A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman last night confirmed the 6.30pm Saturday fire at the Frankton Golf Centre had been deemed accidental, rather than suspicious.
He could not share exactly how it started as a report from a fire investigator, who was on the scene all day yesterday, was not yet complete.
No-one was hurt in the fire at the Queenstown Lakes District Council-owned centre, where there was a pro golf shop run by Inspire Golf Queenstown and a driving range run.
QLDC sport and recreation manager Simon Battrick told the ODT staff were closing up the shop on Saturday, when they noticed smoke coming out of the building.
"Literally, the shop was pretty much shut.
"We had two guys picking up golf balls. One of our staff members was at the back just picking up the putting flags and walked through the building to obviously drop them in as we normally do.
"They saw some smoke, ran out, called 111 and that’s it, pretty much."
Mr Battrick said he had been playing golf at the course himself earlier in the day and about 30 minutes after he left, received a call telling him about the fire, which took firefighters about an hour to put out.
"It’s way too early to say anything. Whether it’s a rebuild, whether it’s a pull-down ... we’ll just wait and see."
It was awful timing, he said.
"Just before Christmas is never great."
Inspire Golf Queenstown posted a message on its website about the fire saying: "It’s true, our best little golf shop is a little bit burnt."
A QLDC spokesman said the driving range would be closed until further notice, although the golf course remained open — bookings just had to be made online.
