Peter Alliss

Date of birth: Feb. 28, 1931
Place of birth: Berlin, Germany
Nickname: "The Voice of Golf"

• Winner of (points-based) Vardon Trophy on the British PGA circuit (precursor to the European Tour), 1964, 1966
• Member, Great Britain Ryder Cup team, 1953, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1969

• "The game lends itself to fantasies about our abilities."
• "It is not a matter of life and death. It is not that important. But it is a reflection of life, and so the game is an enigma wrapped in a mystery impaled on a conundrum."
• "Golf is very stupid on occasions."
• "On the golf course, if you can't be a shining sun, please don't be a dismal cloud."
• "One good thing about rain in Scotland — most of it ends up as Scotch."
• "I like a bit of rough. Who doesn't?"

• According to his Web site, Alliss weighed 14 pounds, 11 ounces at birth, a European record at the time for biggest baby.
• Peter Alliss' father, Percy, also played multiple times for the Great Britain Ryder Cup team. The Allisses are one of only two father-son duos to play in the Ryder Cup. Antonio and Ignacio Garrido of Spain are the other pair.
• Alliss gave lessons to actor Sean Connery before the filming of the James Bond movie Goldfinger, in which Connery, as Bond, played a golf match against the villain.
• The putting green insult, "Nice putt, Alice!" actually refers to Peter Alliss, who was a weak putter.

Alliss was born in Berlin, where his English father, Percy Alliss, worked as a club pro. Percy was one of the best British golfers of the 1920s and 1930s, and he later became head pro at Ferndown Golf Club in Dorset, England. Peter quit school at the age of 14 and went to work for his father at Ferndown as an unpaid assistant.

Alliss never won a major championship, perhaps held back by his main weakness: Putting. The putting green insult, "Nice putt, Alice!" or "Hit it, Alice!" when a golfer leaves a putt short actually traces back to Peter Alliss' putting woes. Then there was the issue of travel costs that prevented many European golfers of the time from traveling to America (and many American golfers traveling to Europe). Alliss did post five Top 10 finishes in the British Open.

He also was a stalwart on the British Ryder Cup team, playing in the event eight times. In an era of American Ryder Cup domination, Alliss compiled a 10-15-1 overall record but a 5-4-3 mark in singles.

Alliss retired from full-time tour golf at age 38, and made his final tournament appearance in 1975. He was well into his second career by then, as a golf commentator. Alliss' first television work was for the BBC at the 1961 British Open. He worked full-time in TV after his retirement as a player, and in 1978 became the lead BBC golf commentator.

International audiences got to know Alliss' knowledge, passion and cheeky humor when he worked with ABC in America, the CBC in Canada and on Australian networks, too. He became one of the most respected and most popular voices on television, earning the title "the voice of golf" in Britain. Golf Digest once called Alliss the best TV golf analyst ever.

Along the way, Alliss branched out into golf course architecture, working with partners to design more than 75 courses. Among them are two of the three courses at the The Belfry, home of the British PGA and a Ryder Cup host site; and The Seve Club in Japan.

He has twice been captain of the British PGA; served as president of the British Greenkeepers' Association; and was the first president of the European Women's Professional Golfers Association (which later developed in the Ladies European Tour).

Alliss' media work extends to authoring more than a dozen books on golf (view titles/compare prices) and hosting Pro-Celebrity Golf on the BBC, a 140-episode series than ran from 1974 through 1988. He has also hosted a golf talk show and a golf travel show on the BBC.