If golfers are looking for affirmation as to how well the Mizuno MP-59 irons work, they don’t need to search any further than Luke Donald. A win in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth at the end of May vaulted the Englishman back to the top of the professional golfing heap, as the No. 1 player in the world. And that once again focused attention on the clubs he uses in competition.
According to Chuck Close, the director of product development for Mizuno U.S. golf division, the MP-59 is most definitely a player’s club, used on the PGA Tour not only by Donald but also by Charles Howell III and Jonathan Byrd. But Close insists that the company has developed a way to make it “play bigger” – in other words, be more forgiving – broadening its appeal to golfers as a result even as it retains the compact head size and shape that tour pros prefer.
Mizuno removes weight from the cavity of the carbon steel, MP-59 heads and moves it to the toe and heel, upping perimeter weighting in the process and enhancing playability. Then, it forges 12 grams of pure titanium into the center of the MP-59 muscle. That is dubbed Ti Muscle technology, and it is designed to create a larger sweet spot while ensuring that there is just the right amount of thickness behind the impact area for what Close describes as “optimal feel.”
“We have always wanted to make the MP more forgiving as we always kept it in the MP range as far as looks and playability are concerned,” he explains. “With this club, we have preserved the soft feel and compact head that MP players have long come to expect from Mizuno while increasing forgiveness, which is truly the Holy Grail for today’s serious players.”
