Mizuno MP-001 3- and 5-wood

Price: £179 (graphite), £129 (steel)

I have carried a Callaway Great Big Bertha Warbird 3-wood for at least seven years. It’s a little battered and bruised from over-use and has a nasty black mark on the graphite shaft where a succession of headcovers have failed to protect it.

But, like a ventriloquist’s dummy, I can almost make it talk – shaping shots, getting me out of trouble, punching it under the wind - and would miss it terribly if anything happened to it.

However, there’s a new kid – in fact a couple of kids – on the block, which are vying for my attention and challenging for coveted places in my armoury.

With their electric blue headcovers, Mizuno’s new MP001 3- and 5-wood sit up proudly in my bag like a couple of meer cats from a desert hole. And after a few rounds I have found both irresistible.

Mizuno claims that its engineers discovered that amateur club golfers could generate more yards by increasing a ball’s launch angle and reducing the rate of backspin – factors not covered by the R&A’s regulations on hot-faced clubs. And, they say, testing proved these characteristics could be manipulated through the use of a lightweight graphite crown on the top of the 154cc (3-wood) and 132cc (5-wood) clubhead.

The result is a re-positioning of weight and therefore the centre of gravity, deeper and lower. The ball gets airborne steeper and faster and with reduced spin, distances increase.