Lakes Leisure to take full control of Frankton Golf Course

Lakes Leisure has announced that it is to take over full management of the Frankton Golf Centre, effective from Friday 22nd March.

The Centre, which has been within Lakes Leisure's portfolio of Council owned community facilities since July 2012, has until now been managed under contract by the Queenstown Golf Club.

Lakes Leisure Chief Executive Ruth Stokes said Lakes Leisure is now in a strong position to assume full management of the Centre and that the timing of the transition worked well for the Queenstown Golf Club which is looking to focus their full attention on the Kelvin Heights course.

Stokes explained "with the assistance of Queenstown Golf Club and Golf Pro Jamie McIsaac, we have gained a good understanding of the Centre's operation and its member's needs over the past nine months.

"We are extremely pleased to recently have secured Jamie's continued service to the Centre as an employee of Lakes Leisure, so we are very well positioned to take the Centre forwards and ensure we can maintain a business as usual result for our existing members."

Consistent with its objectives for other Queenstown Lakes District Council owned community facilities, Lakes Leisure has plans to increase participation in golf, particularly with juniors and say this should benefit all clubs in the area.

Stokes adds "the Frankton course is a fantastic flat, entry level course and it is our intention to develop the site into a learning centre for golf. We want to work with all local clubs in the district to give children, particularly teenagers, a pathway into the game and then make sure that they want to keep on playing. Through quality programmes we believe we can both attract young players and develop them to the point they will be ready go out and join other local clubs that offer more challenging fairways. The game in New Zealand is in need of a boost in numbers, and we think the provision of a dedicated learning centre will go a long way to help our local clubs in the future."

McIsaac will continue to be Queenstown Golf Club's Golf Pro in a honorary capacity, and the two clubs are already working together to ensure members continue to enjoy the benefits of both courses.

Lakes Leisure has registered the new Frankton Golf Centre club with the New Zealand Golf Board and has gained a New Zealand Golf Incorporated Affiliation membership under the entity of Lakes Leisure.

http://www.lakesleisure.co.nz/