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Page 4

Here is a tribute from Ken Jones: -

I first met Bert when I joined the ranks of the ‘Vets’ at Ellesmere Port and it was my weekly rounds with him that enabled me to reduce my handicap from 15 to 10 in 2 ˝ months. Bert was Handicap Secretary and I would help him to check the cards after our competitions. Although he was then in his late eighties nothing got past him – he would often phone me if I made a mistake saying: “Ken, you ought to go back to school”.
We often talked about his life in professional golf and the great players he knew, who feature in this book. He achieved so much in such a short career at the top and we will never know how many more titles he would have won if war had not taken away his ‘prime’ years in the game, as it did for so many of his contemporaries.
Bert always said that his brother Charles, who was badly disabled in the First World War, was a better golfer than he was. I can only say that Charles must have been some golfer. Mind you, that was the way Bert was – a quiet, unassuming, gentleman. The best tribute I can pay to him is that I hope some of his qualities have rubbed off on me.
I will never forget Bert, nor will anyone who knew him. We were very privileged to have such a great golfer – and great man – at Ellesmere Port Golf Club.

Ken Jones
Ellesmere Port G. C.
2004 

Bert Gadd was based in the North East from 1939 to 1959 as a part-time professional and won 33 trophies one of them in nine consecutive years, surely a record! In seven consecutive seasons from 1953-1959 he won the Northumberland and Durham Golf Alliance Cup for the lowest aggregate score, a trophy that had been won on six occasions by his brother Charles. Bert’s friend and fellow professional, Maurice Strong from the Chester-le-Street club, now 85, recalls how they carried their clubs on to buses and in to pubs after playing in those tournaments.
A final tribute comes from one of Britain’s finest ever golfers, who was a young assistant in the North East when Bert was dominating golf in the region in the 1950s. The former Ryder Cup player and Captain of the PGA in their centenary year of 2001, Dave Thomas, now a respected course designer, had this to say: -
 
Dave Thomas pictured at the Belfry 2005"When I first became a professional when I was 16 years of age, Bert Gadd was a legend in the North East as the best player and it was one of my ambitions to be as good as Bert Gadd. I used to go and play at Brancepeth Castle in Co. Durham hoping to see Bert, but of course wouldn't dare go and speak to him!

It was very pleasing for both of us when we met a few years ago, when he was in his nineties, at the 2001 Nailcote Hall celebration dinner in honour of Max Faulkner and he was amazed when I told him he was one of my heroes. I was astonished when he told me that I was a hero in his eyes when I became a Ryder Cup player.”

Dave Thomas,
Marbella
2004

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