NATIONAL television is to put Forest Park Golf Club fore-square in the spotlight.

The Stockton-on-the-Forest-based course has been selected as one of eight clubs to host a new tour event… for amateur players.

The Great North Golf Tour will tee off next March as the brainchild of Tyneside firm The Golf Locker TV and gives amateur players the experience of a professional tour under the glare of live coverage on Golf Locker TV which is broadcast on Sky Sport channel 203.

Forest Park GC has been selected as the penultimate venue for the eight-date event with the tour arriving at the club next year on September 30.

Mark Winterburn, the professional at Forest Park, was delighted by the new initiative which will give nationwide coverage to the parkland course off Stockton Lane.

“The company contacted us about a month ago to see if we would be interested in being part of the tour and we said ‘definitely’,” said Winterburn.

“Now that it has been confirmed we are very excited at the prospect.

“It is brilliant for the club to have a national golf tournament here. And to have the opportunity to be covered by Sky Television, well, who would not want to do it?

“To be part of a national tour and to be on television as well, how good is that?”

The Forest Park pro also paid tribute to the work of the club’s staff in being able to attract such an event.

“The standard that is provided at the club is exceptional, especially when you consider the course is relatively young,” he said.

“Fulford GC is by far the leading course around York for its prestige and history, but for us at Forest Park to be only 19 years old and attract an event like this is testament to the great work put in by the staff.”

Winterburn added how being involved in the national tour was a timely boost in the current straitened financial circumstances.

“Every golf club is looking for extra revenue and so having the Great North Tour here is a fantastic opportunity to promote the golf club and help to generate more income.

“It’s a great selling point for the club.”

The tour will start in March at Linden Hall in Northumberland and travel across the breadth of the north of England before finishing at Close House in Newcastle seven months later.

Tickets for each individual event, which is expected to cater for between 50 and 100 golfers, are priced at £45 per round plus refreshments, a bacon roll and entry into a prize draw.

The organisers of the Great North Golf Tour are also offering businesses the chance to become sponsors of the regional event by bidding for a share of limited, but potentially lucrative advertising space.

The top five highest bidders will win a sponsorship package worth £18,000.

For more information phone 01325 486666 or visit info@harveyandhugo.com or www.greatnorthgolftour.com

• The York GC Evelyn Pearson Award competition winner was D Clegg with 37 points.