GOLFERS can now hit balls to their heart’s content in Easingwold after the club opened a new driving range and performance studio.

MP Kevin Hollinrake and BBC Sport’s Katherine Downes were the special guests to christen the new bays at the North Yorkshire club, which will be open to the public from today.

Sponsored by York estate agent Hunters, the new facility has been paid for through significant investment from grants, members donations and other interested parties.

As well as a brand new range, Easingwold have also constructed a state-of-the-art room for PGA Advanced Professional Alastair Grindlay to carry out lessons and performance reviews.

With floodlights and a purpose built short game area still to be built over the winter, Grindlay is hoping it will help continue to lift the profile of the popular Stillington Road club.

On the benefits the new driving range and performance studio will bring, he said: “It is huge.

It is being able to have a lesson any time of the year - day or night.

“We have a GC2 Launch Monitor in the performance studio that measures everything, an LCD TV and custom fitting facilities.

“It’s a nice environment to have a lesson in. People take you more seriously when you have got something like this.

“The members are really excited about it. We also want it to be more commercial than that.

“We want the community to come and use it as well. That’s quite important.

“The catchment area is quite large. It’s a lovely setting.

“Hunters have supported us and members have put money into it and there have been quite a few other companies who have supported us.

“We have had quite a few who have helped us and I can’t wait."