Mizuno JPX One drivers: What you need to know

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The new Mizuno JPX One drivers (a standard large footprint JPX One and the compact, deeper-faced JPX One Select) find a way to generate more ball speed by combining a thinner titanium face with a polymer "nanoalloy" coating that increases the strength and bending properties of the titanium at high-speed impacts to create better resilience than typical titanium face inserts for better energy transfer.

PRICE: $600. Lofts: 9, 10.5, 12 degrees (JPX One); 9, 10.5 degrees (JPX One Select); both with +/- 2 degree adjustable hosel. Pre-sale begins Jan. 12, at retail starting Jan. 22.

3 Cool Things

1. Nano nano. While titanium has long been preferred as the face material in drivers for its light weight, its strength and its ability to flex under the load of impact, Mizuno’s new JPX One drivers make the case for a better material, or more specifically, a material that can make titanium better at its job of hitting golf balls as far as possible.

That material is known as nanoalloy. Taking a cue from a polymer developed by Toray, one of the principal makers of carbon fiber and other polymer materials, Mizuno’s team saw the use of nanoalloy become popular in the softball bats of most of the top collegiate women’s softball teams. In short, nanoalloy made composite bats hit the ball with more velocity by receiving, storing and releasing the energy of impact more consistently. While nanoalloy helps to modulate vibration and concentrate the energy transfer to the ball by reducing the vibration of impact in the hands, the thinking is a similar, ultra-thin coating of nanoalloy would create more strength and flexibility in the titanium used in the face of a driver. In other words, nanoalloy’s use created the possibility for a material to be both stiff and flexible at the same time, exactly the ideal requirements for a driver face-golf ball impact.

“This particular material has some very interesting properties,” said David Llewellyn, Mizuno USA’s director of research and development. “One of those properties is when it's just at rest, it's a quite firm engineering plastic. But when stressed, when impacted, it softens. It's called a non-linear material, and that gives us some very interesting performance benefits. Number one, it allows us to be more aggressive in our multi-thickness face technology because of the way it distributes the stresses and impact.”

In practical terms, the titanium faces on the JPX One and JPX One Select are as much as 10 percent thinner, allowing the face to deflect not only where the ball hits but in the surrounding area to store more of the ball’s energy for more potential speed. The coating allows the thickest parts of the titanium face to get thinner by nearly 10 percent compared to previous models to expand the area of the face that generates the highest ball speeds. As well, the variable thickness pattern on these new models was designed to work better in concert with nanoalloy to reflect how the expanded area of the face was deflecting.

In addition, the coating also has an effect on the golf ball, Llewellyn said: “Another way to look at it is that the face is actually taking some of the deformation from the ball, so the ball is not compressing as much. Anytime you compress a ball, as it expands, there's an energy loss.”

2. The rest of the story. It’s easy to get caught up in the distinctive new approach to the face design, but these models also incorporate plenty of multiple materials, just as Mizuno drivers have done for decades. That includes a lightweight carbon composite crown to lower the center of gravity for higher launch with less spin. The body of the driver is made from Titanium 8-1-1 alloy, known for its high strength and low density. The face insert is a forged 6-4 titanium that gets as thin as 1.8 millimeters on the JPX One (1.9 mm on the JPX One Select, or thinner than the edge of a credit card). At its thickest, the face is .25-.35 millimeters thinner than on the previous ST-Max 230 driver. There’s also an adjustable weight in the rear perimeter of the sole that can be changed to accommodate different swing weight preferences, including a lighter overall weight option.

3. Two for two. The two models in the lineup look to break up the universe into what probably can be described as elite players vs. the rest of us. The JPX One is the model for all kinds of average players. While there’s a bit of a built-in draw bias (compared to some previous Mizuno drivers) that makes these heads a little easier to square the face for most average players. (Technically, it’s what’s known as a larger “CG angle,” which in simplest terms is how much the face angle hangs closed or open when the shaft axis is balanced on the edge of a table.) More noticeably and importantly, the JPX One offers a larger footprint for more stability on off-center hits and a higher launch angle.

Conversely, the JPX One Select with its compact shaping and taller face is built for faster-swinging ball-strikers. It should be easier for players looking to work the ball and those who prefer a more neutral-to-fade-biased trajectory.