Mizuno JPX925 Forged vs TaylorMade P790: The Players' Distance Iron Fight of 2026
Mizuno JPX925 Forged vs TaylorMade P790 irons — feel, distance, forgiveness, looks, and which players' distance iron actually belongs in your bag.
Kyle Reierson 
If you’re a 5-15 handicap shopping for irons right now, these are the two names you keep seeing everywhere. The Mizuno JPX925 Forged and TaylorMade P790 are the two best players’ distance irons on the market, and they take completely different approaches to solving the same problem: how do you give improving golfers more distance without making them feel like they’re swinging shovels?
Reddit threads about this matchup read like political debates. Mizuno loyalists talk about “feel” like it’s a religious experience. P790 fans counter with launch monitor data. Both sides have a point, and both sides are being a little annoying about it.
Here’s the actual breakdown.
The Quick Verdict
Mizuno JPX925 Forged ($175/club) wins on feel, looks at address, and the “I can’t believe this is a distance iron” factor. TaylorMade P790 ($185/club) wins on raw distance, forgiveness across the face, and launch consistency. If you’re a single-digit player who values feedback in your hands, buy the Mizunos. If you’re a 10-15 handicap who wants maximum distance without giving up that compact look, the P790s are the play.
Construction: Forged vs Hollow Body
This is where the philosophical split starts, and it matters more than most comparison articles admit.
The JPX925 Forged is the first iron ever to combine Mizuno’s Grain Flow Forging with a variable-thickness face — a CNC-milled face that’s thinner in specific zones for more ball speed. It’s still a one-piece forged iron at its core. That’s significant because forged irons flex differently at impact than hollow irons. The energy transfer is more direct, the vibration feedback is more honest, and Mizuno purists will tell you this is the only way to make an iron.
The P790 is a hollow body construction — a forged shell with a SpeedFoam Air interior that dampens vibration and supports an impossibly thin face. TaylorMade’s 4340M face material is 20% stronger than the previous generation, which let them make it thinner for more ball speed. It’s engineering brute force: pack as much tech as possible into a compact package.
Neither approach is “better.” They’re different design philosophies solving for different priorities. Mizuno optimized for feel first and added distance. TaylorMade optimized for distance first and refined the feel.
Feel & Sound
If you’ve ever hit a well-struck Mizuno iron, you know. The JPX925 Forged continues that tradition — pure, buttery, with just enough feedback to tell you exactly where you made contact. The grain flow forging process aligns the metal’s grain structure during manufacturing, and whether that’s marketing voodoo or real metallurgy, the result is an iron that feels different from everything else on the rack.
The P790 feels good. It feels really good, actually — the SpeedFoam Air dampens the harsh vibrations without killing feedback entirely. But “really good” and “Mizuno good” aren’t the same thing. On pure strikes, the P790 is satisfying. On slight mishits, it’s forgiving. But it doesn’t talk to your hands the way the JPX925 Forged does.
Winner: JPX925 Forged, and it’s not particularly close. If feel is your top priority, stop reading and go get fitted for Mizunos.
Distance
Here’s where the P790 earns its price tag.
The hollow body construction with that ultra-thin 4340M face generates more ball speed than a one-piece forged iron can. Across multiple independent tests, the P790 consistently carries 2-5 yards longer than the JPX925 Forged with the same lofts and shafts. That gap gets wider on off-center hits, where the hollow body’s COR advantage really shows up.
The JPX925 Forged isn’t short by any means — the variable thickness face added real distance compared to previous JPX Forged models. But physics is physics: a hollow body with a thin, flexible face will generate more ball speed than a solid forged head, all else being equal.
Winner: P790, by a meaningful margin. If you’re the type who agonizes over 3-5 yards per club, the TaylorMade is the answer.
Forgiveness
The P790’s hollow body and SpeedFoam Air give it a larger effective sweet spot. Shots struck toward the toe or heel maintain ball speed better than the JPX925 Forged, which being a more traditional construction, punishes mishits more noticeably — both in distance loss and the feeling in your hands.
That said, the JPX925 Forged is remarkably forgiving for a forged iron. Mizuno’s variable-thickness face expanded the hot zone significantly compared to the JPX923 Forged. It’s just not at P790 levels, because nothing forged is.
For a 5-handicap who strikes it center-face most of the time, the forgiveness gap is negligible. For a 12-handicap who catches it all over the face, the P790’s advantage is real and measurable.
Winner: P790, especially for handicaps above 8.
Looks at Address
Both irons look like they belong in a good player’s bag. Thin toplines, minimal offset, compact blade lengths. This is why the players’ distance category exists — you get distance iron performance without looking like you’re playing starter clubs.
The JPX925 Forged has a slightly more traditional profile. The topline is a hair thinner, the sole is a touch narrower, and the overall shape reads as “players iron” more than “distance iron.” If you put it in a lineup of blade irons, it wouldn’t look out of place.
The P790 is a fraction larger in every dimension — just enough to house the hollow body construction. It’s still compact, still clean, but side-by-side with the Mizuno, it reads as the more forgiving option. Whether that’s a pro or con depends entirely on your ego.
Winner: JPX925 Forged, by a thin margin. Both look great.
Pricing & Value
The P790 retails around $185 per club ($1,299 for a 7-piece set). The JPX925 Forged comes in at roughly $175 per club ($1,225 for a 7-piece set). That $75 gap over a full set isn’t massive, but it’s there.
Factor in that Mizuno offers their legendary custom fitting and shaft options at no upcharge (True Temper and Project X shafts included at retail price), and the value math tilts further toward Mizuno. TaylorMade’s custom options often carry upcharges for premium shafts.
Winner: JPX925 Forged on price, P790 on performance-per-dollar if you value distance above all else.
The Comparison Table
| Category | JPX925 Forged | P790 |
|---|---|---|
| Price (per club) | ~$175 | ~$185 |
| Construction | Forged, variable-thickness face | Hollow body, SpeedFoam Air |
| Feel | ★★★★★ | ★★★★ |
| Distance | ★★★★ | ★★★★★ |
| Forgiveness | ★★★★ | ★★★★½ |
| Looks | ★★★★★ | ★★★★½ |
| Workability | ★★★★½ | ★★★★ |
| Overall | 9.3/10 | 9.4/10 |
Who Should Buy the JPX925 Forged
- Single-digit handicaps who still want some distance help
- Players who value feel and feedback above all else
- Mizuno loyalists (you were buying these anyway)
- Golfers who want a compact, workable iron they won’t outgrow
- Anyone who’s tired of hollow-body irons and wants something that feels like a “real” iron
Who Should Buy the P790
- 8-15 handicaps who need maximum distance from a compact head
- Players who prioritize consistency on off-center strikes
- Golfers who want players’ iron aesthetics with game improvement performance
- Anyone upgrading from a full GI iron who isn’t ready for a pure players iron
The Third Option Nobody Mentions
If you’re reading this and thinking “both of these are expensive,” the Srixon ZXi5 at ~$186/club gives you 90% of the P790’s distance with feel that rivals the Mizuno, and nobody in your foursome will be playing the same iron. It’s the hipster pick that also happens to be genuinely excellent.
Final Verdict
The P790 is the objectively better-performing iron for most golfers. It’s longer, more forgiving, and launches higher. If you fed these two irons through a robot, the P790 wins.
But golf isn’t played by robots. The JPX925 Forged is the iron you’ll enjoy hitting more — the one that makes flush contact feel like a religious experience and gives you the feedback to actually improve your ball-striking. If you’re good enough to be shopping in this category, you’re good enough that feel matters.
My recommendation: if you’re an 8 or below, the JPX925 Forged. If you’re a 9-15, the P790. And for the love of your game, get fitted for either one before you drop $1,200+.
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