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Today, I’ll be taking a comprehensive look at the Srixon ZX4 Mk II irons.
The ZX4 Mk II is a game-improvement iron and the most forgiving member of the ZX Mk II family. It’s engineered to deliver a ton of speed and distance through a hollow-head design while providing a forged-like feel and sleek look at address.
The ZX4 Mk II iron certainly shares a lot of similarities to the original ZX4, but how do the two models compare exactly? Which kind of golfer is it best suited for? Is it worth putting in the bag?
Read on to find out the answers to these questions and more.
Note: Unless otherwise stated, stock shafts and stock grips are used when evaluating this club. In most cases, the golf clubs reviewed on Golfstead are acquired temporarily for testing purposes and are not purchased. The review that follows is based on the personal experience and research of the author. Because everyone’s swing and body are different, results with a particular club may differ from person to person.
What are the reviews like?
Like the other models in the ZX Mk II iron family, the ZX4 Mk II irons earned a gold medal on the 2023 Golf Digest Hot List.
These irons enjoy high ratings from critics and consumers, including an average customer score of 4.9/5 on PGA TOUR Superstore.
What People Like
- extremely forgiving
- impressively accurate
- feel is great
- good launch with relatively soft landings
- easy to hit in almost any situation
What People Don’t Like
- some think the irons lack distance
- not the best off tight lies
The Features
The features and tech of the ZX4 Mk II are very similar to the ZX5 Mk II irons. They include:
- Mainframe: a milled pattern on the back of the iron that maximizes COR for more ball speed and distance. The latest iteration of this technology also moves mass to the perimeter, lowering the CG and improving consistency.
- Tour V.T. Sole: a V-shaped sole, with higher bounce on the leading edge and lower bounce on the trailing edge, is engineered to preserve workability and glide through the turf so that hitting behind the ball is much less penalizing.
- Progressive Grooves: grooves become sharper, narrower and deeper in the short irons and wedges in order to generate maximum spin and stopping power.
- Sole Notches: located on the heel and toe, these are designed to reduce drag and improve workability without sacrificing forgiveness.
Like the original ZX4, the ZX4 Mk II has a hollow-body design which boosts moment of inertia (MOI) and ball speeds across the face.
The ZX4 Mk II also has a narrower sole and longer blade length compared to the ZX4, which I’ll get into a little later in the review.
Stock Info
4-PW and 5-PW stock sets are available for the ZX4 Mk II, as are individual irons from 4 through AW.
Also available are the Women’s ZX4 Mk II irons in 5 through AW. The women’s version has the same head technologies but the shaft, grip, lengths and swingweights are tailored to women to maximize their performance.
The purchase of these irons makes you eligible to receive free Arccos Smart Sensors and a one-year free trial to the Arccos Caddie app.
The ZX4 Mk II irons come stock with the KBS TOUR LITE and UST Mamiya Recoil DART 65 shafts. The stock grip is the Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360. Custom options are available.
Below are the specs of the Srixon ZX4 Mk II irons. Click or zoom to enlarge.
The Performance
Distance
Just as the ZX4 was the longest iron in the previous generation, the ZX4 Mk II is longer than both the ZX5 Mk II and ZX7 Mk II. Although, the difference in length between the ZX4 and ZX5 is very small — no more than a few yards on average.
I found the ZX4 to have a slight edge of about 2 mph in ball speed across the face. Also notable is the fact that spin is lower than the ZX5 Mk II by 150-250 RPMs.
The end result is shots that come a little hotter into the greens, but it’s not such that it would be a problem for most golfers.
Forgiveness
There’s no two ways about it: the ZX4 Mk II is an extremely forgiving iron.
During my test with the 6-iron, my distance loss from mis-hits did not exceed 5% of my optimal distance, which is marginally better than the ZX5 Mk II. Dispersions were also very tight, and I had to make a pretty bad swing to miss my target line substantially.
Despite some of the characteristics of the ZX4 Mk II being slimmed down relative to the original ZX4, forgiveness is just as good, and this is a clear win for Srixon.
Playability/Trajectory
Typical trajectories with the ZX4 Mk II iron are mid, which is not surprising considering the low-ish spin and stronger lofts.
Despite this, the long irons are very easy to launch up in the air. The short irons don’t feel clunky and are not difficult to control around the greens, which is great.
The soles are wider than on the ZX5 Mk II but not excessively so. As a result, you get forgiving turf interaction when you hit behind the ball and good performance in wet conditions. At the same time, you can hit off tight lies without worrying about skulling the ball or hitting it thin.
Workability is above average for a game-improvement iron. It’s not to difficult to put some shape on your shots if you have the ability.
The Look
One of the major changes Srixon made compared to the first generation ZX4 are in the looks — not just aesthetic design, but also shape.
With the ZX4 Mk II, the offset is slightly lower and the iron looks a little slimmer at address. The top line is a bit thinner, and in fact, Srixon’s goal was to have all the top lines in the ZX Mk II iron family of equal thickness, so it’s the same as the other models in that regard.
The ZX4 Mk II also has a slimmed down sole and a longer blade length, so it doesn’t look so chunky at address but at the same time still inspires plenty of confidence as a game-improvement iron should.
One of the things I liked least about the original ZX4 was the excessively thick profile. The fact that Srixon was able to address this for its successor model is terrific.
The Sound & Feel
Like the ZX4, the ZX4 Mk II iron produces a very crisp, balanced sound at impact that isn’t too loud or too quiet. It’s exactly the type of sound that I like most in an iron.
The feel is very similar to that of the ZX5 Mk II, namely explosive and solid with a nice side of softness. The ZX4 Mk II has a bit more of that “clicky” feel, which is not surprising considering the hollow body design, but I do feel that it’s slightly less prominent than in the original ZX4 which is a nice bonus.
Mis-hit feedback is right where I’d like it for a GI iron. It’s informative enough to be able to give you a rough idea of where you make contact on the face, but it’s also consistent, so you shouldn’t expect any overly jarring impacts even if you miss the sweet spot by a wide margin.
As I mentioned before, the sole of the ZX4 Mk II isn’t as wide as its predecessor, but I think it’s in an ideal spot that will enable good performance off a variety of lies. The original ZX4 often struggled with tight lies but the ZX4 Mk II is better in this regard.
Where To Buy These Irons Online
Aside from the Srixon store, if you want a brand new set of ZX4 Mk II irons with custom shafts, grips, lengths, lofts, etc., head over to PGA TOUR Superstore or Global Golf.
Both of these sellers can accommodate custom requests and offer performance guarantees as well as club trade-in programs to help you minimize the financial hit.
Another excellent destination for both new and used ZX4 Mk II irons is eBay. You can often get irons there for prices that can’t be beat anywhere else.
Final Verdict
With the ZX4 Mk II, Srixon was able to maintain and perhaps even build upon the game-improvement performance of the first-generation ZX4 while giving it a more attractive, less chunky look at address.
This iron is only marginally more forgiving than the ZX5 Mk II, but its tremendous length, easy launch, playability, and confidence-inspiring profile make it one of the best game-improvement iron offerings of 2023.
If you already own the original ZX4 and want comparable performance in a streamlined package, the ZX4 Mk II is the ideal upgrade. If this is your first foray into Srixon equipment, that’s even more of a reason to start with the ZX4 Mk II.
Are you interested in the ZX4 Mk II irons? Have you played them? What’s your experience? Let us know in the comments below.
