Bill simply the best in our book

Sep 25 2008 by Tim Taylor, The Journal

GOLFER of the Year in the North East? This is the last Teeing Off column of 2008, so by now there will be many who secretly will fancy themselves. But if anybody can match Bill Gradon, The Journal has yet to hear about it.

You will need to read the rest of this paragraph carefully to take it in the enormity of what he has achieved. At the age of 75 – he’s 76 on November 15 – Graydon signed for a gross 66 to win the Senior Captain’s Day at his club, Morpeth, a competition for which par was 71, with the course measuring 5,872 yards.

To put that in context, even the best of the elder statesmen of the European Seniors Tour are delighted should they shoot their age, which hardly ever happens. But nine shots below it?

The Journal’s Dr John, Matfen Hall’s director of coaching John Harrison, said: “I have never heard of anybody doing anything remotely like this, ever. It is unbelievable. This just doesn’t happen. Any golfer anywhere in the world would be proud of pulling off an amazing feat like this. What he has done is absolutely incredible.”

Morpeth’s general manager, Terry Minett, meanwhile, is waiting for the Guinness Book of Records to decide on whether their hero will be in the next issue, having trawled through relevant websites and discovering nothing better than a 68-year-old shooting a 66.

A former Northumberland CIU Champion, Gradon learned his golf at Newbiggin, where he played for six years before switching to Morpeth 33 years ago.

Playing off a handicap of six on his big day – he’s now off five – he collected an eagle, six birdies and three bogeys in his nett 60, the eagle arriving at the par four 15th where he chipped in from 55 yards with a pitching wedge.

“It was one of those days when it all felt so easy,” he said. “I had the three bogeys in the first four holes, but from then on I hit the green every time and I was always putting for birdie.”

Morpeth are to present Gradon with a bronzed replica of his scorecard and what adds lustre to the feat is that, by common consent, Gradon is one of the most courteous and endearing golfers ever to swing a club.

Born in 1932 – a year in which George V was still on the throne and Al Capone was sent to prison – Gradon was brought up at Ouston, near Chester-le-Street, and went to school at Pelton Modern.

He worked as a maintenance electrician, for 22 years with the Coal Board and for a quarter of a century with Searle Pharmaceuticals and these days supplements his pension with the odd spot of decorating and electrical work.

A youngster during the depression of the 1930s, the nearest Gradon will ever come to boasting is to say, with a mixture of pride and concern in his voice: “I was never on the dole and I am still blessed with excellent health.

“I don’t get any aches and pains after I play golf and, taking all that into account, you can’t ask for much more than that from life.”

Before ripping it up on his home golf course – his first prize was £15 – Gradon already had a link to sporting success. As a footballer, he spent the last six months of Sir Bobby Robson’s amateur career playing outside-left to the future England and Newcastle manager’s inside-left with the Langley Park Colliery Welfare team.

At the time, Gradon was an apprentice electrician at the Washington pit and he recalls: “Bobby was snapped up by Fulham, where they made him a wing-half. He was outstanding for Langley Park – flair, ability, speed, the lot.”

Gradon, who promotes the ethos of approaching sport with a competitive spirit, is a regular church-goer at St Mary Magdalene in the village of Mitford.

Once a week he organises table-tennis and pool competitions for under-16s under the Mustard Tree Trust scheme at the Pegswood Union Enterprise Centre.

Martin Jackson, in his 25th year as the Morpeth club professional, said: “Bill is one of the good guys. He has not got a bad bone in his body and he will do anything to help anybody out if he can.

“As a golfer, he has an economical swing in that he just turns the club one way and then the other and he keeps the ball in play. In the summer he practises a lot, therefore he gets better. That’s Bill, a nice guy who keeps everything simple.”