Category: Leeds Golf Centre

Planning application to create international golfing destination including new club house, driving range, Centre of Excellence and 37 eco-lodges

Multi-million-pound plans for a major expansion of Leeds Golf Centre have this week been submitted to Leeds City Council. In what will be a first for Leeds, the proposals will deliver an international golfing destination and centre of excellence, providing facilities for communities across the city as well as attracting seasoned golfers from around the world.

By satisfying an increasing demand for courses where golfers can both play and stay, the plans will create a major new destination for golf tourism in the north of England. The improved facilities will not only benefit the club’s existing community activities, which include regular lessons in local schools, but enable further work to be undertaken at a grassroots level across Leeds, all while creating 30 new jobs.

In 2017 alone, over 300 local children were introduced to the game of golf for free by Leeds Golf Centre. As well as teaching them the importance of exercise and focus, the programme focussed on boosting confidence and embedding values around hard work, discipline, respect and tolerance.

Since it was purchased by The Parklane Group in 2011, the course, which is the UK base of the prestigious Leadbetter Golf Academy, has already seen a multi-million-pound redesign.  The new plans include:

• A new clubhouse with a striking double height glazed entrance space
• A double height driving range with state-of-the-art interactive facilities currently not seen outside of London
• A new Centre of Excellence building, containing a modern sports bar
• Thirty-seven bespoke eco-lodges designed specifically for golfing breaks and overlooking a newly created lake

Earlier this year, Leeds Golf Centre was recognised as England Golf’s Club of the Year – in recognition of the owner’s vision to make golf accessible to all ages and abilities. Managing Director of The Parklane Group, and course owner, Naveen Ahmed, sees these new proposals as a way to continue the vision of offering an all-encompassing venue that welcomes all ages, backgrounds and abilities.

Mr Ahmed explained:

“I am thrilled that our plans for this £9 million investment into Leeds have taken a major step forward. As an enthusiastic golfer, I recognise the importance of Yorkshire having a golf venue which can compete on an international stage – attracting visitors from across the world to our city. I believe these plans will help the region achieve that aim.

“When we bought Leeds Golf Centre in 2011, my vision was to create somewhere inclusive, where everyone in the community can feel welcome. We have taken great strides towards that aim and we are proud of how we have engaged different communities around Leeds – with a major programme of school engagement, support for juniors, ladies and seniors, and work to open up the sport to those who usually wouldn’t play. Our continued investment into the Centre will allow us to build further on this good work over the years to come.”

A decision on the planning application is expected in early 2019.

Leeds Golf Centre has won the much coveted “Golf Club Of The Year 2018” award at the England Golf Awards. The awards celebrate everything that’s excellent about the game of golf in England, they recognise leading professionals, elite amateurs, top coaches, and the stars of the club and county golf who do so much to inspire others to play the game.

 

After The Parklane Group made a significant investment into Leeds Golf Centre in 2011, the club has gone from strength to strength. There was a vision to make the club a go-to destination for both beginners and professional golfers. And we’ve achieved just that.

Judges at the awards were impressed with the infectious enthusiasm from the “Home Of Modern Golf” to develop the games across all ages and abilities.

The Operations Manager, Nigel Sweet, was in London with fellow colleague and PGA pro, Joe Feather, and said “We are open to everyone, that’s what is special about Leeds Golf Centre and we want to get more people into the game of golf.”

Juniors have been a huge focus of the club too with Leeds Golf Centre’s PGA pros visiting local schools to introduce the game of golf to youngsters. This has been really successful as we now have more than 50 young golfers taking part in our Tiger Cub challenge every Sunday.

From young to old, Leeds Golf Centre was chosen as the host venue for the Leeds Senior Masters, an event for golfing professional over the age of 48 years. It was the first time that Leeds Golf Centre played host to a high-key professional event since the Ryder Cup reunion in 2009.

Other achievements that helped Leeds Golf Centre win this award, is our partnership with the legendary David Leadbetter. We’re the UK headquarters for The Leadbetter Golf Academy, and it’s amazing to see how this golf tuition can help golfers turn their game around with the use of our facilities.

