On January 1 many drivers in golf bags across the world had to be removed and discarded if their owners wished to continue playing in sanctioned competitions.

But the new HiBORE XLS series of drivers from Cleveland Golf offers many of the benefits of the ‘illegal’ drivers while conforming to all the new regulations.

The face of the XLS driver is 17 per cent larger than the previous HiBORE XL, making it the company’s largest ever face and one of the biggest on the market.

Its design helps to create more distance off a larger portion of the face from both clean and mishit shots.

The series includes a draw driver specifically designed to aid golfers who fade or slice, with lofts of nine, 10.5 and 12°. The loft on the standard and Tour drivers starts at 8.5°.

The Tour driver incorporates a two-degree open face and toe-biased weighting to aid fade flight, while it also has a more traditional compact pear shape than the standard driver.

The fairway wood also has the largest face ever produced by Cleveland on a club of its type. It is 19 per cent larger than the original HiBORE fairway and again offers a dramatically increased hitting area for correction of mishits.

The XLS Hybrid – which comes with five lofts between 16° and 28° – is more offset to promote a square face at impact and prevent slices. It also frames the ball in the manner of an iron by positioning the leading edge closer to the hosel.

Each club in the series is available with Fujikura Fit-On M™ Red and Gold shaft-fitting system to determine trajectory.

The XLS range starts at £109 for a hybrid with the drivers starting at £249.