Weekend Wrap

Some golf to cover, but the big story from the weekend is te loss of a legend of the game...

Hit It, Alice - Best known as the Voice of Golf, he was already giant of the game before stepping into a broadcast booth:

Just three months short of his 90th birthday—“level fives” in his language—Peter Alliss passed away overnight. Born in Berlin on Feb. 28, 1931 (he was, at the time, the biggest baby in Europe, weighing in at 14 pounds 12 ounces), the doyen of golf commentating died peacefully in his sleep at home in England.

With his father in 1961.

Eight times a Ryder Cup player and the winner of more than 20 events around the world, Alliss ended his distinguished playing career in the early 1970s and quickly made himself an almost indispensable part of tournament coverage on television the world over. No one in that business knew the game better; few were as quick-witted or humorous talking about what the man himself never forgot was just a game. As well as commentating regularly for the BBC, he also worked for ESPN and ABC Sports along with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Alliss came from a distinguished golfing family. His father, Percy, played four times for Great Britain & Ireland in the Ryder Cup and was a consistent tournament winner in the two decades preceding World War II.

 We will, of course, get to that broadcast career, but first let's sketch in some of that playing career:

What often gets overlooked as he became more and more famous for his work with a microphone

in hand was how good a player Peter Alliss was. Renowned for the smoothness and elegance of his full swing—and, later, terrible putting (the number plate on his car read ‘PUT3’) marked by a dreadful bout of the yips that, he claimed, began on the 11th green at Augusta National during a Masters—he twice played Arnold Palmer in Ryder Cup singles and finished unbeaten.

“I have a very good Ryder Cup record, mostly because of my fear of losing,” said Alliss, who went 10-15-5 on teams that went just 1-6-1. “I always had the attitude that ‘you weren’t going to beat me.’ I believe you play the man, not the course. I played Arnold three times when he was at his peak and the only one I lost was a foursome. I beat him once and halved with him in singles. I also beat Billy Casper, Gay Brewer and Ken Venturi at various times, and halved with Tony Lema.”

 And I always love the interweaving of notable personages:

The young Alliss also made the acquaintance of Bobby Jones, caddieing for the great amateur in what was surely Jones’ last round of golf in the United Kingdom. It was just after the World War II at Parkstone Golf Club outside Bournemouth on England’s south coast. Jones, wearing his colonel’s uniform and with his tie tucked into his shirt, played with Alliss senior and Reg Whitcombe.

He was a good player, for sure, but his passing would e unremarkable if not for his decades behind that BBC (and ABC) microphone.  Ewan Murray's Guardian obit starts us down that road:

Tributes have poured in from across the world of golf and broadcasting after the death of the celebrated BBC commentator Peter Alliss at the age of 89.

Alliss, a former professional player who first undertook broadcasting duties in 1961, became the lead man for the corporation’s golf coverage 17 years later. He was widely depicted as the voice of golf.

“His inimitable tone, humour and command of the microphone will be sorely missed, his often legendary commentaries will be long remembered,” read the statement which confirmed Alliss’s passing. “Peter was a devoted husband, father and grandfather and his family ask for privacy at this difficult time.”

The question to be pondered is, what made him special?  Shall we let some of his thoughtful peers and successors try to explain  Shack has a couple of link-filled posts from whence we'll excerpt promiscuously.  First, from a longish conversation with Jim Nantz:

Jim Nantz learned the news as he was entering storied Lambeau Field for today’s Packers game on CBS. For a few years the two were paired at times on BBC Open Championship broadcasts, prompting this fantastic remembrance in 2011 by Martin Kelner of Nantz interviewing Alliss on air during his 50th Open behind the mic and getting to call the conclusion of Darren Clarke’s win, calling that a “career achievement.”

“We’ve lost an icon,” Nantz told me in a phone interview this morning. “He was so brilliant in so many ways. His treatment of the game, the way he saw it from so many angles as a player, as a commentator and as an architect. He could keep it light and breezy, he could be critical when it was needed because he had such a depth of knowledge about the history of the game and every situation.”

Nantz has been listening to The Open Championship podcast while quarantining for two days in hotels prior to every NFL game he calls, including a recent stretch of three games in eight days.

“I heard Peter’s voice all day yesterday,” Nantz said of listening to the 1981 edition won by Bill Rogers with clips of Alliss’s original commentary featured prominently. “That perfect prose…it was poetry.”

Nantz says that as loved as Alliss was in the United States when hosting the Open Championship solo for stretch each day on ABC (but paired with someone during the ESPN years), The Great Man never “got the full appreciation over here that he merited.”

In particular Nantz was struck by Alliss’s ability to go from one broadcast to another—two distinct approaches with ABC and BBC—in a matter of minutes. “One minute there is an audience your speaking and then another you’re presenting yourself to another continent with a totally different format. I admired him deeply.”