Naveen Ahmed, the Managing Director of The Parklane Group, says “This is a fantastic achievement for our club and we are delighted to win this award. We took over the club on the verge of bankruptcy and members were leaving at a rapid rate. Our experience is property, so our first challenge was to get our staff and existing members to believe in our vision for Leeds Golf Centre – which was to make golf at our club accessible to everyone.”

And, it looks like Leeds Golf Centre is doing just that. We can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Naveen Ahmed, Managing Director of The Parklane Group, has been recognised at the prestigious Institute of Directors (IoD) awards in London. Following success at the Yorkshire region awards earlier in the year, Naveen saw off competition from nine other finalists from other areas of the UK, to pick up the title for Family Business Director of the Year. The judges recognised his ‘leadership and family values’ when deciding on the outcome, calling The Parklane Group’s story “inspirational”.

Whilst the award recognised the strong heritage of the group, it also highlighted its forward-thinking and innovative nature, as well as its “vision and strategy” for the future.

Of the award, Naveen Ahmed said: “My parents are a great source of inspiration to me and have proven to be a driving force in the success of the business. My father came to the UK in 1976 and built himself and his family a life here, whilst my mother has been brilliantly supportive in encouraging me to remain focussed on scaling up and pushing ahead. This family element has run through everything The Parklane Group does and remains a defining factor of our successes to date.

 

“As Managing Director, I’ve overseen the expansion of the company as we have diversified from student accommodation to a variety of dynamic brands, which are helping to shape new communities and foster innovation in the property sector. As a family of directors, we have guided the organisation through every challenge, including the recession, and I continue to take enormous enjoyment from leading The Parklane Group forward as we launch new brands like Livinc and workinc that will revolutionise and redefine how the next generation live and work.

“I’m delighted to have won this award and take particular pride in helping to move the agenda forward for Leeds and Yorkshire. The Parklane Group is truly a family operation, and my three sons are now continuing that tradition, two of whom are leading the UOWN business – a fact I’m incredibly proud of. Being a close-knit family business, it’s fantastic to be able to share this achievement with my sons and help to inspire the younger generation of what can be achieved through hard work and dedication.”

The IoD National Awards brings together the winners from regions throughout the UK and helps to celebrate success and achievement amongst business directors. The Awards were held at a gala ceremony in central London on the 18th October. The Awards aim to raise awareness among IoD members, the wider business community and public of the significant contribution business leaders can make to society and economic prosperity.

Leeds Golf Centre has begun an application process to extend its existing facility into a multi-million-pound golf complex, complete with accommodation lodges, spa, fitness facilities and driving range expansion.

Since its acquisition by the Parklane Group in February 2011, Leeds Golf Centre has already undergone significant investment that has totally transformed the standard, appearance and fortunes of the facility and is now set for a further £9 million expansion.

This Group has begun formal discussions with Leeds City Council with a view to submitting formal planning applications this month. Should planning be successful, work is scheduled to being in Autumn 2018 with estimated competition in 2020.

The planned application will include the following features:

• 38 eco-lodges will be positioned south of the facility – designed to cater golfers and leisure guests
• Gym development
• Spa facility with therapy rooms / health club
• New Adventure Golf Course
• A new 9-hole academy golf course will be developed
• A new double heighted reception for all facilities will be created
• Purpose built area with a dedicated reception, bar and children’s area
• Two-storey driving range with 30 state of the art bays
• Additional function rooms

The improved facilities will not only benefit the existing 450 members, but will also provide employment opportunities to benefit the local community, with approximately 30 new jobs created.

With the addition of 38 eco-lodges on the site, the Group recognises an opportunity to increase tourism to the North Leeds area. The contribution of Golf tourism to the overall industry in England was 3% in 2014, with an estimated value of £109 million.* This also supports Leeds’ Capital of Culture Bid to bring an extra 2,500 beds to the region by 2023.

