After years collecting bruises on rugby and soccer fields as a younger man, taking up golf was a godsend for Sid Sagdic.
Boasting a handicap of three, he's been a member at Carnarvon for the past two-and-a-half decades.
It's a place where he's built life-long friendships.
But now they're talking about taking Mr Sagdic's beloved course and turning it, of all things, into a cemetery.
The sprawling 45-hectare western Sydney site, which sits on crown land, has become prime property for a government maintaining there are simply not enough plots to bury the city's dead.
To be precise, at least 70,000 spaces will soon be needed just to keep up.
For a 60-year-old local with plenty of good years left in his swing, though, it's all about where this needs to happen.
"There's plenty land out west near the new airport they're building," Mr Sagdic tells AAP.
"To put it smack bang in the middle of central Sydney doesn't make sense."
Carnarvon Golf Course Club manager Adam McGregor says 30 jobs would be lost overnight and vital green space for hundreds of members ranging in age from 14 to 95 would disappear if the cemetery goes ahead.
While some would no doubt consider the proposition a strange one, Metropolitan Memorial Parks, the state body tasked with the necropolis project, says it would also turn the site into a place to host recreational activities.
Think walking and bike tracks, artificial lakes, outdoor sculptures, cafes and venue facilities.
"How many brides would want to have their wedding at a function centre in a cemetery?" Mr McGregor asks.
Like Mr Sagdic, 22-year-old retail worker Mohamed Hassan grew up in Lidcombe and as a Muslim resident, says the idea smacks of cultural insensitivity.
"We know this area used to be a pig farm," he points out.
"It is disrespectful for Muslims who are buried in white shrouds let alone the living.
"It's desecrating the dead."
Mr Hassan says NSW Land and Sport Minister Steve Kamper was dismissive when recently asked about community concerns around the proposed cemetery reducing green space.
"Like all government operations, we sometimes re-imagine the way we present our facilities and our cemeteries," Mr Kamper told parliament in September.
"We can do it in more innovative ways. We might have a cemetery tour of stars of the past or something like that."
Mr Kamper says he tasked Metropolitan Memorial Parks with examining a thousand locations before settling on Carnarvon.
Should it gain final approval, the site will create a second final resting place just a long fairway shot from the largest necropolis in the Southern Hemisphere, Rookwood, which incidentally also borders Strathfield Golf Course to the west.
This oddity aside, politicians representing the area from local councillors to federal minister and fellow Labor MP Jason Clare have voiced their disapproval, saying other sites can and should be found.
"The government is carrying out a process here that starts with a C for consultation ... but I believe C stands for cover-up because the consultation system is flawed," veteran councillor Paul Garrard told a fiery council meeting last month.
"I don't think the minister or the premier know where Carnarvon is."
Premier Chris Minns has doubled down, saying the issue must be dealt with because it was in the too-hard basket for previous governments.
"One thing Australia's got a lot of is land but we don't seem to be able to manage our funeral spaces well at all," he says.
"No one's done anything about burial plots for decades and it's got to this incredibly acute position today. We're trying to fix that."
A spokesman for Mr Kamper emphasises the process is still a way from being finalised.
"No decision has been made on the proposal for Carnarvon Golf Course to become a cemetery, as the NSW government has not yet received a (formal) proposal" he told AAP.
A diverse group of faith communities including Christian Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish are calling on the government to push ahead.
But residents have vowed until the last minute to make their position clear, with public submissions set to close on Sunday.
As part of their stance, several rallies to mobilise support eventuated, with an estimated 1000 people turning up to one event earlier in October.
Denise Ora, CEO of the memorial parks body, says she is committed to a "transparent and inclusive consultation process."
However, resident and local government employee Gaya Arasaratnam believes the concerns of communities who have fled wars and conflicts, specifically Tamils from Sri Lanka and Bosnians, are not being taken seriously enough.
"To be sandwiched between two cemeteries will be another death-related cue near home and that can re-trigger trauma and it falls hardest on women," she explains.
Ms Ora says if the project gets off the ground it will be informed by "ongoing engagement with community and faith leaders to ensure cultural sensitivities are respected".
