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In a tie for second at Carnoustie were Peter Thomson, the
Argentinean Tony Cerda, Dai Rees and the amateur Frank Stranahan.
Frank played with Hogan in practise and my old rivals-Charlie Ward
and Max Faulkner also had the privilege of a game with the ‘Wee Ice
Mon’, as the locals called him, but I did not make it to Carnoustie.
[Bert was to make only one more appearance in the Championship] My old friend Charlie Ward, now 44, was back in form that year, with
his first win in five years-after laying off tournament play for a
while due to putting problems. He defeated Eric Brown in a 36-hole
play-off to win the PGA Close Championship at Maesdu, despite
Brown’s course record 66 in the first round. Charlie had a 68 and
followed with 71 to Eric’s 75 to win by two shots.
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That year I had moved to my last club, Bishop Auckland, a fine
course situated on the High Plains parkland surrounding the Bishop
of Durham’s Palace. Golf had first been played there by theological
students around 1890 and the office of Club President is still held
by the Bishop of Durham. The course was constantly being improved
during my time at the club, under the guidance of the Chairman of
Greens - Ronnie Rodham. The club’s centenary book recalls that one
of his ‘improvements’ was to fill in a gully between the 16th and
17th fairways, which had become known as Rodham’s Folly. He had an
extra long driver with a whippy shaft that tended to produce a hook
and he was often a visitor to that gully.
Another recollection was
from my partner in Alliance matches, George Robinson. In those days
pros were handicapped when playing in Alliance pro/ams and I was off
+2. George remembered one winter Teesside Alliance event at Saltburn
where we returned a gross 67 (nett 69) to win by two strokes – and,
although he had six nett birdies, his score was never needed on the
card.