Mizuno Golf was founded way back in 1906 in Osaka, Japan and the good news for the brand’s fans is that the company’s latest ST200 Series of metal woods has been made available to the general public. What's very interesting about the 2020 ST 200 Series is that it makes for a collaboration of sorts between Mizuno's Research and Development teams in Japan and the USA, and this is the first “trans-national” metal wood design in Mizuno’s centennial history.
The ST200 promises to be great at first sight, and that’s because it stood on the shoulders of giants, i.e. these metal woods are basically capitalizing the momentum achieved by the former ST190 the Award and Tour winning series. 2019 was a very important year for Mizuno’s drivers on the PGA Tour, but also in the hearts and minds of the American consumers. With the ST200, Mizuno signals that its global team is now focusing on a single goal, and the goal is to create the best drivers ever, period.
It’s also important to mention that the new ST200 drivers and fairway woods are using the tagline “Tour Ready, World Ready”, and here’s the breakdown: Tour Ready means that the new ST200 do not actually contain “tour parts”, as the design staff at Mizuno focused on delivering a line of woods to address the entire spectrum of golfers, ranging from high spin/high speed “better players” to moderate speed golfers who are looking for a little bit of draw bias. Basically, you’ll find something for everyone in the new ST200 series from Mizuno, i.e. these are not highly specialized woods made for Tiger Wood. The World Ready thing refers to Mizuno's struggle which took more than 6 years and ended up with the ST200, the epitome of product planning and design. Until now, the company had separate product lines in some markets, with an emphasis on Japan, and this product/market segmentation was difficult for Mizuno, as more designs translated into engineers having to work overtime and stretch their most important resource: time. From a marketing perspective, the new ST200 series makes for a global marketing win, as they make for a uniform line of products that are available both in North America and Asia, and yes, they’re all the same and designed as a single global family.
Here’s Chris Voshall of Mizuno USA:
“Combining our US and Japan Tour metal wood development is a natural evolution for Mizuno in 2020. We can now combine Japan’s exotic materials and craftsman’s eye for playing profiles with our expertise of working with modern tour players like Keith Mitchell. 2020 is set to be a huge year for Mizuno in metal woods.”
The next question is, what are the technologies behind the new ST200 series, which make these drivers better compared to the previous generation? First, there's the materials issue, and by that, we refer especially to the new SAT2141 Beta Titanium Face. If you search this string of words using a search engine on the internet, you'll find out that this is a material that comes directly from the aerospace world. However, as far as golf gear goes, you’ll mostly find SAT2141 Beta Titanium in JDM products, i.e. in products specifically made for the Japanese market. You know, these guys are always keeping the best stuff for their domestic market, but not anymore though.
The thing about SAT2141 is that it's pretty much cost-prohibitive for regular drivers, due to its inherent properties: high strength and rebound properties. Mizuno's R&D team managed to improve the ST200 series' multi-thickness areas behind the face, which translates into higher ball speed and also to save some mass in the process, which has been deployed around the head, due to the new SAT2141 material.
We already know that a few grams saved here and there mean a lot in golf-world, especially for a driver, and the new ST200 makes no exception to the rule, as Mizuno managed to shave off a lot of mass (as in a few grams) all over the head, in order to boost moment of inertia in all of the 3 models, starting obviously with the crown. The carbon top in the Mizuno ST190 was already exceptionally light, but the ST200 are even lighter, 19 percent lighter actually, compared to the previous 10.6 grams. Yes, the ST200’s carbon top weighs a mere 8.6 grams, and that’s not all: Mizuno managed to shave weight even from the face and the standing wave at the front of the head, due to their high-end materials. The saved material was relocated in the back of the head courtesy of a new 11.6g weight pad.
Mizuno also worked hard at face optimization in their new ST200 drivers, and each model boasts an internal CorTECH face, which is aimed at maximizing loft, everything based on fitting profiles. But let’s meet the family, right?
