GOLFER Andrew Holmes has won compensation from an upper-crust golf club which refused to accept him as a member.

Fulford Golf Club, in York, has been ordered to make amends to Mr Holmes, 33, after he took it to York County Court.

Mr Holmes, a married businessman and father from Earswick, York, has a handicap of four and has been playing golf since he was a child.

He had been a member of Fulford Golf Club from the age of nine to 23 and applied to rejoin in October 2000.

He had an interview and last February received a letter offering him membership, subject to his sending in an application form and resigning from any other club in the York Union of Golf Clubs.

Mr Holmes agreed to the terms, and resigned as a member of Heworth Golf Club, but in March he received a letter, returning his £150 deposit and saying a full board of directors meeting had decided against approving his application.

Mr Holmes said he had asked the club for a reason, but had been told that they did not have to give one under club rules.

The club has now been ordered to pay him £215.51 for costs incurred while he was not a member of a golf club, £13.50 interest and £80 court fees.

Mr Holme said: "It was the way that I was treated that made me decide to go ahead with the court case."

A statement from the club said it accepted there was an "ambiguity" in the letter sent to Mr Holmes and was abiding by the court's decision.

"In the best-regulated of circles, things go wrong, our procedures were at fault and have now been rectified," an official said.