Nigel Sweet, Operations Manager at Leeds Gold Centre says, “Yorkshire and North Leeds is blessed with some of the best courses in the UK, with golf tourists travelling for a far to enjoy the unique and welcoming golf environments, including our 18-hole course at Wike Ridge. However, without suitable accommodation and facilities, it can be seen to drive golf groups away from the region to all-in-one complexes.”

Sir Gary Verity, Chief Executive at Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “It’s fantastic to see such an ambitious project being proposed at Leeds Golf Centre and we wish them luck with their application. The changes already implemented at the complex have been hugely impressive and these future developments sound very exciting.”

 

*The Economic Impact of Golf on the Economy of England, England Golf Partnership, April 2014

What a fun day Monday 24^th July 2017 was. The Annual Parklane Group Golf Day yet again brought a group of amazing people together for a fun day of golf, Foot Golf and great food.

Because we want to relive the day, and we can’t wait for next year’s event, we’ve picked out some of the highlights of the day. Hopefully you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Foot Golf

To get everyone in to a fun, competitive spirit, a Foot Golf session was one of the first activities of the day. Groups of 4 were given the challenge of getting around Leeds Golf Centre’s Foot Golf course in as few kicks as possible. Friends soon became rivals as they raced around the course but there could only be one winner on the day and that as Andy from Parallax. Congratulations, Andy!

David Leadbetter

David Leadbetter, the founder of the Leadbetter Academy that’s run at Leeds Golf Centre, flew in all the way from the USA to spend the day with everyone on Monday. Not only did David stop and have a chat with anyone wanting to quiz him about golf, but he also lead a session on improving everyone’s golf swing. We heard he drew on several golf clubs, corrected several dodgy techniques and made most people into a semi-pro by the end of the day. Most people though, not all. We saw some of you out on the course in the afternoon…

 

Golf and Competitions

In the afternoon, all guests were split into teams for a round of golf with a few trick shots thrown in for fun. 18 holes were played on the Wike Ridge green with the 5^th hole hosting the nearest pin competition, the 7^th hole challenging players to “beat the pro” and the 17^th hole testing people’s longest drive. The overall winning team was Tan Khan’s team with 91 points and 2nd place went to Bright Sparks, with the winners being Kevin Walker and Jack Schneider for the 5^th and 17^th holes, respectively. There was a little bit of a contest on beating the pro as Nav and Joe Feather were within millimetres of being the closest to the hole. However, it was Joe that came out on top on the 7^th after some very accurate measuring from Chris Parker…

   

The Food

Of course, any great day out includes great food and the dishes served up at the Parklane Group Golf Day did not disappoint. Everyone was spoilt with a huge buffet lunch at 12.30 with even more food served up during the evening for dinner. Guests tucked into a variety of food including vegetable curry and fattoush salad with desserts such as mini passionfruit cheesecakes and chocolate mousse available for those with a sweet tooth.

 

We Announced Our Partnership With The Prince’s Trust

One of the most important parts of the day was our announcement that we’re going to be partnering up with The Prince’s Trust over the next 4 years. This is a really exciting endeavour for us as we become patrons for this charity.

The Prince’s Trust aims to support 4,000 young and disadvantaged people each year while helping them build a brighter future for themselves. We will be providing our support in a variety of ways in including fundraising, volunteering and mentoring throughout the partnership.

We hope you’ll all agree that this is a worth charity to partner with, especially after hearing Dom’s story which definitely touched many hearts before dinner.

 

The Charity Auction

We kick-started our partnership with The Prince’s Trust by finishing off the evening with a charity auction. We had so many generous donations including a 5 day decorating package from Broadley, a meal for 2 at Red’s True BBQ and a stay in the penthouse suite at the new Roomzzz Manchester Corn Exchange location for when it opens later this year. Overall, £4270 was raised and we can’t say thank you enough to those of you who bid on the prizes throughout the auction. We know it will go a long way to starting our support for The Prince’s Trust.

We hope you all had a great day and we can’t wait to see you at the next Annual Parklane Group Golf Day!