TERRY Turvey is as much a part of the Kerang Golf Club as the greens on the course or walls of the clubhouse themselves.
He is the very definition of a stalwart, being at the club for 40 years this March.
Turvey has been with the club through the ebbs and flows of four decades, sticking fat when it was struggling and now reaping the rewards in one of its strongest positions ever.
For his tremendous longevity, he was recently awarded KGC life membership – one of only about 20 recipients in a long history.
Turvey told Gannawarra Times the award came as a shock, but he was pleased his hard work had been recognised by his peers.
“They don’t give them out too often,” he said.
“I think we only have four or five living life members, so I feel incredibly honoured.
“It was very overwhelming on the night to have my daughter there and for us to look up on the board to see who I’ve been lumped in with, and they’ve all done a power of work for the club.”
Turvey relinquished the presidency this year but held the title between 2019 and 2022 – a period in which the club got to its strongest point in years.
“Being the president was an incredibly rewarding job,” Turvey said.
“By the end of my first year, we had no debt for the first time in a long time, and then COVID came, which I hate to say was actually good for us because we have a full-time staff member and that allowed us to get grants from the government and gain a bit of ground financially.”
Throughout his term Turvey championed the club’s new machinery shed, course septic tanks and watering system projects.
It is, however, his current job he has found the most challenging of his career with the KGC.
Turvey has taken over from long-standing greens director and good friend David Drake this year.
“Greens director is the toughest job I have done – there’s a lot of work involved with it – and it’s given me an even greater respect for what David (Drake) did for all those years,” he said.
Turvey joined the club in 1983 after ending his football career with a string of bad injuries.
He still craved the team sport atmosphere, though, and when recollecting about some of his favourite times with the club, the golf trips with his mates were a clear highlight.
“We’ve been to Melbourne, Cobram, all those big clubs with a dozen of us and when you’d go there, you’d pick up a thing or two about what they’re doing – Tony Laughlin every time would go into their machinery shed to have a look,” he said.
“They were good times – but what happens on the bus stays on the bus, so we’ll leave this conversation here.”
Turvey will remain a strong presence at the club for the foreseeable future, saying he can see himself “being here and doing as much as I can until I can’t”.
Couple that with playing every week and his partner Michelle being the captain of the ladies, 50 years at the KGC might not be too far out of the question.
“We play and then when we go home at night, we talk about the golf and the course – it’s just been such a big part of my life and I love the place,” Turvey said.
