Toski remembers friend and fellow instructor Flick

• By Randall Mell
• Nov 5, 2012 8:41 PM ET

Jim Flick taught with his heart as much as he did with his head.

Bob Toski (pictured) found that out before they ever met to start the Golf Digest Schools four decades ago.

“I never thought we would ever become friends,” Toski said Monday night after receiving news that Flick lost his battle with cancer. “I screwed up before we ever met. Jim called to invite me to teach at a clinic with him in Ohio, and I never showed up. I got the date wrong, but you know what? He forgave me, and we became friends. It all started with the Golf Digest Schools. ”

Toski and Flick got together in 1971 to start one of the most successful golf schools in the game’s history. Toski, Flick, Davis Love, John Jacobs and Eddie Merrins all worked the Golf Digest Schools together and all were inducted into the World Golf Teachers Hall of Fame.

“There will never be another school as successful as that,” Toski said. “Five Hall of Fame teachers working together. We were and are in a class by ourselves.”

Toski and Flick combined to write the definitive instruction book, “How to Become a Complete Golfer.” They taught a simple system of “swing, turn and shift.”

“Jim deserves a lot of credit for the schools’ curriculum and the success of the schools,” Toski said. “We became like family, traveling and teaching all over the world together. We went to England, Scotland, Spain, France, Germany, Japan, the Philippines. You name it. We taught everywhere but the moon.”

Toski will remember Flick as a friend and something else.

“He was a consummate teacher, and he was a true gentleman,” Toski said.