GOLFERS will be able to stop for a drink on the ninth hole at an East Lothian club after it was given the go-ahead to place a horsebox bar next to the green.

Luffness New Golf Club, near Gullane, applied for several occasional licences to use the horsebox during a number of tournaments planned over the next six months with an early opening time of 9.30am.

Mary Lou Watkins, from the club, said that the horsebox was delivered on the morning of events and used as a ‘halfway house’ for players.

She said: “Golfers come off the ninth green, have one drink and move on to the 10th tee.”

East Lothian Council's licensing board was asked to approve the licences, which would see the horsebox serving alcohol from 9.30am to 5pm at some events and from 10am to 7pm on another.

Councillor Lachlan Bruce, chairman of the board, called for a condition to be added to the licences to ensure that people could only drink in a designated space around the horsebox and that only one drink per patron would be served.

He said: “This will ensure people don’t take their drink with them and wander around the golf course with it.”

And he said that the horsebox would have to serve non-alcoholic drinks as well.

The board agreed to introduce the one-drink-only rule as a condition of the licence, as well as the soft drink option and designated area.

An application to allow drinking outside the clubhouse for one event in June was also approved.

Luffness New Golf Club was founded in 1894 and designed by Old Tom Morris.

It was created after a dispute over the original Luffness club saw the owner of Luffness Estate establish a new course entirely on his land, creating the ‘new’ club.

The original club is now known as Kilspindie Golf Club and lies to the west of Luffness, next to Aberlady Bay Local Nature Reserve.