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| Forewords Bert Gadd outlived almost all his contemporaries but one who knew him for over sixty years was an Open Champion who kindly provided a foreword. It is supplemented by tributes from his long golfing life, including some from newspapers of the pre-war period.  The foreword is introduced with a quote from one of our greatest
match players, the Ryder Cup player and captain, Dai Rees, who was
one of Bert’s opponents in his tournament days. When he visited the
last club that Bert served as professional-Bishop Auckland, he told
former Gadd pupil, Mike Cosgrove, that he had never seen a better
iron player than Bert Gadd, a tribute endorsed by those who
witnessed Bert’s impressive ball striking including Mike himself,
Bob Hindhaugh from another of Bert’s clubs, Beamish Park and Dave
Thomas, who was then a young assistant at the Northumberland Golf
Club. A member of Dai Rees’s winning Ryder cup team in 1957, Max Faulkner, who passed away in 2005, was the last of the front line players who were Bert’s pre-war rivals. He and Bert began their tournament careers in the halcyon golfing days of the thirties and both made their Open debut at Prince’s in 1932 - Bert was 23 and Max, who was to win the championship in 1951, was a 16-year-old assistant at the Sonning club in Berkshire. Here are Max’s memories of Bert:
Bert Gadd’s career on the professional tournament circuit began in
1932 and lasted for just eight years.
During that period he won two national open championships, one of
which was clinched with two closing eagles, perhaps a unique
accomplishment. (There are very few championship courses that afford
the opportunity to do it). He became a formidable match-player,
representing England six times and was in the top dozen
professionals in Britain when the Second World War brought about a
long suspension of competitive golf. |
I
am not surprised that Dai Rees said that he never played
with a better iron player than Bert. I remember him as a
wonderful player with a swing equal to the best and I
always felt that his ability should have brought him
more success. My abiding memory goes back to the 1937
Irish Open at Royal Portrush, where I was to win my Open
Championship fourteen years later. I was well placed to
celebrate my 21st birthday by taking the Irish title
until Bert played a succession of magnificent long
irons, finishing with two eagles. Bert’s 69 that day
left me requiring an eagle myself at the final hole and,
in attempting to get my three, I charged past the hole
and ended up having to settle for par, which dropped me
to third place. When I met Bert again over sixty years
later at Nailcote Hall in Warwickshire, where we
celebrated the 50th anniversary of my Open win, I
reminded him that he had done me out of thirty quid – on
my 21st! - but we were still pals. He was a lovely chap.