Peter Alliss’ Words of Wisdom

Starting June 28th we will be bringing you fantastic words of wisdom every day from the one and only voice of golf – Peter Alliss.

Day One – 28th June

Everyone seems to come into golf these days with the aim of being the world’s best player. The first person I ever knew who had such a goal was Henry Cotton. He had the wherewithal through his wife’s money to think that. But the rest of them were all club professionals, as was he. They were in golf just to make a living. But he was different and had bigger ambitions.

Day Two – 29th June

I am definitely the product of my upbringing in the post-war years. I hate to see things going to waste. I still go round switching lights off. I can’t bear to throw food away. I’m a relic of what influenced me when I was young. Courtesies and manners are very important to me. These days, people think you’re a dinosaur if you stand up when a lady enters the room, or if you write thank-you notes. I know it’s all progress, but it’s a different world from the one I grew up in.]

Day Three – 30th June

Looking back, I was a good player. I was the best player in Europe in the 1960s, without ever winning the Open. I won my first tournament as far back as 1954, the Daks event at Little Aston, and my twenty-first and last in 1969. So I averaged more than one per year. There are only a handful of British players who have ever won more than I did. I’m certainly in the top-ten. And my total prize money didn’t come to £30,000.

Day Four – 1st July

Many people think that professional golf started in 1972, when the European Tour was formed. Nothing happened beforethat. But it did. Bernard Hunt won seven events in 1953 and won something like £3,800. I remember the editor of Golf Illustrated, Tom Scott, saying, “this will never happen again, you know.” People have been saying that ever since. I look at the prize money these days and just shake my head. Someone finishing fourteenth in America gets more than I won in my career. Which is fine. In my day a Rolls Royce cost £3,500. And the house I live in was about £12,000. It’s all relative.

Day Five – 2nd July

My father never taught me. From the age of 13 to 18 I think he gave me four lessons. I had an awful grip at first. I changed it and for six months hit the ball sideways. But it clicked eventually. I could always hit the ball. I could hit 2-irons off tight, downhill lies. I had very good hands and still have today. Which is why I hardly ever practiced. Out of every ten balls, I’d hit eight screamers and a couple of scruffy ones. Then I never could see the point of hitting any more. I saw every shot as astraight line. I laugh at all this talk I hear today. “He’s holding it up,” or “he’s pulling it in.” That’s rubbish. As is the comment, “he won’t be pleased with that,” when the ball stops 15-feet away. What a load of old tosh!

Day Six – 3rd July

One aspect of the game that is so much better today is the bunker play. In my day, there were maybe five good bunker players. Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were never very good from sand. Arnold was one of the best chippers I ever saw though. Not pitcher, chipper. Jack was adequate around the greens, but could always make a putt when he really needed to. He had that force within himself. He had the best golfing brain ever, Ithink. I never saw him throw a tournament away. Arnold threw away 20!

Day Seven – 4th July

I find it fascinating that someone like Gary Player – who, in my opinion, has never had the real praise he deserves – has won a few through the faults of others. He won the Open in 1959 at Muirfield despite taking six up the last. Arnold buggered up the last hole of the 1961 Masters to hand it to Gary. Hubert Green, one of the best putters in the world at the time, missed a short one to give him another Masters in 1978. Then he won a PGA with an incredible shot over trees. And I never forget the US Open play-off he had with Kel Nagle in 1965. Kel, the nicest man in the world, splits a woman’s head open with a drive and is never the same afterwards. Things have happened for Gary, things that never happened for, say, Greg Norman.

Day Eight – 5th July

I do believe that the most skilful golfers were those who played between 1900 and 1920. Look at the scores they did. JH Taylor won the Open at Deal around that time with scores averaging 73.5 or whatever. Look at the clubs they used. The balls weren’t round and didn’t go anywhere. The bunkers were never raked. The course was only 300 yards shorter than it is today. And the wind blew and the rain was still wet. I reckon you could take the best 20 players of today, give them the old balls and clubs in a goodish wind and they wouldn’t do what JH and his mates did.

Day Nine – 6th July

I marvel at the gadgets we have at our disposal today. I was with a mate of mine last weekend. He had a camera that was also a cine-camera, a telephone and an encyclopedia and who knows what else. And it’s the same with golf clubs. You can’t miss a fairway with those bigheaded drivers. I remember hearing Davis Love marveling at the persimmondrivers Nicklaus used. “How could you play with these?” he said.

Day Ten  – 7th July

I always laugh when I hear people talking about controlling backspin. What a load of bollocks that is.

Day Eleven – 8th July

People forget that, if you hit every fairway and every green, reach every hole in one or two shots, you can have 36 putts and go round in 68. Add it up if you don’t believe me. So why is it that, these days, if you don’t average 29 putts per round you can’t make a living. If Ben Hogan had averaged 29 putts for every 18 holes, he would never have shot over 65 in his life.

Day Twelve – 9th July

These days, if someone hits ten fairways in a round everyone thinks it’s a bloody miracle. Dai Rees was the pro at a course near me after the war. The heather there was impenetrable. And there were no balls going spare. He had to be straight off the tee because if he did he lost his ball. Now they don’t care. They stand there and smash it. To me, they don’t know how to play.

Day Thirteen – 10th July

The best chance I ever had to win the Open was in 1954 at St. Andrews. I finished four behind Peter Thomson at the age of 23 and shot a round of 66 that had six 3s and 12 4s. I could have, might have won. I had a couple of chances at Lytham, or could have had I not done a couple of silly things. And I finished well at Muirfield one year. I seemed to have a few good last rounds that pulled me up a bit.

Day Fourteen – 11th July

I watch a lot of golf on television these days. Mostly because I don’t want the players to think I don’t know what is going on. Which is rather conceited of me. And sometimes I don’t believe what I am seeing. In Dubai earlier this year I saw a player hit a shot from behind a tree, from rough, over a pond from about 180-yards out. Sure enough, he didn’t even get halfway across the bloody water. That sort of situation happens time and again. No wonder guys like that are also-rans; they don’t have any golfing brains. They don’t know how to play.

Day Fifteen – 12th July

The Ryder Cup has taken on a little bit of a false persona, a bit like Augusta and the Masters. Just as Augusta National is supposed to be the greatest place in the world (it isn’t), the Ryder Cup is supposed to be the greatest golf event in the world (it isn’t either). But, because of the excitement each has generated over the years – the “War on the Shore” and all that other bollocks – it has become something it was never meant to be. Take the whole team-qualifying thing. I think the captains should just pick 12 men each and forget the rankings. It is too hurtful for someone to play quite well, finish eleventh and not get picked.