# Mizuno JPX 850 Driver



## FairwayDodger (Dec 13, 2014)

Thought I'd put my review thoughts in here rather than the other thread. It arrived late yesterday so I haven't actually been able to hit it yet but I'm excited at the prospect.....

*First Impressions*

With its shiny, royal blue crown and white Fujikura Orochi shaft the Mizuno JPX 850 undeniably has a striking, distinctive look. The Mizuno logo features prominently on top to mark the sweet spot and alignment is further helped by the matt black face, etched with white grooves towards the toe and heel. The design on the crown is completed with an arcing design around the edges. It looks good. Traditionalists might disagree, but I consider it the best looking driver I have owned.







Iâ€™ve been given a model with the regular stiffness shaft, which is more appropriate for my swing speed than the stiff version, and there is a noticeable amount of flex when waggling the club. The balance feels good and itâ€™s easy to imagine making some smooth swings with it.

A big feature of this driver is its high degree of adjustability. There are eight loft and lie settings; five loft angles, in 1 degree increments, from 7.5 to 11.5 degrees in standard lie and three from 8.5 to 10.5 with an upright lie. Adjusting the loft is simple and uses the now familiar method of removing the head from the shaft and rotating it to the desired angle indicated on the shaft adaptor, tightening with a click on the provided torque wrench. The difference at address between the highest and lowest loft settings is imperceptible.




Further adjustability is provided with ten potential trajectory and spin/height settings. These are all explained in the accompanying manual with simple illustrations; low/mid/high draw, low/mid/high neutral, low/mid/high fade and, finally, â€œstraightâ€ which is the neutral setting with lowest spin and height. These settings are achieved by placing two movable weights in the specified positions from 5 possibilities and, again, tightening with a click from the torque wrench. The positions for the weights slide along a channel rather than being forced into the absolute positions described in the documentation so, I imagine, an even more detailed level of setting can be achieved if required.





I intend to compare the Mizuno JPX 850 with my existing Callaway X2 Hot so have initially configured it with equivalent settings, 9.5 degrees loft with neutral bias and medium spin, but will subsequently experiment with different adjustments.




So it all seems great in theory.... Will update in here once I start hitting balls with it!

ne:


----------



## AmandaJR (Dec 13, 2014)

Stop writing and start hitting :thup:

Looks mighty pretty!


----------



## Oddsocks (Dec 13, 2014)

It's a pretty stick ,


----------



## Naybrains (Dec 13, 2014)

Lovely intro, now down to the nitty gritty !
Enjoy


----------



## adam6177 (Dec 15, 2014)

yeah, enough foreplay....lets get stuck in.


----------



## Lord Tyrion (Dec 15, 2014)

I think it looks stunning. Looking forward to the reviews of the club out on the course.


----------



## FairwayDodger (Dec 15, 2014)

Lord Tyrion said:



			I think it looks stunning. Looking forward to the reviews of the club out on the course.
		
Click to expand...

Will be the weekend at the earliest before I get it on a course.

From the range I'd say it has potential but isn't obviously going to displace my current driver. The main things are that (strangely) it just seems like a smaller club. I know the head is marginally smaller but the shaft is pretty much the same length, maybe less than an inch difference, if anything. But, when you address the ball you just feel closer. Hard to describe and maybe I'm just imagining it..

The other thing is it seems to generate less spin and a lower ball flight, which I'm hoping will suit me. Further investigation and tweaking is required!


----------



## FairwayDodger (Feb 1, 2015)

Played 18 with the JPX850 today and I am starting to warm to it. Several of us have commented on the dull "thunk" you get at impact but I'm coming to appreciate that comes more from off centre strikes. It definitely sounds and feels better when you hit the sweet spot.

What is interesting, though, is those off centre hits seem to go much further than you expect from the feel of the shot. Several mishit drives today ended up much further than I expected and I even hit my longest drive to date on our 15th hole even though it was no more than an "ok" strike, definitely not out the middle.

Still not sure it'll displace the X2 Hot come the start of the season but, after today, I'm open to the possibility.


----------

