Peter Alliss Dies: The Voice Of Golf Passes Away Aged 89

The voice of golf has passed away aged 89

Peter Alliss Dies
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The voice of golf for many decades on the BBC has passed away.

Peter Alliss Dies: The Voice Of Golf Passes Away Aged 89

The world of golf is mourning today as it has been announced that Peter Alliss has died.

"It is with great sadness we announce the passing of golfing and broadcast legend Peter Alliss," said Alliss' family.

Alliss was known around the globe as a golf commentator on the BBC where he first started working in 1961.

Peter Alliss

He continued working up to this year where he voiced the highlights of The Masters just a few weeks ago in November where World Number One Dustin Johnson triumphed.

His playful tone and buckets of anecdotes made him a huge favourite to television audiences - his soundtrack accompanying many of the greatest moments to ever happen in the sport.

Alliss was also a very accomplished professional golfer winning 31 tournaments. And with his father, Percy, they were the first Father-Son duo to compete in the Ryder Cup.

He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in the Lifetime Achievement category in 2012. The same year that he also received a Golf Monthly award - voted as the Greatest Ever Golf Commentator by a survey of our readers.

Golf Monthly's Bill Elliott wrote this fantastic appreciation of Peter Alliss back in 2015 - including this great description.

"He loves words, loves picking them up and throwing them around and watching carefully where they fall and then throwing them in the air again, all the time working out how he can tell the viewer something they can’t see and maybe make him or her giggle a bit at the same time."

Peter Alliss Dies: His Greatest Quotes

  • "What on earth are you doing? He's gone ga-ga. To attempt to hit the ball out of there is pure madness." - about Frenchman Jean van de Velde at the 1999 Open Championship at Carnoustie.
  • "It's like turning up to hear Pavarotti sing and finding out he has laryngitis." - after Tiger Woods shot 81 at the 2002 Open.
  • "One of the good things about rain in Scotland is that most of it ends up as scotch."
  • “It would be very easy to drool with sentimentality over the Ryder Cup. But, at the end of the day, it is simply two teams trying to knock seven bells out of each other, in the nicest possible way.”
  • “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.”

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Thomas Patrick Clarke
Sports Digital Editor


Tom Clarke joined Golf Monthly as a sub editor in 2009 being promoted to content editor in 2012 and then senior content editor in 2014, before becoming Sports Digital Editor for the Sport Vertical within Future in 2022. Tom currently looks after all the digital products that Golf Monthly produce including Strategy and Content Planning for the website and social media - Tom also assists the Cycling, Football, Rugby and Marine titles at Future. Tom plays off 16 and lists Augusta National (name drop), Old Head and Le Touessrok as the favourite courses he has played. Tom is an avid viewer of all golf content with a particularly in depth knowledge of the pro tour.