Mizuno ST-Max 230 fairway woods

Gear: Mizuno ST-Max 230 fairway woods
Price: $300 with Aldila Ascent UL, Mitsubishi Lai’ Li Blue or UST Mamiya Helium NanoCore 4F1 shaft and Lamkin ST Hybrid grip
Specs: MAS1C maraging stainless steel with stainless steel chassis, carbon fiber crown and adjustable hosel. 15, 18 and 21-degree head options.

Who It’s For: Golfers who prioritize forgiveness and who want to hit straighter shots off the tee and from the fairway.

The Skinny: The new ST-Max 230 is designed to be the most forgiving, most stable and easiest fairway wood to hit in the Mizuno lineup.

The Deep Dive: Mizuno’s ST-G fairway wood is an attention-getter because with its titanium construction, massive stainless steel sole plate and weight-forward design, accomplished golfers can use it as an alternative to a driver for increased accuracy without losing much distance. It’s macho, but it’s not for everyone. The ST-Z, with its carbon fiber crown, is bigger and more forgiving, but now, with the release of the ST-Max, the Japanese brand is offering its most stable fairway wood yet for golfers who want a point-and-shoot club that is even easier to hit.

From front to back and from heel to toe, the ST-Max is the biggest fairway wood in the Mizuno stable, and when it comes to helping a club resist twisting on off-center hits, bigger is better. But what really makes a club more stable on shots hit outside of the sweet spot is a high moment of inertia (MOI), and to get that, Mizuno designers needed to reposition more weight to the back of the head.

So, instead of using stainless steel on the crown, the ST-Max 230 has a carbon fiber crown. That not only creates discretionary weight but also removes weight from the top of the club and lowers the center of gravity (CG) location, which encourages a higher launch angle.

The CorTech Chamber allows the lower portion of the face to flex more efficiently. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

Mizuno also gave the ST-Max 230 a larger CorTech Chamber behind the leading edge. The CorTech chamber is a slot that allows the lower portion of the hitting area to flex more efficiently and pull the sweet spot down. The slot is covered by a blue thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) to keep water and debris out of the head, but a small stainless-steel bar has been added instead of the TPU. At impact, the TPU soaks up some of the vibrations that are created to make shots feel better, but the bar’s momentum keeps it moving forward, so the club transfers more energy into the shot.

The TPU used in the CorTech Chamber weighs less than the steel that would be there, and along with the weight saved by using a carbon fiber crown, it allowed Mizuno to add a weight in the back of the sole that pulls the center of gravity back and elevates the MOI.

Compared to the ST-G and the ST-Z, the new ST-Max produces a higher ball flight and more spin, which for many golfers should translate into more carry distance and a steep angle of descent, so shots stop faster for more control and consistency.

Below are several looks at the Mizuno ST-Max 230 fairway woods.