interest, and has led to unanimously positive comments and opinions.

I only really have a few complaints, (if you can call them that).

The first is that the design and color will very much be love it or hate it (I love it), but if you’re not into a little flash, this probably won’t be for you.

The other is more related to adjustable clubs in general. Sure the average person can move weights and turn screws, but by having a driver that is that customizable, you might find yourself making too many adjustments on a too regular basis that can have a negative effect on your game –  but that’s for you to decide.

Finally, is the price. This retails for $500, and right now, I’d be surprised if you find it anywhere for less than that.

It can be hard to justify paying that much, considering the plethora of last year’s models you can get on discount. However, if you’re the type of person that will buy a club and stick with it for a few years, you absolutely cannot go wrong picking up one of these Mizunos.

For me, I’ll be gaming the Mizuno JPX-900 for a long time to come. It truly has me excited to go out to the golf course, which is saying something considering it’s become extremely wet and rainy here in Portland.

Buy the Mizuno JPX-900 on Amazon Here