The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Peter Alliss, British sportscaster known as ‘the Voice of Golf,’ dies at 89

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December 6, 2020 at 9:14 p.m. EST
Golf commentator and broadcaster Peter Alliss in 2013. (Mike Egerton/Press Association/AP)

Peter Alliss was one of Europe’s most successful golfers of the 1950s and ’60s, competing in eight Ryder Cup matches against the United States before becoming British television’s most famous golf commentator, known as “the Voice of Golf.” News of his death on Dec. 5, at age 89, lit up social media in Britain, where he had become something of a national treasure beyond golf and even sports in general.

He also had regular spells as a golf commentator for ESPN, ABC and the Australian and Canadian broadcasting corporations, work that earned him far more than his 28-year golfing career. He had made only 30,000 pounds despite winning more than 20 tournaments worldwide, taking the British PGA Championship three times and being named Europe’s best golfer twice.

In a statement broadcast by the BBC, where he worked, his family said his death at home in Hindhead, 45 miles southwest of London, was “unexpected but peaceful.” Mr. Alliss had commented on Dustin Johnson’s victory at the Masters only last month, while broadcasting from home because of his age and coronavirus travel restrictions.

He had planned to retire in September, at age 90, after the Ryder Cup.

Mr. Alliss’s popularity as a commentator for nearly 60 years was largely due to his reassuring, dulcet voice, his knowledge of the game and its history, and his wry, deadpan humor, which sometimes generated controversy.

To some viewers, he sounded like a genial grandpa smoking a pipe and wearing slippers by the fire. “When it comes to painting a picture with words,” a correspondent for the Daily Telegraph once wrote, “he’s nothing short of Rembrandt.” Golf Digest magazine once called him “the greatest golf commentator ever.”

Mr. Alliss became widely recognized as a broadcaster, which, in turn, led to friendships — and golf rounds — with other celebrities around the world. When Sean Connery was shooting the 1964 James Bond movie “Goldfinger,” he asked Mr. Alliss to coach him for his screen golf duel against the film’s eponymous villain.

He also became a leading golf course designer, often working with his friend Dave Thomas. Together they created more than 50 courses, from England and Scotland to Mauritius, Japan and Ivory Coast. The Belfry golf resort in Warwickshire, England, has hosted several Ryder Cups on the courses they designed there and is now home to the world’s oldest Professional Golfers’ Association.

Peter Alliss was born on Feb. 28, 1931, in Berlin, where his father, Percy, was the club professional at the upmarket Wannsee Golf Club. On his personal website, Mr. Alliss claimed to have set a European record on the day he was born — he weighed 14 pounds 11 ounces. His parents hailed from the north of England, and the family returned to Britain when Peter was a baby, just before Hitler came to power.

Mr. Alliss was an infant when he received a set of two-foot-long golf clubs, and decided to turn pro at age 15. His career was interrupted for two years by service in the Royal Air Force, but at 22, in 1953, he was selected to compete on the British and Irish team in the Ryder Cup. In the 1963 Ryder Cup, he beat Arnold Palmer and halved his match with Tony Lema on the same day.

He competed in the World Cup of Golf 10 times, beginning in 1954 when it was known as the Canada Cup. His biggest regret was never winning the British Open, despite five top-10 finishes.

Mr. Alliss, his peers and golf writers all agreed that he was magnificent from tee to green but suffered from the “yips,” a sudden loss of skill while trying to putt. With self-deprecating humor, he even got the registration plate “PUT 3” on his car, meaning three-putt. His putting, he once said, was “like setting fire to money.” In the 1966 Masters, won by Jack Nicklaus, he took five putts from six feet.

To younger generations, Mr. Alliss was known more as a commentator than a golfer. At the 1999 British Open, after Frenchman Jean van de Velde blew a three-shot lead, took off his shoes and tried to play his ball from a stream, Mr. Alliss seemed to speak for everyone watching: “What on earth are you doing? He’s gone ga-ga . . . more Jacques Tati than Jack Nicklaus.”

Once, on hearing an American spectator scream the dreaded phrase “Get in the hole!” when a golfer was driving from the tee on a 600-yard par-five, Mr. Alliss said: “Oh, he’s here again. Chloroform, nurse, please.” When Tiger Woods shot a third-round 81 in a major, the commentator opined: “It’s like turning up to hear Pavarotti sing and finding out he has laryngitis.” And during a rain-swept tournament in Scotland: “One of the good things about rain in Scotland is that most of it ends up as Scotch.”

His most contentious comments, which he eventually learned to avoid, involved women. For years, he opposed allowing female members into golf clubs. They’d “better get married to someone who’s a member,” he said. When American Zach Johnson had a putt to win the 2015 British Open at St. Andrews, a camera zoomed in on his wife. Mr. Alliss whispered: “She’s probably thinking, ‘If this goes in, I get a new kitchen.’ ”

Mr. Alliss wrote more than 20 books on golf and was deeply involved in charities, notably involving power wheelchairs for young people with disabilities. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2012.

His marriage to Joan McGuinness ended in divorce, and in 1969 he married Jacqueline Grey. In addition to his wife, survivors include two children from his first marriage, three children from his second, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by a daughter from his second marriage.

On the homepage of his website, where he wrote that he had continued to enjoy life after golf as a “husband, father and grandfather,” his sign-off line was simple: “Keep swinging!”

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