Giving my best hit, I watched as the golf ball rolled away.
‘So close,’ my date Joe, then 20, mocked as I missed the hole.
Meeting in a bar just a few weeks before, in 2012, me and Joe spent the night talking.
Being in the army, based an hour away from home, the thought of a man in uniform was a pleasant surprise, too.
Working away Monday to Friday, Joe would come back at the weekend, which was the perfect time to book in dates.
Not only that, but Joe was a real romantic.
My mum Bernie, 64, and dad Dave, 69, thought the same.
And at every opportunity Joe would gift me a bunch of flowers with four white roses scattered in between.
White roses soon became a tradition – there would always be a small bouquet on the side.
Beginning his first tour with the Royal Mechanical Engineers, Joe was sent to