A Past President, Rules Official, Handicap Chair and Dedicated Volunteer, Richard Wood Embodied the Best Qualities of the RDGA
By DAVE EATON
Since 2019, the RDGA has hosted an annual event honoring one of it’s past Presidents and a dedicated volunteer who worked tirelessly to advance the causes of the RDGA in the local golfing community. Today, many RDGA members play in the RDGA Richard Wood Kickoff Scramble, but as the years have passed, many of those players no longer remember Richard Wood – nor what his contributions were.
This month, it will have been 13 years since the passing of Richard Wood. Wood served as District President in 2005, following many years on the RDGA Board, as well as a being a senior USGA Rules Official and serving as the RDGA Handicap Committee Chair. As Handicap Committee Chair – in the days before the GHIN system went to a full online presence – Wood and fellow Board member Larry Faulkner personally visited every RDGA Member Club to oversee their GHIN administration.
“He was an expert Rules Official all the time that I knew him and, of course, he was the Handicap Chairman and, again, an expert at that also,” recalled fellow RDGA Board member Larry Faulkner. “He also worked at Kodak and at the time was a skilled scuba diver working on camera that would function under water.
In addition to his duties with the RDGA, Wood was also a tireless volunteer in the local community – both as a Rotarian as well as a long time volunteer for the Rochester LPGA at Locust Hill Country Club, where was in charge of course marshals.
During his lifetime, in 2007, Wood was honored by the RDGA with the prestigious RDGA Lifetime Achievement Award.
Faulkner, who passed away in 2024, was one of Wood’s closest friends and associates at the RDGA, as both were involved in the early years of online tournament management and GHIN Handicapping.
“He was a computer expert who was deliberate and methodical. Working with the Handicap software and the Tournament Pairings Program on the computers of twenty years ago was working with dial-up and slow transmission speeds,” Faulkner remembered in 2019. “We attended quite a few Rules Workshops and GHIN Users Meetings (GUM) and during our many long travels to distant clubs he would relate to me many of the plots and funny lines from his favorite show, Seinfeld.”
In 2019, six years after his passing, the RDGA named it’s season-opening Two Person Scramble in honor of Wood. Today, it is one of the RDGA’s most popular events, typically selling out withing a day of opening for registration.
This year, the 2026 RDGA Richard Wood Kickoff Scramble returns to that venue where the very first Wood Kickoff was held, The Links at Greystone. The event has once again filled to capacity and on Monday, May 4, a field of 144 RDGA member golfers will enjoy a day of fun and cameraderie on the golf course – something that Wood, no doubt, be pleased with.
“He cared deeply about the RDGA and worked tirelessly to promote the RDGA and the USGA,” Faulkner remembered.
