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On release from hospital I gave up my house in Chester, where I had
lived for thirty-six years, and went to live with my daughter and
her family in Ormskirk, not far from the Golf Club where I had
received the news of my Ryder Cup selection over sixty years before.
As I look back on a lifetime in golf I can say that my only regret
is that I never had the honour of representing my country in the
Ryder Cup. Certainly, when you think about the post war boom in
golf, I was born twenty-five years too soon. When I was playing in
the big events like the News of the World Matchplay Championship
seventy years ago the first prize had some way to go to reach £1000;
In 2003 Ernie Els won the first million pound cheque for his victory
in the H.S.B.C. World Matchplay Championship. Makes you think! - but
I see the game as being more like a big business now, not the sport
it was in my day. I had some great times and made some wonderful
friends - and I had the pleasure and privilege of playing with some
of the games greatest characters.
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