FROM the rough to the smooth!

Lymington is to get a new public golf course after a local farmer won his fight to turn three fallow fields on his land into a community asset.

Brian Goodall from Walhamp-ton, near Lymington, is celebrating victory after a district council veto blocking his golf scheme was overturned by a government planning inspector.

Now he hopes to have his nine-hole pay-and-play course running within a year.

"This will be great for the people of Lymington. The area needs it," said Mr Goodall.

He was dismayed last October when district planners turned the idea down to avoid setting a precedent for agricultural land changing use in the New Forest Heritage Area.

But the government inspector who visited the site last month said district planners had acted "unreasonably".

"We're relieved that common sense has prevailed. Now we plan to work with the council to create an asset for the locality," said Mr Goodall.

"We never intended that the course would bring people into the area. There is plenty of demand right here in Lymington and the surrounding villages."

Mr Goodall and his designer Ian Johnson don't plan a lot of landscaping on the 50-acre site - though they have some "revolutionary" ideas for sand-free bunkers.

The only building on the course will be a little kiosk at the entrance down on the main road to East Boldre.

"There won't be anything to interrupt the fine outlook as you go around the course," said Mr Goodall.

He had the idea for the nine-hole course several years ago, when he was looking for a way to make use of three set-aside fields, worn out by 100 years of growing strawberries.

"We had EC grants for set-aside, but no farmer likes to have useless land. We were sure a golf course could be self-supporting," said Mr Goodall.

"I don't actually play the game yet, but I am glad to get the opportunity!" he said.