Richard Farrant was just a teenager when he first joined a golf club.
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He didn't realise it at the time, but that move kick-started his love affair with the sport. Mr Farrant, 82, has been involved in golf, from club to national level, for more than six decades.
His list of achievements include leading the Australian Veterans Golfers Union and holding various roles - including president and director - at his beloved Kiama Golf Club for nearly 30 years.
The Shell Cove resident's service to golf has now been rewarded with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in this year's Australia Day Honours.
"It's been a bit surreal," he said.
"But I'm very honoured. I got a shock when I found out, I tell you."
Mr Farrant had played a few rounds of social golf before he joined the Sydney University's Golf Club in Kensington as an 18-year-old.
He first turned to golf administration more than a decade later at Wauchope Golf Club when he was elected as club secretary in 1966. Since then, he has never left the admin side of the sport.
Mr Farrant has continuously been involved at club level with three clubs - Wauchope, Bowral Country Club (now called Gibraltar Country Club) and the Kiama Golf Club - at at district, state and national levels for the past 54 years.
The keen golfer has been involved with the Kiama club since 1991 and he became the club's vice-president one year later. He has gone on to hold the titles of president, club director and veterans golf committee vice-president at Kiama. Mr Farrant became a life member in 2014.
Last year, he was named club patron last year.
"That was a real honour," he said.
"The president and members of the board can approach me for advice or to relate some experiences of my last 29 years being a member here. It's up to them what they do with it but I have a good rapport with the current president, board and manager.
"Someone said to me the other day that 'you keep on going' and I said 'well, while I'm fit and able to and it interests me, I will'."
At a national level, Mr Farrant was the Australian Veterans Golfs Union president from 2014-2015, and has also been the Union's vice-president, NSW delegate and a Roll of Honour inductee.
He was also heavily involved with the NSW Veterans Golfers Association for more than a decade, including as president from 2009 to 2016. At a district level, he is Illawarra Golf Association and Illawarra Veteran Golfers Association's current vice-president.
"It's an interesting sport," Mr Farrant said
"I love the rigour of the sport in terms of the expectations that players have a set of rules to follow. It's not regimented, but they do have a set of rules to follow. It does require administration at different levels and I love the game even more now.
"I use it for exercise and I'm not so serious about it these days. But I have won championships and things like that at three different clubs. The Australian Championships are also played once a year and I've played 22 of them."
Mr Farrant thanked his wife Marie and their family for providing amazing support for more than five decades.
"My wife has been a very patient woman," he said.
"We've been married 52 years and during that time relations were strained at times because I was spending a lot of time away, particularly when the kids were young. I look back and perhaps I could have done things a little differently. But we worked around it and finally, she's now a member of Jamberoo Golf Club and she got involved with the administration of that club.
"Golf is a big part of our lives, it's been wonderful to us."