He told about 85 club members at the annual meeting the Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes districts were developing in a similar way to areas around Melbourne a few years ago. and the districts would benefit from a similar golf tourism initiative, linking golf courses and associated activities to attract visitors.
Club manager Graham Mercer said Mr Turner's passion and vision for redevelopment of the Cromwell course was inspiring to members, who voted unanimously during the annual meeting following Mr Turner's speech to progress further with the idea "One of the main things Mr Turner emphasised was the community benefit of golf tourism.
Mr Mercer said Mr Turner's vision specifically related to the redevelopment and upgrading of the Cromwell club's playing area.
"He spent about an hour discussing ideas and showing plans to members, and talked about the development of golf tourism in the area. He compared what is happening here to what happened a number of years ago in what they call the Melbourne Sand Belt, which became a very popular golf tourism destination," Mr Mercer said.
He said now the golf club had a clear future direction, its board of trustees could go about sourcing funding for the initiative.
"That's the next step really," he said.
Mr Turner had acted as an adviser to the Cromwell club's committee during the past five years, and offered to share his vision with the club's members, Mr Mercer said.
