Tag: Peter Alliss

Clive Clark got TV partner Peter Alliss’ holiday card after he passed, says he was ‘the best’

“For me, he was the greatest broadcaster in sports,” Clark said of his partner on BBC golf coverage for 18 years.

Clive Clark received a Christmas card at his La Quinta, California, home last week, wishing him a Merry Christmas and congratulating him on the success of the Dunbarnie Golf Links in Scotland that Clark designed and which opened earlier this year.

The card was from Clark’s old friend and working partner, Peter Alliss, the famed golf commentator who died just days before the card reached Clark.

“For me, he was the greatest broadcaster in sports,” Clark said of his partner on BBC golf coverage for 18 years.

Alliss, a terrific player in his own right but known for the last 40 years as the voice of golf for the BBC and for his work with ABC in this country, died Dec. 5 at the age of 89. A member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, Alliss was also a member of eight Ryder Cup teams for Great Britain and Ireland.

While Clark, a long-time Palm Springs-area resident, worked side by side with Alliss for 18 years doing commentary at tournaments, their paths had crossed years before that.

“Of course, I knew him as a player,” Clark said. “As a teenage amateur, I had a low enough handicap and won enough tournaments on the amateur circuit that I was invited into a few professional tournaments. I played a practice round or two with Peter, which was great.”

Clive Clark (right) remembers fondly his days as a player and a commentator with Peter Alliss (left), the voice of golf for the BBC for 40 years. Allis died Dec. 5 at 89. (Photo courtesy Clive Clark)

Clark was impressed enough with Alliss that when Clark would finish his own round, he’d walk back out to the course to follow Alliss on his final few holes. Clark remembers Alliss had a compact, punchy swing that produced what Clark said was the ball fizzing off of Alliss’ clubface.

Slowly, Alliss transitioned to broadcasting, even as he continued to play events throughout the 1960s. Henry Longhurst was the BBC’s top golf commentator, but when Longhurst was gone, Alliss took over.

“They were rather different in their style,” Clark said. “People say oh, he learned off Henry, and I’m sure he did learn from Henry to a degree, but he was different in style. Peter talks more, which he can do, because he was extremely interesting to listen to.”

Golf with a sense of humor

It was Alliss’ laidback style that set him apart from other commentators, his ability to think off the cuff, his ability to observe something at a tournament other than a golf shot and quickly get back to the game.

Clark recalled the third round of the 2002 British Open, when Tiger Woods was nearly blown off the Muirfield course by strong, cold winds that hit the championship in the middle of the round.

“Peter’s comment was Tiger’s on his way to not breaking 80, which is like going to see Pavarotti with laryngitis.”

Clark said Alliss was also a delight to be around off the course, with his own style that was comical at times, but never overly serious about anything, whether it was practicing golf shots or giving a speech at a corporate outing without actually having a speech in mind before he started talking. In golf clinics with Clark, Alliss would say he was going to hit some easy 7-irons, then surprise Clark by telling the crowd Clark would now hit some 2-irons, a notoriously tough club, and make sure the balls were on a difficult downhill lie.

Alliss also would tell the story with a smile of the greatest shot he saw in golf, not a wood he hit into the par-5 18th on a single match of the 1959 Ryder Cup at Eldorado Country Club in Indian Wells, but the shot his opponent, Jay Hebert, hit into a lake on the same hole.

“He made you smile. He made you chuckle,” Clark said. “That’s not easy in golf.”

Larry Bohannan is Palm Springs (Calif.) Desert Sun golf writer, part of the USA Today Network. He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @Larry_Bohannan. Support local journalism: Subscribe to the Desert Sun.

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Remembering Peter Alliss: ‘The Voice of Golf’

World Golf Hall of Fame member Peter Alliss has died at age 89, but not before becoming an unforgettable figure in the game of golf.

The last time that England’s Peter Alliss made the trip across the pond was in May 2019 to accept a journalism award presented at the Memorial in Columbus, Ohio.

“I’m afraid there’s been some terrible mistake made today,” he said. “A journalistic award to me, someone who has no idea how to do short hand, can’t type and is bloody awful at spelling, but I’m here.”

He looked frail and required a cane but friends looked after him, pushing him in a wheelchair.

“They almost bathed me and fed me and tucked me into bed at night,” he said. “I can do it myself but I quite enjoy it.”

There it was, the droll, understated style of the man known as “The Voice of Golf,” who spent more than 50 years in the broadcast booth for BBC in his inimitable style that he once described as being “the cheeky chap who went where angels feared to tread.”

137th Open Championship
Renton Laidlaw, President of the AGW, and Roddy Williams, European Tour Press Officer, present Peter Alliss the Michael Williams Outstanding Services to Golf Award at the 137th Open Championship on July 15, 2008 at Royal Birkdale Golf Club, Southport, England. Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images

Alliss, who died at age 89, regaled those in attendance at the outdoor ceremony with stories of a life well lived in the game, following in the footsteps of his father, Percy, a three-time Ryder Cupper, including the tale of how he quit school and turned pro at the tender age of 15 to work for his old man at Ferndown Golf Club.

