Well it was 12 months yesterday that our good friend Rick was taken from us far too early.
These last 12 months have gone so quickly, and there hadn't been that many days where something didn't trigger a thought of him, especially as I, like Rick did, travel around the country doing what he loved best, playing golf.
Some months ago I contacted his Centurion Golf Club which he was so proud to be a member of and where tragically he collapsed and I asked them if I could play on the 17th August, the day he passed.
I was more than happy to pay any green fee, I wasn't looking for anything other than to pay my respects on the anniversary of his passing and where better to do that but on his own exclusive course.
And so yesterday I travelled down early in torrential rain courtesy of his very thoughtful club who gave me a fourball to play at Centurion in Rick's memory with some other friends that I think he would want me with.
For someone I only met through the golfing fraternity some 6 years ago but played with him many times all over the country and many times at his Centurion club, his loss is something I have never felt or experienced before, such is the impact this great man could have on people.
So I arrived at Centurion to meet my guests Richard (Richart), Richard (Blue In Munich) and Paul (PNWokingham) and almost immediately as I drove through the large gates I started to well up as memories started to drift back to me from previous visits.
A bacon butty and coffee was consumed as we waited for Rick Wilson to arrive along with his playing partner (sorry forgotten his name) and then we headed off to the practice area.
A great day then followed on the Centurion course, full of mixed emotions with some good, average and totally crap golf thrown in.
If Rick was looking down at us hacking his beloved course up he would have been wetting himself with laughter, maybe that's what all the rain was
It really was brutal out there, if you missed the fairway by just a few inches your ball was sitting just covered in wet, dense but well manicured thick rough that was tough as old boots to get out of, there was no first cut along many if any of the fairways!
If you pulled or carved anything off the tee it was a reload, the wind was as brutal as the straw or the folding grass was when trying to find a ball.
So I've left a few balls out there with the infamous [fish] markings on, a bit like a cat sprays it's territory, I've deposited my balls and I threw my last ball from the 18th green into the pond in some kind of spontaneous symbolic gesture as both Rick and I in our last 2 Gents Invitation matches never finished the 18th and both got our balls wet!
The company I chose to play with today were 100% the right choice, and I thank them for joining and sharing the day with me.
I also can't thank the Centurion club enough and for Rick Wilson's input and support for allowing me to play today on the anniversary of Rick's passing.
The meal in the Michelin star chef's Galvin restaurant was excellent afterwards, like everything as soon as you enter the gates the Centurion oozes quality, and I will join it one day, possibly as a corporate member.
As we walked the course in various directions leaving the tee blocks like a Red Arrows formation team, we entered areas such as Doggers Wood to find our [my] balls. At times when we looked for all our wayward shots we shared our stories from playing with Rick over the years and raised a glass to him with our meal.
Now I've got to concentrate on filling the big shoes that Rick has left me to fill with the Help for Heroes Golf Monthly Forum Charity Day in four weeks at Hankley Common, a day when you good people of the forum along with guests all with a common interest travel the length & breadth of the country to play the game he loved so much and a charity he supported and felt passionately about.
Rick was the founder of this great day where we raise thousands for the charity each year and I will do my very best to carry Ricks legacy on hopefully for many years to come along with the rest of the H4H team.
The funniest part of the day was when BIM was over his ball ready to chip to the green from the side of a greenside bunker, he had left his trolley at the top of a hill only for the wind to nudge it and it come rolling at speed down the hill and crash into the bunker :rofl: You could sense he was not amused, but when you look at the photo you can spot Paul in the opposite bunker, who suitably nukes his ball out nearly taking BIM's head off in his bunker as he's trying to sort his bag out with Paul's ball coming to rest between BIM's feet :rofl: It was typical forum comedy gold, but BIM did go quiet for a hole, especially as he lost 2 balls on the next hole and I missed a 2 footer for par to half the front 9, so we went £3 down
Paul slashing one out of the bunker whilst BIM was in the opposite one would have had Rick in tears, and it's moments like this when these days are all the greater for playing and looking back on.
Richart & Paul won the front 9, BIM and myself won the back 9 and the match, and the photo of the ball near the hole was BIM's hole in one attempt on the 17th :thup:
RIP my friend, and thanks for the memories.
