A Derbyshire PGA professional has extolled the virtues of gaining GolfMark status after Chapel-en-le-Frith was named GolfMark Club of the Year.
Head professional David Cullen has played a key role in assisting the Peak District club achieve the ultimate award, revealing a string of new experiences along the way.
"My main involvement was promoting golf to juniors and taking tri-golf into the local schools," said the 49-year-old.
"We went to six schools and did 64 hours of Tri-Golf, which went down incredibly well and even had one on the kids say it was the best PE lesson he's ever had!
"I've done a lot adult and junior coaching throughout my career but this was the first time that I've gone into schools and done Tri-Golf and it's been an incredible experience.
"We got support from High Peak Sports Development Office to help fund than and hopefully now on the back of this award we can get some more and continue it."
Striving for GolfMark has seen the club instigate a number of junior and adult initiatives, with Cullen building on the success of his tri-golf experiences in the local schools.
"We transferred the tri-golf back to the club and staged sessions at just £1 a go," said Cullen, who has also taken extra courses to enhance his skills as part of the GolfMark process.
"The idea was to introduce the children to the club environment and to potentially get them to a level where they could even go out and play on the course.
"All of this is done without requiring any commitment from the kids but on the back of it we have seen the odd one become a member."
Chapel-en-le-Frith's achievement, which saw them edge out Suffolk's Stoke By Nayland and Paultons Golf centre in Hampshire, was achieved on the back of numerous initiatives to grow the game.
Cullen certainly believes that his club can now only grow stronger on the back of the award having first being recognised as a 'high achiever' by GolfMark, which is an initiative that stems from the PGA backed England Golf Partnership.
"It has been a team effort to achieve this and I am sure that there are other avenues we can go down to help build on this success," he said.
"When we began the process a few months ago it was with a view to being a 'high achiever' and to help increase the membership.
"We've done that and have been able to access funding for various initiatives. It's possible that we may be able to get more funding as a result of this.
"Getting this far certainly wasn't hard work, it was more steady work and a lot of praise for that goes to the club volunteers for co-ordinating it. "It's certainly worth doing."
25 February, 2010