“I played my first big golfing event in 1946. I was 15 years of age and played in the Boys’ championship on the west side of Edinburgh. My father was one of the best players of his day and he took me up on the train from the south coast of England all the way to Edinburgh and I made it to the semifinals and was installed as the favorite,” he recalled. “I was up against a young lad named Donald Dunsdone. He was about 5 foot 3 and had very oily, greasy hair and a face covered in pimples. You don’t see many people with pimples these days, I suppose. It’s because they bathe more than once a month now. If I do say so myself, although I was only 15, I was dashingly beautiful. Handsome, six feet tall, not an ounce of spare flesh. This poor lad was just cannon fodder, really.

“We started out and I was 2 up after 4 and the crowds were running – there must have been about a dozen of them – and we got to 16 and we shook hands and he beat me 3 and 2. On the way back on the train my father let me know where I had gone wrong and what I could’ve and should’ve done. He said, I guess there isn’t any need for you to do any further education; you’re not going to be a doctor, lawyer, accountant, but you do have a little talent at golf and if you practice and use your brains there is a chance you’ll do something in the world of golf. Who knows, you might make a Ryder Cup team and that would afford you the opportunity to put your name forth for a bigger club job. You’ll be OK. You’ll be able to make a living. That’s what we thought about in those days. You can be my assistant and we’ll take it from there. I did. I started working for him. I had no idea that those few words you can be my assistant and enter the world of golf would have such a tremendous impact on my life.”

Peter Alliss
Peter Alliss in action during the 1973 Open Championship at the Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland. Photo by Allsport UK

For the next 70 years, Alliss traveled the globe, circumnavigated it a half-dozen times by his own estimation “always at somebody else’s expense, I hasten to add,” he noted, meeting all sorts of people – businessmen, actors, politicians – playing golf at the most wonderful courses and against the best players in the world.

While Alliss downplayed his abilities as a golfer, he continued the family tradition, winning 23 tournaments worldwide during a professional career that lasted until 1974.

He represented England 10 times in World Cup competitions and played on eight Great Britain & Ireland Ryder Cup teams between 1953 and 1969.

“And then after a period entering the world of television, first in Britain and then in South Africa, Asia, Japan, Australia, Canada, and eventually the U.S., where I spent 30 wondrous years working with some delightful people. Some of them are even here,” Alliss said. “Some I haven’t seen in 25 years or more. I suddenly had the most horrid thought, what if I still owe them money? That’s why they turned up. Get the old bugger before he dies. But anyway, it has been a wonderful journey.”

Indeed, it was. In an introductory video, Clive Clark, his fellow Englishman and commentator, shared a bit of classic Alliss dry humor, which seems a most fitting way to end this tribute:

“I remember someone asking Peter, ‘What’s the finest shot you’ve ever seen?’ He immediately replied, ‘I was playing in the Ryder Cup at Eldorado in Indian Wells in 1959 and I was 1 down playing the 18th hole in a singles match against Jay Hebert. The last hole is a par 5 with a frightening amount of water down the right side and guarding the green. I blistered a 3 wood to within six yards of the pin.’ An observer asked Peter, ‘So, is that the finest golf shot you’ve ever seen?’ To which Peter replied, ‘No, Jay was a few yards ahead of me and proceeded to hit a fat 2-iron into the lake. That was the finest golf shot I’ve ever seen!'”

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Peter Alliss, legendary golf broadcaster, dies at 89

Peter Alliss, the BBC’s beloved golf broadcaster and commentator, has died at age 89.

While golf fans in the United States have been spoiled over the years by having three of the game’s major championships played in America, lovers of the game in the United Kingdom have had something else to brag about: Peter Alliss’ insightful, humorous and beautifully intoned commentary on the British Broadcast Corporation (BBC).

Alliss, who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2012, has died at age 89, according to a statement from his family on Sunday.

“Peter was a devoted husband, father and grandfather and his family ask for privacy at this difficult time,” the family wrote, according to the BBC.

Alliss was born in 1930 in Berlin, Germany, where his father, Percy, was a golf professional. At birth, he weighed 14 lbs 11 oz., making him reportedly the largest baby born in Europe. Allis and his family moved to England in 1932.

Before he became a commentator, Allis was an accomplished player, becoming a professional in 1947. He won 31 times and played on eight Ryder Cup teams between 1953 and 1969, when the competition was between the best players from United States and Great Britain, compiling a record of 10-15-5. While he never played in the U.S. Open or the PGA Championship, he played in two Masters Tournaments and 24 British Opens, finishing in the top 10 five times (1953, 1954, 1961, 1962 and 1969).

Alliss worked as a commentator for the first time in 1961, but started working full time with the BBC after retiring from professional golf in 1978.

Watching Jean Van de Velde prepare to play his third shot on the 72nd hole of the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie, Alliss said, “His golfing brain stopped about 10 minutes ago, I think.” The Frenchman’s ball famously went into the burn in front of the green and when he started taking his shoes off to attempt to play the shot, Alliss, bewildered said, “Oh no, what on Earth are you doing? No, Jean, please. Will somebody kindly go and stop him?”

When he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, Alliss gave a funny  and moving acceptance speech that you can see below.

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