Farewell to a golfing gentleman - December 4, 2003

By Harold Brough, Daily Post
From the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

THE MANY friends of Bert Gadd, from the golf community and elsewhere, will be gathering tomorrow to say a final farewell to a well-loved gentleman and a fine golfer, a professional and international. His past record includes playing in seven Opens where he was never out of the top 20. In more recent times his deeds at Ellesmere Port, where he was a member, included one round which will become part of local golf legend. There, aged 88, he returned a gross 74 - 14 strokes below his age.

He was 95 when he died following a fall and a broken hip. After the operation he suffered a heart attack. At Ellesmere Port Golf Club, Ken Jones, chairman of handicaps for the who knew Bert for the last 12 years of his life, says: "He was a jolly, unassuming man, very quiet, but meticulous in whatever he did." That included his work on handicaps for the veterans "I used to send him bits and pieces in the post," says Ken. "Ssometimes he would phone me back saying - you need to go back to school!"

Bert was one of six brothers, one of five to become professional golfers. He was professional at the old West Cheshire, now long gone, and, in a long and distinguished career. he won the French and Irish Opens, played for England six times and remained unbeaten in the singles.

He played his first Open in 1932, at Prince's, Sandwich, driving there with a friend in an old Austin. His partners included the winner that year, the American Gene Sarazen. Bert was fourth in the Open in 1935, eighth in 1938 and he was selected for the 1939 Ryder Cup. But then World War Two started the month before the planned match.

The last time we talked was last year before the Open at Muirfield, where he had played in the Open of 1939. He had travelled there by steam train and stayed at a bed and breakfast. He talked of the way the game had changed. "When I was in my 80s, with modern clubs and in normal conditions, I was hitting the ball as far as I could in the 1930s. That is the difference in golf equipment," he said. "But it is not a sport any more but big money now. Do you ever see anyone smile now?"

He also played with the great Henry Cotton. He beat Cotton once, lost to him on another occasion and recalled a player with great concentration, a great player, he said, and in windy conditions.

And the greatest? He never actually played with Bobby Jones but watched the American at Royal Liverpool and thought Jones, winner of the Open and the Amateur on both sides of the Atlantic in the same year, as the best he saw. "He made the game look so easy, two shots to the green, two putts. You never thought he was doing anything extraordinary until you saw his score," he recalled.

Bert's gross 74, aged 88, was something of a triumphant farewell. His playing days ended that year after a heart attack and a chest infection. He did not even hit a few putts. He admitted he was envious of those he called the "youngsters" - those aged 70 and still playing.

The youngsters include Ken, who is now 72 and who used to play off a handicap of six. His memories include the day when Bert was playing behind a chap who was "a bit bolshie". "Bert hit his second shot to the green, the ball spinning back about four feet to the hole. "The player in front asked: 'How do you do that?' "Bert told him if he went to the professional he would tell him and that the lesson would cost him about £30. But Bert told him how to play the shot anyway."

Ken recalls Bert's great golf achievements and thinks also of what more he might have achieved if that Ryder Cup of 1939 had not been cancelled because of the outbreak of the war. "I think in a way the war ruined things for him in golf terms. I think it did take a lot from what he might have achieved," he said.

But as a playing partner he remembers a golfer who was very accurate, a very fine ball-striker indeed. Like others, he remembers a fine gentleman.

The funeral is at Chester Blacon at noon tomorrow.