After 40 years as club professional, Ian ‘Ferg’ Ferguson will hang up the golf bag at the end of January.

Ferguson has been the face of the Country Club for four decades and has nurtured endless amounts of talent that have made the course their second home over the years.

“I’ll miss the people, yeah,” Ferguson said.

“It’s gone very quickly.

“This (place) is great.  The environment here and the members are good. We do a lot of traffic through the course and everything runs pretty smooth.

“It’s not really a job.”

Ferguson will finish on January 31 and new club professional Kurt Stegbauer has been appointed to take over on February 1.

Ferguson arrived in Wagga after seven years playing and working at Pennant Hills with the intention of gaining experience in the country before heading back to Sydney.

Some 40 years later, Ferguson is still here and is proud of what has been established through that time to the point where the course hosts 1000 golfers a week.

“There wouldn’t be too many businesses in Wagga, or anywhere, that do the hours we do here. 12 hours every day, seven days a week, with three staff,” Ferguson explained.

“Certainly the improvement in the golf course, and the numbers (are a highlight). We do numbers that other golf clubs would die for, and anything smaller, number wise, than what we do here and they’re the sort of clubs that are struggling a little bit.”

As for what’s next – Ferguson is keen for more time with family, as well as travel and gardening.

“It’s going to be new. It’s something different so I’ll just wait and see,” he said.

Wagga Country Club will host a farewell function for Ferguson on Friday night, February 10.

A number of high-profile guests, who Ferguson taught and played with, are expected to attend the function at the Country Club.

Stegbauer, an award-winning coach, will move from Sydney after 12 years operating the Ridge Golf Complex.