Gear: Mizuno Pro 241 irons
Price: $200 each with KBS Tour steel shafts and Golf Pride MCC grips
Specs: Forged 1025E mild carbon steel. Available in 3-iron through pitching wedge (right-hand) and 4-iron through pitching wedge (right- and left-hand)
Available: January 25, 2024
Who It’s For: Elite ballstrikers who want the most compact iron available to maximize control and feel.
The Skinny: The Mizuno Pro 241 is a small, forged muscleback blade with a classic look in the address position that rewards players who have a repeatable swing and want the ultimate in control and feel.
The Deep Dive: Fans of Mizuno’s muscleback blades gush about the feel, the look of the clubs in the address position and the control they give elite players. These golfers are not looking for more distance or forgiveness, but instead, they covet being able to envision a shot and then reproduce its curvature and flight.
Everything low-handicap golfers need to know about the new Mizuno Pro 241 is this: It’s the smallest, most compact muscleback blade Mizuno has ever created. There are some subtle technologies that are hard to detect, but the Mizuno Pro 241 is a club that has been stripped of extra bells and whistles that professionals, college players and golfers who annually contend in local and regional tournaments don’t ask for.
Mizuno Pro 241 irons. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Each head is grain flow forged using 1025E mild carbon steel to elongate the metal and amplify the feel of impact. Compared to the Mizuno Prio 221, the 241 has a slightly thinner topline, and each club’s blade length from the 6-iron through the pitching wedge has been shortened. Removing that metal and reducing the size created discretionary weight that designers shifted to the area directly behind the ideal hitting area, which, again, amplifies feel.
Mizuno designers were able to elevate the center of gravity location in the 241 irons, which increases spin rates. In game-improvement irons, manufacturers look to reduce spin rates to boost distance, but increasing the spin rate allows players to shape shots more effectively, which is what advanced players like.
The Mizuno Pro 241 irons have traditional, better-player lofts, with the 5-iron at 27 degrees, the 9-iron at 42 degrees and the pitching wedge at 46 degrees.