Kiwi Golfing Legend - Greg Turner - Turning Pro
Hailing from one of NZ’s most famous sporting families, little brother Greg wasn’t about to be beat.
Born in Dunedin in 1963, Greg Turner’s older brother Glenn – 16 years his senior, was captaining the NZ Cricket Team, while Brian, almost 20 years older was playing hockey for NZ.
“I played First XI cricket and hockey as a kid, representing Otago, but I was always compared to my brothers, grown men playing internationally,” says Greg.
At 13, Otago Boys High classmate David Skeggs, son of former Dunedin Mayor Cliff, took Greg to golf.
Greg was hooked, spending hours teeing off balls at the Balmacewen Golf Course. “With golf I wasn’t trying to live up to the expectations or reputations of others.”
“Glenn came home once from scoring four double centuries after a tour of the West Indies and was getting changed. I was about 12 and I saw he was black and blue all over and thought, ’This is what happens to you if you’re really good,” grins Greg.
Greg’s dad, who worked two jobs, was also a talented cyclist back in the day.
At 18 Greg won a US College golf scholarship to study at the University of Oklahoma, catapulting him into an international career. The highest handicap he’d ever had was 7 and he’d already represented NZ in age-group teams.
It was a far cry from Dunedin. “All I knew about America was from sitcoms and westerns. It was like the westerns.” His father sent letters every week with news clippings from home. Greg hit the ground running, making the University team straight away.
Within a year he’d made the second All American College team, ranked between 11th and 20th of all US College players that year.
Studying journalism, in two and a half years Greg had qualified sufficiently to turn pro, quitting College at 21. That wasn’t before his College football friends loaned him their gear to wear for a fun touch game. “I rolled my ankle and ended up in hospital where I overheard the nurses questioning whether I was actually a football player because I was ‘kind of puny’,” laughs Greg.
Turning pro meant rubbing shoulders with established pro investors who sponsored the younger rookies, until after a year he could support himself.
He played well launching into a top career in Hong Kong and on the Australasian Tour. “I won my third event – the NZPGA. It was really nice to have that under my belt.” He also did well on the Asian Tour, winning his second season there. By late 1985 he’d qualified for European Tour School, ranking third and winning his rookie season on the full European Tour in 1986.
While he had the talent, Greg says a good work ethic and “little bit of luck” helped.
It wasn’t all roses. He hit a slump in 1988 when English golf coach Denis Pugh gave him a complete swing rebuild. “I came home part way through that and won the NZ Open.”
Greg’s clocked 12 major international tour wins, and a President’s Cup, playing alongside the world’s best – Tiger Woods, Greg Norman, Frank Nobilo and Ernie Els, from the 1970s to 2010 when Rory Mcllroy became world number one. “Tiger was the best easily. He changed the game. Most world number ones are a quarter of a shot better than other top players, but he was half a shot. He had an extraordinary influence on the game.”
Winning the British Masters and Johnny Walker Classic in Australia, against 10 to 20 of the world’s top players, were career highlights, as was playing on the winning 1998 President’s Cup team – the rest of the world against America’s greatest golfers. “Jack Nicklaus was captain and gave me a ride back to Queenstown on his private jet. His limousine pulled up on the tarmac. Garrick Tremain pulled up alongside to collect me in his Subaru, towing a trailer covered in sheep dung.”
Invited to an executive box during the ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ concert in London in 1990, Greg recalls Dire Straits had just finished playing. “This woman came over and said, ‘When does Nelson Mandela play?” smiles Greg. Eight years later Greg got to meet him with the South African and Australian golf teams and told a very amused Mandela first-hand.
Greg officially retired from the pro circuit in 2003/04. Daughter Charlie was starting school and son Jack wasn’t far off. “I’d always said I’d stop then. Playing with many successful people through the years, they all said they regretted not spending enough time with their kids. It was universal.”
Since then he’s been designing golf courses and supporting junior golf through his Otago Golf Academy – a charitable trust he set up through the President’s Cup, which injects a lot of money into junior golf in the south. He’s served on Wakatipu High School’s Board too.
Greg’s been involved in about 30 golf course designs, from Millbrook, Christchurch and Wellington, to the UK. He’s now working on Mike Davies’ Hogans Gully course, due to start in six months, the 9-hole Gibbston course, and sailing legend Russell Coutts’ Crown Terrace private course, now at 21 holes.