Ten years ago Greg Turner was an angry man.
Angry at the treatment he and his fellow contestants were afforded at the 2002 New Zealand Open.
Turner launched a tirade of complaints from car parking for the pros, the high cost of tickets and the fee afforded Tiger Woods to compete for a first and still only occasion in New Zealand.
Turner won a dozen times in his pro career, including four times on the European Tour, but then he retired from the game in 2004 to spend more time with his family and on his growing golf course design business.
The brother to legendary New Zealand cricketer will turn 50 next February and intends to qualify and compete in 2013 on the European Seniors Tour.
Turner recently played on the (Sir Bob) Charles Tour at the Harewood Open, a course he redesigned finishing a commendable 25th for the week with rounds of 74, 74, 73 and 76.
Next step is the up-coming New Zealand Open at the Clearwater Club.
“It would be incredibly optimistic to suggest that I would be in contention to win. I would be happy if I made the cut,” Turner said.
“But I guess golf is a funny game and you never know. I never thought I would play the New Zealand Open again so it should be an interesting week.
“It’s a big event, an important event and it’s going to be great to test myself in that environment. You can’t create those circumstances without playing big events and that is what I am looking for.”
The New Zealand Open struggles for big names these days, given the absence of an affiliation to a major worldwide tour, relatively low prize money and clashes with PGA and European Tour qualifying school.
But in Turner they have one, even if his best days are behind him.
He won the New Zealand Open at Paraparaumu in 1989 and at Middlemore in 1998 and has also won four times on the European Tour.
He also qualified for the International side at the President’s Cup in Melbourne in 1997, partnering fellow Kiwi Frank Nobilo during the event and helping to inspire victory over the United States.
And it is his pair of victories in his home country that mean the most.
“There is nothing like winning your national Open,” he said. “You dream of that moment when you’re growing up as a kid and to realize that dream not once but on a couple of occasions is really special and I have very fond memories.
“I won 12 times around the world but I wouldn’t trade any of them for the two wins I had at the New Zealand Open”