These last 12 months have gone so quickly, and there hadn't been that many days where something didn't trigger a thought of him, especially as I, like Rick did, travel around the country doing what he loved best, playing golf.
Some months ago I contacted his Centurion Golf Club which he was so proud to be a member of and where tragically he collapsed and I asked them if I could play on the 17th August, the day he passed.
I was more than happy to pay any green fee, I wasn't looking for anything other than to pay my respects on the anniversary of his passing and where better to do that but on his own exclusive course.
And so yesterday I travelled down early in torrential rain courtesy of his very thoughtful club who gave me a fourball to play at Centurion in Rick's memory with some other friends that I think he would want me with.
For someone I only met through the golfing fraternity some 6 years ago but played with him many times all over the country and many times at his Centurion club, his loss is something I have never felt or experienced before, such is the impact this great man could have on people.
So I arrived at Centurion to meet my guests Richard (Richart), Richard (Blue In Munich) and Paul (PNWokingham) and almost immediately as I drove through the large gates I started to well up as memories started to drift back to me from previous visits.
A bacon butty and coffee was consumed as we waited for Rick Wilson to arrive along with his playing partner (sorry forgotten his name) and then we headed off to the practice area.
A great day then followed on the Centurion course, full of mixed emotions with some good, average and totally crap golf thrown in.
If Rick was looking down at us hacking his beloved course up he would have been wetting himself with laughter, maybe that's what all the rain was
It really was brutal out there, if you missed the fairway by just a few inches your ball was sitting just covered in wet, dense but well manicured thick rough that was tough as old boots to get out of, there was no first cut along many if any of the fairways!
If you pulled or carved anything off the tee it was a reload, the wind was as brutal as the straw or the folding grass was when trying to find a ball.
So I've left a few balls out there with the infamous [fish] markings on, a bit like a cat sprays it's territory, I've deposited my balls and I threw my last ball from the 18th green into the pond in some kind of spontaneous symbolic gesture as both Rick and I in our last 2 Gents Invitation matches never finished the 18th and both got our balls wet!
The company I chose to play with today were 100% the right choice, and I thank them for joining and sharing the day with me.
I also can't thank the Centurion club enough and for Rick Wilson's input and support for allowing me to play today on the anniversary of Rick's passing.
The meal in the Michelin star chef's Galvin restaurant was excellent afterwards, like everything as soon as you enter the gates the Centurion oozes quality, and I will join it one day, possibly as a corporate member.
As we walked the course in various directions leaving the tee blocks like a Red Arrows formation team, we entered areas such as Doggers Wood to find our [my] balls. At times when we looked for all our wayward shots we shared our stories from playing with Rick over the years and raised a glass to him with our meal.
Now I've got to concentrate on filling the big shoes that Rick has left me to fill with the Help for Heroes Golf Monthly Forum Charity Day in four weeks at Hankley Common, a day when you good people of the forum along with guests all with a common interest travel the length & breadth of the country to play the game he loved so much and a charity he supported and felt passionately about.
Rick was the founder of this great day where we raise thousands for the charity each year and I will do my very best to carry Ricks legacy on hopefully for many years to come along with the rest of the H4H team.
The funniest part of the day was when BIM was over his ball ready to chip to the green from the side of a greenside bunker, he had left his trolley at the top of a hill only for the wind to nudge it and it come rolling at speed down the hill and crash into the bunker :rofl: You could sense he was not amused, but when you look at the photo you can spot Paul in the opposite bunker, who suitably nukes his ball out nearly taking BIM's head off in his bunker as he's trying to sort his bag out with Paul's ball coming to rest between BIM's feet :rofl: It was typical forum comedy gold, but BIM did go quiet for a hole, especially as he lost 2 balls on the next hole and I missed a 2 footer for par to half the front 9, so we went £3 down
Paul slashing one out of the bunker whilst BIM was in the opposite one would have had Rick in tears, and it's moments like this when these days are all the greater for playing and looking back on.
Richart & Paul won the front 9, BIM and myself won the back 9 and the match, and the photo of the ball near the hole was BIM's hole in one attempt on the 17th :thup:
RIP my friend, and thanks for the memories.
