Sad News

[tincup]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I thought I should let the PGA2000 community know that another of our hard core players has passed away.

Gary Willford, 72, whose golfing name was "poppy", had been battling a lot of health problems for a few years. The fight took a toll on him and his heart finally gave out.

Gary was an old navy guy with a vocabulary to match. He had a quick wit and a dry sense of humor. He knew the lyrics to practically every song from the 50s-70s and was prone to breaking out in song during a game. In fact, we gave him the nickname Garyioke.

Please join me in saying a prayer for Gary and his family. He will be missed.

Dar

[hookster]

Yep I agree Dar. It got to the point that we had to tell Gary Wednesday was a no singing day so we could get a break. I will miss the old guy, he was a blast to play with. Hey Gary!!!! From one old Navy guy to another. Anchors Away my friend.

[BrianZ111]

This news makes me sad. Not expected but not unexpected either, I knew he was getting older. Back in the day we used to play quite a bit. When I would log in to the WON server I would look for him before picking up a game with someone random. I felt like we had a special connection that I can’t really say about anyone else I played PGA 2000 with. They were good times playing with him, Indy, Ali, Woody, Ogilvy, The Wizard and others. Guess since it was chat only when I played I got lucky and I missed out on the singing. Did get a chance to play once with him over voice chat though when I released Peninsula State Park and a group of us tested it. Wish that wasn’t the last time. Hope he understood, the last 4 years were crazy busy for me but I wish I had made some time for the occasional game. With recently trying to get PGA 2000 working online in Windows 8 with my WGC friends, one thing I was hoping to do once I got it working was play another round with Poppy like old times. Even though it’s been a long time I’ll still miss him.

[Kelciejammer]

Gary Willford is going to be missed very much in our little golf world online. The guy was alot of fun to play with. I am going to miss his Garyokie singing on teamspeak. He was definitley a barrel of fun to be with. Enjoyed his company and he will be missed alot. Our prayers go out to his family in this time of sorrow. Thanks for the memories Gary. Your friend, Kelcie Card

[Clementine49]

I met Gary in 1999 on the WON Server. At that time I had just started TruSwing and he beat me on a regular basis. We enjoyed many games
with several of the early WON players. Over the years we grew to become good friends. His Parkinsons was not bad at that time and his was
a consistently fine player. I went to the Roger Wilco Ladder and did not play him again on a regular basis until I came back to the Kali
Server. Gary and Jack were playing pards at that time, so I joined them to be with my good friend again.As time passed Gary's Parkinsons
became more troublesome. It made him angry and frustrated but he played on as he truly loved the game. Even then his mind and memory
were quick and his sense of humor unmatched. I have met many players over the years that are now departed, but I shall miss Gary the most.
I shall see you soon my friend. Clementine49

[Indy Anna Jones]

I knew I hadn't been here for a while, but I didn't think it had been nearly a year. I'm so very sorry to hear this news. When I started replaying PGA in 2004 Poppy adopted me into his "harem" of female players and we became very good online friends. I couldn't begin to count the number of games we played together; both my husband and Poppy's wife said we spent more time together than with our spouses; that was probably true for a couple of years.

Gary was very helpful and totally patient with playing and replaying my/our courses during the design stage and always had some good suggestions to make. I don't recall hearing him sing, but I could always count on a good joke or two each round.

Anyway, here's one last toast of a Mai Tai, our "favorite 19th hole drink" to my dear old friend. I'm so sorry I just up and disappeared from our afternoon games with Jack and Clementine.

[SteveHorn]

I didn't know Poppy but its always sad to here one of our community members has passed away. I hope he find's peace and love in his after life.

[BrianZ111]

I thought of Poppy yesterday as Sergio took the Masters. He was confident Sergio would win a major one day. Finally, he was right.

[Diguelo]

Its a long time since I played with poppy. My deepest condolencies to the family and friends