AS a nice warm-up for the English Senior Open in August, talented amateur golfers from across the north have the chance to compete on the lengthy track at Rockliffe Hall in the Northern Golf Masters.

It will be the third year running the tournament has taken place at the County Durham course and entries are open to category one golfers from across the North-East, North Yorkshire and Cumbria.

The Northern Golf Masters will be held at Rockliffe on Sunday, July 27 to find the best club golfers when they compete to be named the number one amateur golfer in the North of England.

Rockliffe Hall’s course will even be set the same as this major tournament to give golfers a real flavour of what it’s like to play in a top competition on a world class course. Prizes are awarded for first, second and third place around 100 golfers expected to enter.

Places are limited and registration is £30 per person which includes a NGM gift pack with concessionary rates for practice rounds available for anyone confirmed as participating. Visit www.rockliffehall.com/golf for more details.

Last year’s winner was former EuroPro Tour golfer, Daniel Shevill, who won a dramatic four-man play-off at Rockliffe Hall. The 24-year-old, from Stocksfield, was the second winner following in the success of Whickham golfer, James Simpson, in the NGM’s inaugural year.

YORKSHIRE teenager Laura Morrison dashed from the exam room to the golf course – and won her way into England Golf’s Grand Medal Final.

Morrison sat her GCSE Business Studies exam, before hurrying from Leeds to Houghton-le-Spring Golf Club in County Durham where she won the North Region Medal Final with a nett score of five-under 68.

The 16-year-old leads ten qualifiers for the Grand Medal Final at Peterborough Milton Golf Club on June 28. Morrison (Garforth), Anne Moyle (Hexham), Louisa Brunt (Ashton-under-Lyne), Jennifer Langrish (Stocksfield), Roanne Tomlinson (Haydock Park), Pauline Bramley (Hallamshire), Sarah Chapman (Wath), Mary Kay (Thirsk & Northallerton), Natasha Martin (Beamish Park), and Neeve Fisher (Hebden Bridge).

A GENEROUS £2,400 donation will benefit teenage and young adults in the haematology unit at South Tees James Cook after Blackwell Grange chose it as the golf club’s charity for the year.

Dave Theakston, captain of Blackwell for the 2013/2014 season, decided to support teenage cancers. His daughter, Debi, is in remission from leukaemia and was treated at James Cook. Theakston said: “I am amazed by the combination of care and innovative science and by the dedication of the staff who deliver it. We are delighted to give something back.”