By Harold Brough
Liverpool Daily Post and Echo
AS the survivors of the first qualifying rounds pursue their dreams of a place in the Open at Muirfield, Bert Gadd is looking back to his own distant days on the famous links, also playing in the greatest event in world golf. Bert, a member at Ellesmere Port, is 93 now and no longer plays the game. But in the years before World War II he was both a professional and an international and in seven Opens he was never out of the top 20.
They included Muirfield in 1935. Bert travelled by steam train on the way there and, as he remembers now, by bus or another train to a bed and breakfast or small hotel. He never owned a car but used a motorbike, not convenient for carrying golf clubs and kit.
"There were no stands at the Open then," he says. "No vast crowds, no tented villages. You could not imagine a scene more different from today."
Bert was placed fourth that year, his best Open finish. "I never thought I had a chance of winning," he says. "But I did think I might have come second but I got into a bit of trouble over the last few holes.
"I remember the winner got £100 and I got £30 in prize money. Well, when they made the presentation I was given a slip of paper saying the money would be posted to me.
"Three weeks later I had still not got it. I wrote asking what had happened and, after a day or two, I got the money and a letter saying the delay was caused by pressure of business.
"But then apparently that happened to Tom Lehman (American winner of the Open at Royal Lytham in 1996. He had to wait too. But then he got £200,000 which was worth waiting for."
Bert was one of six brothers, one of five to become professional golfers. He was professional at the old West Cheshire Club, now long gone, and in a long and distinguished career he won the French and Irish Opens, played for England six times and never lost a singles, and in 1939 he would have played in the Ryder Cup but World War II started the month before the planned match.
He played his first Open in 1932 at Prince's Sandwich, making the long journey with a friend in an old Austin. His partners includes the winner that year, the American Gene Sarazen, one of many stars he has known.
They include Henry Cotton. He beat Cotton, on the last green and also lost to him once, in the Penfold League Tournament and says: "He was very focused, always concentrating, a great player and particularly in the wind."
He never actually played with Bobby Jones but he watched the American at Royal Liverpool and says he is the best he ever saw. "He made the game look so easy. He never seemed to be in any trouble. Two shots to the green, two putts. You never thought he was doing anything extraordinary until you saw his score."
When he was in his 80s, Bert's son took him back on a sentimental journey to play Muirfield once again. "It's a real test of golf," says Bert. "You always get the wind and there it does blow."
He talks of the way the game has 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.
"But it is not a sport any more but big money now. Do you ever see anyone smile now? Or have a chat?
"The status of professionals is different too.
"Also away from your own club you were not allowed near the clubhouse. You changed wherever you could."
He remained a very fine golfer up the time a heart attack and chest infection ended his playing days.
When he was aged 88 he returned a gross 74. Now he does not even hit a few putts on the putting green. He admits he is envious of those he calls the youngsters aged 70, still playing. But he is still a member at Ellesmere Port, handicap secretary and vice president.
Almost 70 years after he walked the Muirfield fairways he will watch the Open there on television. "It will bring back lots of memories," he says. "I will see them play the same holes I made a mess of! "
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