MORE than 100 friends gathered at Dunham Forest Golf and Country Club to honour Ian Wrigley with a Pro-Am in his name marking his retirement as head professional of over 30 years standing.

Although he officially closed up shop in 2014, a busy schedule for him and the club meant the event was put on hold until this year.

Far from hanging up his golf shoes though, Wrigley is still very busy with refereeing, teaching, playing and sometimes writing.

“Dunham was an incredible journey for me and will always be a special place where I still enjoy my golf and association with the club and members," he said.

"It has been a memorable day and I have been really touched by all the friends who organised this.”

Wrigley's career has now spanned 50 years from when, at the age of 17, he started as an assistant to the late Dave Thomas at Dunham.

Although he was head-hunted to be professional at Portugal's Vale do Lobo for a while, he missed playing and returned to England where he became attached to Dunham as their touring professional for a year.

Always innovative within golf, he left to set up one of the first indoor video golf schools in Europe and then went on to be director of a successful event company organising prestigious corporate tournaments.

In 1983 he was asked to take up the position of head professional at Dunham.

Over the years he used his experience to build up the pro shop, run corporate days and initiate several new Open events for the club.

Wrigley set up a state-of-the-art indoor golf coaching academy in the underused squash courts, a forerunner of today's superb facility.

While at Dunham, Wrigley's lively interests in the rules of golf led him to become a rules official and among his memorable highlights were refereeing at the USPGA in America, the Solheim Cup in Ireland and the inaugural Paul Lawrie Matchplay in Scotland.

The PGA also enlisted his expertise in putting together the rules exam papers for the assistant professionals and giving rules seminars at their headquarters at the Belfry.

“Golf has given me a wonderful career and still continues to play a major role in my life," he added.

"I have met amazing people along the way and it was lovely to see so many of my old golfing professional pals turn up to take part.

"I was also touched by the email from Peter Allis and his wife Jackie who were sorry they could not be there on the day but wished me well and – in Peter's words – couldn't believe the old man (meaning me) had been retired over a year now, but hoped the sun shone on me and our paths crossed in the not too distant future. Great words from a great man.

“The work that went into the day and the many people who sponsored and supported the event in so many ways was really humbling.

“I am not one who courts the limelight and was pretty apprehensive but it was so amazing that I didn’t want it to end.”

With some senior events on the horizon who knows if Wrigley's playing career may have a resurgence and if tenacity and hard work is anything to go by, well as they say – watch this space.

The top team on the day with 92 points was Apollo’s Eagles comprising Nick Gilks, Daniel Dunn, Ian Lloyd and Rob Shaw with 92 points, well clear of Glenmuir led by Abhishek Ruia 84 and Wrightstuff led by Carly Booth with 83.