Golf: Lake View comes into sight

Lake View Golf and Country Club have opened their new course layout. Lake View vice-president Dave Sander (left) and president Murray Donaldson stand on the fourth tee block. Photo / Ben Fraser

Lake View Golf and Country Club have officially opened their new course layout - which makes it the longest golf course in Rotorua.

Lake View have been hard at work on their 18-hole course on SH5, just north of Rotorua, for about 18 months.

The major changes have seen nine new tee blocks created, new irrigation around the greens and tees and a completely new layout for some of the holes.

The course distance has also gone from 5650m to 5826m, off the blue tees.

The opening of the layout was held on Saturday, with plenty of members and visitors going up to play a round.

Lake View Golf and Country Club president Murray Donaldson said there were three main changes they had in mind during the $15,000 project.

"We wanted our 18th here to finish outside the club house and we wanted to still tee off outside the club house [on the first hole]. We also wanted to increase the stroke of the course."

The stroke - which measures the difficultly of the course - has increased from 69.2 to 70.5.

Donaldson said they hoped the changes, especially the increased stroke, would improve the course and attract more people to play it.

"That is our main aim, that it enhances the course.

"If people come down to Rotorua for a long weekend they have three 18-hole courses to play."

Lake View vice-president Dave Sander has been the main driver behind the project. He said the changes had really improved the course.

"It is about producing a product that is worthy of playing a round of golf on, and we think we have the best product in Rotorua."

He said there was still some work to be done, but they had completed most of it. He said they still wanted to tidy up some of the paths and also drop trees to open up the view of Lake Rotorua.

He said they were really happy to have the course stroke over 70, which had been officially recognised by New Zealand Golf.

The new layout makes the course slightly longer than the Rotorua Golf Club (5799m) and it is the only club with a par 72 course in the city.