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A few weeks later I made a nostalgic trip back to play at Market
Drayton, where I had been pro seventy years earlier. It was a
memorable day.
That year the Gadd family was struck again by tragedy, when our
youngest son, Tim, died suddenly at his home in Sheffield at the age
of 49. Tim, who had followed a teaching career and retired as
Headmaster, had started playing golf seriously in his early forties
and reduced his handicap from 23 to 6 after winning several trophies
at the Hallamshire Club in Sheffield, where Percy Alliss had first
been introduced to golf.
Tim had been a big influence in persuading me to return to the game
and he had taken me to play at many of my old haunts in the last few
years. My most treasured memory of those trips was the one he
arranged to Muirfield in 1989. I had not been back since 1935, but I
found
the club had changed little in the intervening fifty odd years since
that eventful week at the Open – it is a place where you can truly
say that time has stood still. It is very understated being left to
speak for itself, with simple markers on the tees – no hole number,
yardage or stroke index, and there was no automatic watering. There
is no professional’s shop – the club have never seen the need to
have a pro, but tees, balls and course guides are available in the
clubhouse and if you need the services of a pro there is one just
down the road at Gullane. It is a very self-contained and private
place and you can’t arrange a ‘quick game’ at Muirfield, for
visitors tee times are strictly rationed. You could only play on
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Friday mornings, but not during July and
August. When Tim rang the club that June he was advised that he must
apply in writing enclosing a letter of introduction from our home
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