New built-in gyro takes Mizuno Shaft Optimizer to a new dimension

Mizuno is continuing to push golf’s custom-fitting boundaries yet further with a major upgrade to its long-established Shaft Optimizer fitting tool that uses a built-in Gyro and transmission via Bluetooth to the Swing DNA software to digitally recommend far more accurate lie angles

Mizuno, founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1906, has long held an enviable reputation for crafting the finest and most versatile forged golf clubs on the market, believing that precise and accurate custom-fitting is the only way to help every golfer reap the maximum performance benefits from its premium golf clubs.

Since its introduction in 2010, Mizuno’s Shaft Optimizer has become the favoured iron shaft fitting tool of golf professionals worldwide. Measuring five critical dynamics within the swing (Mizuno Swing DNA), the Optimizer is able to recommend an iron shaft best matched to any golfer’s movement. Mizuno measures every shaft in-house to establish a map of EI curves to which it then matches the swing profiles. The new Bluetooth Optimizer enables Mizuno’s club fitters to capture swing data directly to the software, run from an iPad or iPhone.

The latest upgrade sees a Gyro added to the Shaft Optimizer’s existing strain gauges, which will allow Mizuno’s experienced fitters to digitally recommend a far more accurate lie angle than the traditional method of lie tape and strike board. The Gyro enables the club’s swing plane to now be measured in 3D space along with shaft dynamics, ignoring face rotation through impact for a more accurate lie angle reading. Using a combination of the Gyro and strain gauges which run throughout the shaft, Mizuno is now able to capture 40 data points from every swing.

“Establishing the correct lie angle is one of the hardest elements of iron fitting because of false strike board readings,”  says Bill Price, Director of Fitting at Mizuno. “Most golfers find it uncomfortable to make their normal swing and strike through the board, while players who swing across the line get false readings caused by too much face rotation as the clubface is not square to swing path. By embedding a Gyro within our Shaft Optimizer, we’re able to overcome both issues.”

In today’s launch monitor era, Mizuno sees the optimum club-fitting scenario as the Shaft Optimizer 3D in conjunction with a launch monitor rather than as an alternative. “Look at the Optimizer as a recommendation,” Price explains, “a shortcut to taking 50 possible shaft options down to just three. The launch monitor can then measure the real world results of those three shafts. Without the Shaft Optimizer, the fitter is just guessing which shafts to test, so if the correct one is lined up 12^th, you won’t have the energy left to find out!”

Mizuno’s new Shaft Optimizer with Bluetooth and digital lie angle will be available to test at Mizuno Swing DNA Centres from March 2019.

For further information on the new Shaft Optimizer 3D and custom fitting program visit: golf.mizunoeurope.com.