Just wrote another apology / explanation to a left hander. Thought it might be a good idea to write something we could point to that sits in a public place.
Everyone at Mizuno would love to offer every iron model in leftie. Unfortunately there aren't enough left hand golfers (just 5 -10% of all players) to spread across 6 models. So we offer 3 of those 6 models in left handed. Last year we chose MP-18 SC as our leftie offering - a very similar player segment to the 919 Tour, hence the reason for offering the 919 Forged and 919 Hot Metal in leftie this time.
The MP-18 SC picked up just about every award by the golfing media as the 'players iron' of 2018 - so hopefully that was a good choice.
The leftie situation gets even tougher at the low hcp end of the player spectrum. We have 2 challenges - firstly less than 30% of regular golfers play off a single digit hcp (taking that particular leftie group down to a max of 3% of the golfing population). Secondly the Mizuno #grainflowforged process is vastly more expensive to set up than other manufacturers cast process. There's a minimum number of sets we'd need to produce / distribute to meet a similar cost / price as the right handed option.
Gives us 3 options.
1. To sell the left handed players models at a much higher price (which is clearly unfair).
2. Attempt to select an offering to cover most golfing needs (MP-18 SC, JPX919 Forged, JPX919 Hot Metal).
3. Raise the price of right handed irons to cover the increased production costs of offering all models left handed (we think they are already expensive enough).
None of these are perfect scenarios - but picking 3 models from within the 6, without an overload of low hcp offerings appears to be the most balanced approach. There’s a very good leftie (or rightie) range of irons in those 3 models.
Hope that at least demonstrates that we're not 'anti-leftie'. Not a scenario we're 100% happy with - as we know it's leaving some people disappointed. Constant discussion as to which models we should select as the leftie options.
Everyone at Mizuno would love to offer every iron model in leftie. Unfortunately there aren't enough left hand golfers (just 5 -10% of all players) to spread across 6 models. So we offer 3 of those 6 models in left handed. Last year we chose MP-18 SC as our leftie offering - a very similar player segment to the 919 Tour, hence the reason for offering the 919 Forged and 919 Hot Metal in leftie this time.
The MP-18 SC picked up just about every award by the golfing media as the 'players iron' of 2018 - so hopefully that was a good choice.
The leftie situation gets even tougher at the low hcp end of the player spectrum. We have 2 challenges - firstly less than 30% of regular golfers play off a single digit hcp (taking that particular leftie group down to a max of 3% of the golfing population). Secondly the Mizuno #grainflowforged process is vastly more expensive to set up than other manufacturers cast process. There's a minimum number of sets we'd need to produce / distribute to meet a similar cost / price as the right handed option.
Gives us 3 options.
1. To sell the left handed players models at a much higher price (which is clearly unfair).
2. Attempt to select an offering to cover most golfing needs (MP-18 SC, JPX919 Forged, JPX919 Hot Metal).
3. Raise the price of right handed irons to cover the increased production costs of offering all models left handed (we think they are already expensive enough).
None of these are perfect scenarios - but picking 3 models from within the 6, without an overload of low hcp offerings appears to be the most balanced approach. There’s a very good leftie (or rightie) range of irons in those 3 models.
Hope that at least demonstrates that we're not 'anti-leftie'. Not a scenario we're 100% happy with - as we know it's leaving some people disappointed. Constant discussion as to which models we should select as the leftie options.
Last edited: