VEGA Reaches for the Stars with Mizar Irons

According to astronomers, VEGA is the most important star in the sky. Could VEGA Mizar Irons be the most crucial ones in your golf bag? It’s definitely possible.

VEGA started out as the house brand for the famous Kyoei forging house, which has been forging clubs in Japan for over 60 years. When the team at PGE got involved a sense of style was added to what were already exceptional one-piece forgings.

VEGA’s owners PGE have a holistic approach to creating the best clubs possible with a Japanese heritage. As well as VEGA, they distribute Shimada shafts, one of only two steel shaft manufacturers to manufacture their product  in Japan, and IOMIC grips, the colorful elastomer alternative to traditional rubber grips.

Uniquely VEGA are the only brand that has SST PURE’d staffs graphite shafts as a stock option. Vega strongly believes it helps eliminate inconsistencies in the shaft.

One-Piece Challenges

The headache for VEGA was that one-piece forgings don’t win launch monitor battles. They still feel incredible, and there will always be golfers who will forgo technology for feel. VEGA split their line-ups into two distinct camps.

The Classic line features one-piece forgings made in the most traditional ways and hand-ground and hand-polished. The latest Classic Line models also feature CNC detailing on the back of the clubs. If you want a modern irons with traditional sensibilities, then the Classic Line is the way to go is the way to go.

The Star Line is where the VEGA design team can get more creative, forgiving, and powerful. It’s where they use the best modern techniques and machinery to produce their best performance product. Micro-milled faces, CNC-milled grooves, new materials, but still wrapped up in a distinctive package. The new Mizar and Mizar Pro irons are the latest models.

Forging

While not everything is still manufactured in Japan, VEGA has taken what they have learned about forging with them and applied it at international manufacturers. What temperature to use, what pressure to forge at to ensure consistency and ensure a solid feel, maintaining some of the tightest tolerances in golf.

By combining the two, raw forgings are able to be put in modern 4-axis and even 5-axis machines. The VEGA designers have had the leash taken off, and by creating the Star line, it has given given the company an ability to progress.

Think of it like a car manufacturer who moves manufacturing to another country. Is a BMW that rolls off a production line in South Carolina still a German Car? Of course it is. That’s the same with VEGA: it is a Japanese heritage golf brand.

Vega Mizar Irons

VEGA doesn’t release clubs on cycles like most manufacturers. When a club is ready, it’s ready, and it won’t be replaced just because it’s time for a new model. The original, award-winning Mizar irons were in the line for six years.

But they haven’t thrown the baby out with the bathwater with the new Mizar irons. They’ve retained the 3.5mm thick steel undercut face and the one-piece S25C carbon steel forged body that has been proven to work.

The big change is in the addition of a flighted CG. Long irons feature a tungsten weight to get that CG low; mid-irons use a lighter titanium insert, and the short irons use aluminum to raise the CG for a lower ball flight.

Mizar Pro Irons

In the Mizar Pro irons, the same philosophy is used in a bladed iron. A one-piece ultra-soft S20C forging features a unique screw in the toe that positions a metal billet in the head to adjust centre of gravity.

Again, the long irons use a tungsten screw, mid-irons titanium, and the short irons aluminum to help control the trajectory throughout the set. But it’s not just about trajectory. It’s a concept VEGA will expand on, eventually offering custom weight screws to fine-tune swing weight.

To complement the Mizar irons VEGA have added the Mizar Max driving iron. The Mizar Max is the only driving iron on the market currently with a titanium face for increased ball speeds. With a thin topline and squat heel-to-toe profile, it features a wide sole with leading edge and trailing edge relief. It’s quite a unique club in the driving iron category, and there are plans to extend it into a full set.

The new Mizar, Mizar Pro and Mizar Max complete the Mizar family. As well as the typical head shape progression between models, there is also a face materials progression. The Titanium-faced Mizar Max is the fastest club in the lineup, The Mizar Plus features the biggest head and the thinnest maraging steel face for more ball speed.

The Mizar features a thicker Maraging steel face to increase ball speed but reduce the clickiness that the material can often have. The two-piece Mizar tours feature a soft S20C face for feel, and the Mizar Pro’s feature a one-piece S20C face for feel.

From left to right, Mizar Pro, Mizar, Mazar Max

A fitting experience

One of the keys when purchasing a set of irons from a boutique brand such as VEGA is the experience. Across the world, VEGA works with some of the very best club fitters. To try the latest models, they sent me to Ministry Golf.

Owner Peter Powell ran the Nike Europe Tour Truck, and when he’s not here, he’s heading up the workshop at LIV events in Europe and the Middle East. He’s built clubs for everyone from Tiger Woods to Rory McIlroy. With a rough idea of specs from chatting beforehand, sample clubs had been built to hit.

“The VEGA components are really good to build with” explained Powell. “They have really tight tolerances so I’m not having to mess around with tip weights. They are doing some really interesting things across the board.”

Those sample clubs were beautiful. Built with custom blue striped ferrules, IOMIC grips, and Shimada Nine9 shafts, and perfect swing weights. A club can have all the tech going, but if they aren’t fitted properly and assembled with care and attention to detail, they aren’t going to work. Some tweaks to lie angles had me hitting the ball cleanly.

Final Thoughts

The new Mizar Pro irons are easy to hit, which is a strange thing to say about a blade. With all that mass down low in the long irons, the ball gets up easily. They feature a slightly longer blade length, give or take around the length of a Ping i230.

The topline isn’t razor-thin, but they look great behind the ball. Having recently tried the Proto Concept 01IC which were scarily small at address, and as a golfer with no right to hit a blade, I hit these great. And there is always a special feeling when you hit a real, pure forged carbon steel iron.

Do they have the ball speed I need? Probably not. However, did I hit them better than the chopper big bats that have been in the bag the past three seasons? Most definitely. If you’ve always wanted to play a blade but didn’t trust your ability, give these a go.

But a lot of that also comes down to the quality of the final fit and build. If you are interested in VEGA and haven’t got a local fitter, the brand also offers remote Zoom fittings.

While VEGA has never cracked US distribution in the same way as they have in the rest of the world, VEGA irons have been played on professional tours worldwide. When the world-famous Harrods department had their golf department, VEGA was their number one selling brand, and they collaborated on limited-edition products with brands including J. Lindeberg, Porsche, and Mercedes Benz.

VEGA isn’t trying to be the biggest brand in golf. They want to be the brightest star. Not every golfer wants to use the latest iron from the Big 5, some want to seek out something a little different. This is where VEGA slots in. They have a combination of history and technology that most brands in their niche don’t.

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