The Late Peter Alliss & My Memory Thanks To The GM At Castlerock Golf Club.

3 years ago by Comments Off on The Late Peter Alliss & My Memory Thanks To The GM At Castlerock Golf Club.

The golf world is in mourning at the passing of Peter Alliss.

The eight-time Ryder Cup player, 31-time tournament winner, golf course designer, author and legendary golf commentator known universally as the ‘Voice of Golf’, passed away earlier today (Sunday, 6th December) suddenly but peacefully at home at age 89.

In 1958, Alliss won three National Opens in a row, in the Italian Open, Spanish Open and Portugal Open, while in 1961, he worked his first tournament as a broadcaster for the BBC – The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale – where he also played. He retired as a playing professional and became BBC’s lead commentator in 1978.

In a broadcasting career which would span over 40 years, Alliss would become widely renowned as one of the game’s greatest commentators, winning the hearts of Britain and the world with his dulcet tones and sharp wit.

As well as commentating regularly for the BBC, he also worked for ESPN and ABC Sports as well as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

As a much-loved broadcasting personality in Britain, he would appear on various television shows, while his illustrated book Peter Alliss’ Golf Heroes won the ‘Best Illustrated Book’ category of the British Sports Book Awards in 2003.

In 2012, Alliss was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame for his services to golf and just last month he commentated for the final time on the BBC’s coverage of the 2020 Masters Tournament from home.

In my many years working the European Tour I never really got to meet Peter but I did so admire him.

He had a way of captivating the radio listener or the TV viewer and, at times, without saying anything.  What I loved about his commentary was that he didn’t state the blinkin’ obvious as so many commentators do nowadays.

He didn’t do emotion.  He hardly did enthusiasm but he called golf in a way no-cared of his posh British sound.  He loved the game of golf and he called golf in a manner that brought sense and enjoyment to the listerner or viewer.

He was a no-nonsense called and if he was commentating on a golfer standing on a tee with water all down the right side, Alliss would demand of the player: “What are you waiting for?  You’ve got the whole of Scotland to your left.”

And who the hell wants to hear a former multiple major champion or a fellow prolific winning golfer remarking: ‘Oh, he’s going to like that drive’ or ‘Now, that’s a great putt’.  I scream at ‘the box’: “Tell us something we don’t know!”

That was never Alliss.

He told us stories of how his father was a club pro on Berlin in between the two wars and there were wonderful stories of from his own golf career and there was superb stories that had nothing whatsover to do with golf.  He knew his subject matter and what Peter did best was he spoke with warmth and a kind of golfing affection for his audience.

Of course, he also ruffled heirarchy features including in 2006 when refusing to accept on OBE from the Queen.

The closest to anyone like Peter Alliss is SKY’s Tony Johnstone and you only had to listen to his impersonation of the ‘Go Away’ bird during the coverage of this week’s South African Open as he had me, and I certain thousands of other viewers, in stitchers.

Across ‘The Pond’, and where Allis worked for a time at ABC, there was no-one that came close.   Imagine multi-awarding winning Jim Nantz even thinking of impersonating the ‘Go Away’ bird while calling the action at a golf tournament.

So, here is my Peter Alliss tale.

A media outing had been arranged at Loch Lomond ahead of a Scottish Open as Loch Lomond played host to a European Tour event first in late 1997 and right up to 2010.

We were running late this particular morning so after quickly checking-in, it was straight to the first tee with there no time for the pre tee-off pleasantries.

One of the chaps looked like he could play golf as he walked-up to his ball and smacked it out of sight down the first fairway, hit the green in regulation and two-putted for a comfortable par.  He did the same at the second hole before I managed to catch-up with him as we walked down the third.

“Hi Bert.  I’m Bernie McGuire.  What newspaper or magazine do you work for?”, I said.

The reply sat me on my proverbial tail and close to falling about laughing.  “Oh no, I’m the Loch Lomond club pro”.

It was Bert MacKay, then club pro at Loch Lomond and now the very acclaimed General Manager at Castlerock Golf Club in Northern Ireland and just a short drive from Royal Portrush.

No wonder Bert looked like he could handle a golf club,

I had been reporting at the Loch Lomond event for some seven years and had never bumped into Bert.

He began telling me the story of being approached by Peter in the days ahead of this particular Scottish Open and asked if he would drive him about the course in a motorised buggy so to familiarise himself with any changes and ask all those questions a TV commentator would want to know from the host club professional.

Bert and I got to a spot on the par-5 third fairway that doglegs left and where the green is guarded by a large tree on the front edge of a water hazard guarding the entire right side of the green.

Bert told me that he’d mentioned to Peter that from the spot we were standing he’d managed to find the green in ‘2’ during a medal match and then proceeded to brilliantly hole, what I remember him saying, was a 15-foot curling putt for an eagle ‘3’.

Bert MacKay and the General Manager at Castlerock & Bernie shaking hands on the first tee at Castlerock in mid-2019.

Bert then drove Peter around the remainder of the course and Peter pleased in being afforded the best of advice in being able to describe to the viewers how to find the shortest route around stunning Loch Lomond.

Now this is what I admire about Peter Aliss, and I’ve told this story many times.

At one stage in the official TV coverage of this particular Scottish Open a player landed his tee shot close to where Bert’s ball lay ahead of his second shot at the third hole in the medal outing that Bert had proudly mentioned to Peter.

As Scottish Open viewers watched the action, Peter remarked: “Now, I wonder whether ‘so-and-so’ can repeat what the Loch Lomond club professional Bert Mackay did during a recent club medal outing?  Bert hit this superb second shot around the tree, avoiding the water, and finding the green.  Bert then holed this curling 15-foot putt for an eagle 3.”

Well, you can imagine TV viewers all across the UK, Ireland and Europe were now sitting more upright in their cosy lounge chairs paying even closer attention and now very much also wondering whether this particular European Tour player could, in fact, duplicate Bert’s efforts.

It is why Peter Alliss enjoyed such enormous respect for his broadcasting.  He got out onto the golf course before the start of the coverage.  He spoke to club pros like Bert and he brought ‘colour’ to the golf event he was calling.

He will be missed.

Just a footnote to this story.  I mentioned I have not had the pleasure of meeting Bert before this particular media outing.  Since, that day I must have ‘bumped’ into him about a dozen times.

The last occasion was the pleasure of welcoming Bert as a guest to the 2019 Association of Golf Writers Annual Dinner at Royal Portrush.

If you happen to venture to Castlerock, and I can highly recommend you do, ask for Bert and I am sure he will retell this Peter Alliss story.



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