We’ll begin with the Mizuno ST200 driver, a high stability piece of gear designed for golfers looking for straight-line predictability and distance. Here's Mizuno's Voshall commenting on the ST200 Driver:
“The ST200 has some clever engineering tweaks that allow it to be both forgiving and low spinning at the same time – the holy grail of tour drivers. It’s incredibly predictable for a driver this long,”
The ST200 offers the ideal melange of forgiveness and spin control, as it makes for an ultra-high moment of inertia driver, which is still capable of producing lower spin when so required. Due to Mizuno’s tech innovations and clever design, the MoI was increased by thirteen percent compared to the previous generation, and this is impressive, to say the least. However, having more moment of inertia doesn’t alter spin performance, as the ST200 is actually lower spinning compared to the ST190. The head comes in 2 standard loft configurations, i.e. 9 degrees and 10.5 degrees, and if you add into the mix the Quick Switch loft adjustability, you get 2 more degrees in each direction.
Moving along with our story, we have the ST200G driver, which is built around higher moment of inertia, just like the regular ST200, and more adjustability, with ultra-low spin properties. To increase adjustability in the new ST200G driver, Mizuno took the approach to deliver more front-back movement via putting the weight entry point in the middle of the tracks, as per the company's previous research on golfers' preference, and the end result is, well, let's say stunning. The dual 8-gram weights in the ST200G and the bigger tracks (compared to the ST190 from last year which had 7 grams) translate into higher moment of inertia, lower spin and yes, faster ball speeds all across the face, which is basically a wet dream even for a tour-level driver.
Then there’s the 2020 Mizuno ST200x, which is the perfect tool for any golfer looking for speed and distance. The ST200x driver is built from head to grip to be the master of the ultra-premium hyper-lightweight category, and it delivers a high launch with a draw bias, which comes handy for golfers with mid to lower swing speeds. Mr. Voshall said about the new ST200x that, let us quote:
“The ST200X is a totally new metal wood option for the west – overall more of a traditional Japanese specification. It’s just as forgiving as the standard ST200 – but will suit players who lose distance through a consistent fade or a launch too low for their ball speed. To get the very most out of the head design, we’d recommend that the ST200X is matched with the Japan spec FUSION 39-gram graphite shaft,”
Here are the specs regarding Mizuno's ST200 series shafts, prices and availability:
High: Diamana D+PLUS Red 50 & 60 grams
Mid: Diamana D+PLUS Blue 60 & 70 grams
Low: Diamana D+PLUS White 60 & 70 grams
Tensei CK Pro Orange and White 60 and 70g
Fujikura Ventus Blue and Black 60 and 70g
Graphite Design Tour AD Di6 & 7 along with XC6 & 7
Project X HZRDUS Smoke Yellow and Green 60 and 70 g
ST200 – $399.99
ST200G – $499.99
ST200X – $399.99
Now let’s take a look at Mizuno’s ST200 fairway woods: just like the drivers, the new 2020 woods fall in line with the company’s philosophy of globally aligning their research and development teams, thus focusing on total performance and nothing more. There are 2 new woods in the family, to fit the vast majority of golfers, and both arrive with cutting edge MAS1C high strength steel faces. Even if some may still believe that the shaft is the motor of the club, true performance actually comes from the face, in any clubhead actually, and the new face material employed by Mizuno in the ST200 series allowed the engineers to further improve on the CORTECH multi-thickness pads behind the hitting zone, which translates into improved rebound ability and total face COR, with a focus on lower face strikes. There's also a new carbon crown, lighter, thinner and stronger than ever before, due to redesigned structural ribs that improve rigidity. If you combine the brand new/better carbon crown with the new face material, you end up with an excellent fairway wood, with more moment of inertia and an optimized center of gravity.
So, we have the ST200 fairway woods, which combine massive forgiveness with low spin due to their multi-thickness Maraging steel face. Here’s the Director of R&D at Mizuno David Llewellyn on the new fairway woods:
“By utilizing stronger Maraging steel, we have achieved our thinnest ever multi-thickness CORTECH face, which now approaches COR values that are normally reserved for drivers”
Finally, there’s the X variant, i.e. the ST200X Fairways Woods, which are specially engineered to appeal to mid/lower swing speeds, making for a larger footprint fairway wood with a lightweight design, which encourages a higher flight and draw bias. Mr. David Llewellyn commented:
“It’s really interesting to max out a larger 3 wood with a full Titanium chassis and Beta Ti Forged Face. Alongside the Japanese spec MFUSION shaft, this is a great high-launch, draw-biased option for players with more moderate swing speeds,”
And here are the prices:
ST200G Driver: $499.95
ST200 Driver: $399.95
ST200X Driver: $399.95
ST200 TS Fairway Wood: $299.95
ST200 Fairway Wood: $249.95
ST200X Fairway Wood: $249.95
