Sift through all the eclectic slices to Peter Teravainen’s story – pro golf tours in Europe, Asia and Australasia; happiness in Southeast Asia where he has lived for more than half his 66 years; a mentor to young Asians who want to play golf for American universities – and then marvel at this nugget: There was a time after college when the man didn’t even own a passport.

That’s right, Teravainen’s life of global adventure was not part of some grand plan. No, sir. He was a kid from Duxbury, Mass., who had fallen in love with golf and played it nicely throughout a collegiate career at Yale and pretty much entered the ’79 PGA Tour Q School on a whim. He was curious to see how good he could become.

Winning tournaments in Czechoslovakia, Japan, and Singapore, pushing to No. 93 in the Official World Golf Rankings (August of ’97) in a most circuitous way, and living for 34 years in Singapore where he and his wife, Tan Kwee Choon, raised a daughter, Taina Siying . . . well, how does this 66-year-old explain such a free-spirited and intriguing life?

Let’s just say success blossomed from seeds of failure.

“I had no clue if I would ever be good enough to play pro golf or what I needed to do differently to succeed,” said Teravainen, whose one year on the PGA Tour (1980) returned $1,472 on two checks across 17 tournaments.

So when the Q School of ’81 arrived and the results were different than they had been in ’79 – “No matter how long I looked (at the scoreboard), the numbers weren’t going to change and I was going to miss by one” – he heard a voice in his ears. “Top 15 who miss are able to play on the European Tour,” said a veteran named John Adams.

Europe? “I had no idea that this was even a thing,” said Teravainen.

Well, it was a thing and it tickled his fancy. Especially after a few months of Space Coast and North Florida PGA minitours totally soured his taste for the domestic minor leagues. “I decided, ‘Maybe I should get a passport and see what this European Tour thing is all about.’ ”

His introduction to the European Tour began with a run through Tunisia, Italy, Spain and France. For aura and adventure that beats any four-week run on the minitours by 7-and-6. Plus, “I made all the cuts and was having the time of my life,” said Teravainen.

He knew he was separating himself from a possible PGA Tour career, but it didn’t matter. European Tour membership afforded him a chance to play the Safari Tour in South Africa, the Brazilian Open, and soon the door was opened to Asia and the Australasian Tour.

“Playing golf around the world just got in my blood. It was never something I planned for.”

Should you measure success in the shallowest of ways – strictly by wins and money – you might brush aside the Teravainen resume. He won his only European Tour tournament at the 1995 Czech Open, had two highlight wins in Japan (including the 1996 Japan Open), and there were appearances in six Open Championships and two U.S. Opens.

To focus on wins and money, however, is to shortchange the true flavor of his story and ignore the fact that Peter Teravainen had the gumption to do what many of us might dream of but never will. He followed his heart, he took on a sense of adventure, and he lived for the love of the game and not the glory of money.

Teravainen settled on Singapore because 35 weeks of yearly travel was a grind “and this was always a great place to come home to . . . everything is just so orderly and safe.” Teravainen had found success with a fourth-place finish at the 1985 Singapore Open but a year later the tournament visit to that country brought an exponentially bigger reward.

“I was with a group of golfers getting some local food,” said Teravainen. “The four of us had our food but nowhere to sit. A girl waves us poor lost souls over (and gave up her table). Two years later, that girl who waved us over became my wife.”

Tan Kwee Choon is Singaporean of Chinese descent and her western name is Veronica. “So, she is Veron T and I am Peter T,” said Teravainen. Their daughter, who was born in 1991, has a Finnish first name, a nod to Teravainen’s descent, “and my wife and I consulted an expert in Chinese astrology to get the Siying middle name.”

So exquisitely eclectic and embracive of the international cultures that have surrounded Teravainen for more than half his life.

He will tell you that the clubs were put in the closet 12 years ago “and they haven’t come out.” But forever in love with golf, Teravainen has found another outlet to quench his passion for the game. Kim Baldwin, an Aussie who was the former head of the Singapore National golf team, asked Teravainen to speak with a young golfer who was interested in an Ivy League school.

“It really opened my eyes up to how complicated the recruiting process had become,” said Teravainen, who, not surprisingly, has become a quick learner. He connected with a friend from the New England competitive golf world of the 1970s, BU women’s golf coach Bruce Chalas, and told him of a talented player from Vietnam who would be a perfect recruit.

Hanako Kawasaki in 2021-22 closed out a brilliant career for the Terriers and Teravainen has found collegiate homes for other young Asian golfers.

“My eyes are always open to try to help other kids have the journey to the U.S. to attend college,” said Teravainen, who knows there a sense of sweet symmetry in those words. That’s because Taina Siying chose to attend Emerson College in Boston then stay at UMass-Boston for a master's degree.

“Looks like I am ending up a longtime resident of Singapore and my daughter a longtime resident of Massachusetts.”