SANDBURN Hall Golf Club have reaped the benefit of a pre-festive initiative.

The club announced last month a scheme whereby the normal joining fee of £300 would be waived for anyone who agreed to join the club just off the A64 on the road to Flaxton in December.

The incentive was to mark the appointment of top-rated national coach Steve Robinson as the club’s new head professional after he left Malton and Norton GC.

Punters who joined the club last December would also only have to pay the first month’s subscription and would be able to then take up membership of the Sandburn Hall complex from December through to this coming April.

The new scheme well exceeded the expectations of club officials.

Rather than bring in an expected 20 or so members, closer to 90 new members have joined the club, confirmed the club’s golf manager Alistair Nicol.

And Robinson added: “It’s great news that we were able to get in more than 80 new members, but now it’s up to everyone at the club to make sure we keep them here.”

Meanwhile, one of North Yorkshire’s top women prospects who has been coached by Robinson is vying for her professional card for this year’s European Ladies Tour.

Ganton GC’s Naomi Edwards, a Curtis Cup player and England international, is among a total of 105 players from 32 nations who will contest the 72-hole first stage of qualifying at the La Manga course in Spain this weekend.