THE champagne corks should be popping at Chapel-en-le-Frith Golf Club this weekend as members celebrate winning the prestigious GolfMark Club of the Year Award, which is supported this year by Cobra Golf.

The club impressed judges with programmes to encourage both juniors and adults into golf, while creating the kind of welcoming environment that serves as an excellent advertisement for the game.

Chapel representatives received the prize from Cobra Golf's Jacques Retief during the England Golf Partnership's County Development Conference. The English Golf Union (EGU) and English Women's Golf Association (EWGA) introduced this award to recognise those facilities that have shown an outstanding and innovative contribution to junior and beginner golf.

During the last year Chapel have reached out consistently to schools and the community and fostered a friendly, family atmosphere at the club.

Juniors compete regularly with adults and adults enjoy a mentoring 'buddy' scheme. Junior coaching sessions and competitions are regular events, while growing links with local schools provide a pathway to encourage new youngsters to develop their golf at the club under expert supervision.

The golf club's award nomination is packed with examples of how accommodating a club can be to new players, from Texas scrambles and quiz nights to encouraging parents to join in with junior activity.

Chapel have also shown innovation in recruitment, including tailored easy payment schemes, 'beat-the-recession' special prices, temporary memberships (attracting 70 players in 2009), new categories of membership and use of intelligent marketing (including radio advertising, visits to school assemblies and open days and taster sessions).

GolfMark is a national scheme that identifies and recognises junior and beginner friendly golf facilities. Any golf club awarded GolfMark is recognised by Sport England as a Clubmark facility, which is a national standard identifying quality sports clubs across the country.

Cobra Golf is supporting GolfMark by providing prizes to award winners (winner and two runners-up) and prizes for the quarterly and annual prize draws made available to all accredited clubs.

Chapel-en-le-Frith edged out runners-up for the award Paultons Golf Centre in Hampshire and Stoke by Nayland Golf Club in Essex.

This final three won through a tough judging procedure which saw them initially compete against nominations from County Golf Partnerships to then reach a shortlist of eight clubs that were assessed by a panel from the EGU, EWGA, PGA and the Golf Foundation.