Golf Huskies AD 'passionate' about game

By Blaine Newnham
Seattle Times associate editor

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Todd Turner, the athletic director at Washington, is well steeped in the game of golf even if his job doesn't allow him much time to play.

"My wife calls me a quietly passionate golfer," he said. "I watch the Golf Channel, I have a small ownership in a company that builds wedges, I have a collection of old golf clubs, I love to hit balls, I just don't get a chance to play very much any more.

"But there is no mistake about it, I love the game, especially the integrity involved with it."

The company he has ownership in is called Solus. A few tour players have carried the set of three-wedges it manufactures.

Turner chaired the NCAA golf committee for three years. He has played in Europe. Indeed, his favorite course is Royal County Down in Northern Ireland and leads an impressive list of the best five he has played, followed by Pine Valley, Cypress Point, Pinehurst No. 2, and the Honors Course in Chattanooga, Tenn.

He was athletic director at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., before he took the job at Washington last summer.

Turner, 53, began playing as a kid at a golf club his parents belonged to in Raleigh, N.C.

"We joined because it had a swimming pool," said Turner, "but pretty soon I was out there from dawn until dusk, playing all I could."

He played in local junior tournaments, then in high school, and ultimately for two years at the University of North Carolina.

"It was different back then," Turner said. "Selecting the golf team was more of a cattle call among the student body. The teams weren't full of budding mini-tour players like they are now."

He tried to qualify for the U.S. Senior Amateur Open three years ago.

"I made par on the first two holes and then went back to being an athletic director," he said.

He said he will apply for membership at Broadmoor Golf Club. A golf-club membership is part of his contract with the university.