LESS than five years after opening, Sandburn Hall Golf Club has bagged a major national distinction.

The club, which is on the Flaxton Road off the A64, has been named as a regional golf performance academy, one of the first in North Yorkshire.

The cherished status was awarded this week by the English Golf Union and Professional Golfers’ Association and it is one of only a few courses in the north of England to be so honoured.

Head professional Steve Robinson, who has his academy at the club, where he has brought several England teams – adults and juniors – to training was thrilled by the award.

He said: “We were screened by the EGU and PGA for our facilities and they have awarded the distinction of being a golf performance centre.

“It’s recognition of the first-class facilities we have here at Sandburn Hall and how the course has continued to grow – and is still growing.”

Robinson said the award acknowledged the club’s facilities such as the short game and putting areas, covered driving range, indoor putting area and pitting laboratory, on which players’ putting can be tracked.

Sandburn Hall also boasts a Trackman machine, a 17,000 euro piece of high-tech kit which uses a radar-based system to see how far a player can hit every single club in his bag.

The performance centre status also pays tribute to the coaching offered by Robinson and the Sandburn Hall GC staff.

Robinson is currently in the first year of a three-year contract to to coach the England women’s team. For the past five years he has been recognised as one of the country’s top 25 coaches.

But the head pro said that the overall Sandburn Hall experience was the key to its flourishing as a top-rated club.

“In just a short time the club has been progressing,” he said.

“It’s testament to the club’s belief in keeping moving forward. Only this winter there’s been more improvement work on the course to bring in more tees and bunkers as it aims to get it to more than 7,000 yards long.”


FOREST Park GC this week celebrated its 20th year of existence.

A celebratory dinner was held at the Stockton-on-the-Forest club and was attended by more than 90 members who have been at Forest Park since it first opened in 1991.

Said club professional Mark Winterburn: “It was lovely occasion and it shows just how well the club has been accepted especially when you still have 90 of the original players still members.”

One of the most intriguing facts at the dinner was that the four original members of the greenkeeping staff are still serving at Forest Park – head greenkeeper Phil Stirk and Steve Dalby, Neil Crossley and John Bruckwiki.

Forest Green opened in 1991 run by David and John Crossley. After four years the 18-hole Old Course was augmented by a brand new nine-hole circuit, the West course.

Said Winterburn, who has been the pro at Forest Park for the last eight years: “People were saying how much the course has changed over the last two decades.

“It’s scary to think how much it will mature even more over the next 20 years.”

Meanwhile the Forest Park April medal was won by five shots by Dave Russell whose gross 74 (nett 63) score saw his handicap trimmed from 11 to 8.8.