Funny, but just recently I had had a conversation with my twenty-something trainer ( very much a golf nut) who had no clue that ABC had ever broadcast golf.  But I very much remember when Aliss would take over those ABC broadcasts, it was very much the highlight of the day.  

The only one left from that era is Judy Rankin, and Geoff has video of her misty-eyed Golf Channel segment with Todd Lewis, from which he grabs these comments:

With so many of the legendary ABC voices now gone, Judy Rankin is one of the last members of their core team and she fought back tears to speak so beautifully of Alliss in this Golf Central segment with Todd Lewis.

My favorite line: he had “a way of expressing himself that was sometimes beautiful that was sometimes a guteral noise that none of us could get away with.”

I'm actually not clear on her reference to guttural noise, as to this humble listener his commentary was always the King's English.  Except when he appropriately allowed the pictures to tell their story...

Alas, one of these successors has likely drawn all the wrong lessons from the Great Man:

This paywalled WaPo obit mirrors Sir Nick:

Mr. Alliss’s popularity as a commentator for nearly 60 years was largely due to his reassuring, dulcet voice, his knowledge of the game and its history, and his wry, deadpan humor, which sometimes generated controversy.

To some viewers, he sounded like a genial grandpa smoking a pipe and wearing slippers by the fireside. “When it comes to painting a picture with words,” a correspondent for the Daily Telegraph once wrote, “he’s nothing short of Rembrandt.”

But to this observer, my lasting memory of Peter Alliss is his economy of language, leaving the spaces in the rigt places as Frank Nobillo put it.  What I most remember is his reaction to a terrible shot captures with a simple, "Oh, Dear!"  That's my lasting memory of the Great Man...

This Michael Bamberger reminiscence is well worth your time, including all sorts of windows back to a different world, including this on that one Ryder Cup victory:

As it happens, Alliss was on one winning team, in 1957. The American captain that year, by the way, was Jackie Burke, now 97, who founded the club, Champions Golf Club in Houston, where the U.S. Women’s Open will be played next week. (Golf does long well.) Alliss won no points in the winning cause.

Alliss had four top-10 finishes in the Open Championship. It’s telling that Burke, the ’56 Masters champion, never played in a British Open, and that Alliss never played in a U.S. Open or a PGA Championship. They played in a different golf era, before one could fly over the Atlantic Ocean — or any ocean — with such comfort and ease.

And this for anyone that didn't understand my header:

Alliss was a legend in European golf, and he won the national championships of Spain, Portugal,

Brazil and Italy, plus scores of other tourneys, as they were known, big and small. In 1966, he won an English event fittingly sponsored by Martini & Rossi, Italian manufacturers of various adult beverages. Alliss knew his way around all parts of your better dinner menus and wine lists. He was a large man who lived large. The license plate on his Rolls Royce read PUT 3. Late in the day, he was afflicted with the yips, and he had more than his share of three-putt greens. What saved him was his sense of humor, and his talking ease. Hit it, Alice, a common and mildly sexist phrase for putts that do not reach the hole, began, Peter Alliss would sometimes suggest, with him talking to himself: “Hit it, Alliss.”

This bit amuses with the benefit of hindsight:

“I was quite bright, but I remember my last report which was sent home,” Alliss said. “We had a headmistress at my modest school, Mrs. Violet Weymouth. She was a short Welsh woman. She always had a cigarette dangling out of her mouth, and the smoke used to trickle up. You didn’t mess about with Mrs. Weymouth, I can tell you that.

“I remember the last report she sent back to my parents, and it went something like this: ‘Peter does have a brain, but he’s rather loath to use it. His only interests appear to be the game of golf and Violet,’ a pretty girl I liked. She never knew about Iris Baker, but they were the two that introduced me to some of the ways of the world, for which I’ll be eternally grateful. And although we were very young, I wish to God we could do it today.

“‘I fear for his future’ were the last words she wrote on my report. My mom and dad died a long, long time ago. If there is such a thing as heaven and if people do look down, well, mom, dad, here we are. Look at this lot. Look where I’ve been, look what I’ve done. Never worked very hard at it. But it’s all fallen into place. Lovely family, lovely wife, looks after me, shouts a bit, occasionally. But they are remarkable. They put up with all my nonsense, and I love them dearly.

“And Mrs. Weymouth, if you are there —”

The weekly Tour Confidential panel, including Mikey Bams, took their shot at his legacy, as well:

5. Legendary golf broadcaster Peter Alliss died Saturday at the age of 89. For a generation across the pond, he was the voice of golf. (And he wasn’t too shabby a player – he played in eight Ryder Cups.) What can/should the next generation of commentators learn from Alliss’ style?

Sens: His frankness, for one. What Hemingway said about internal B.S.-detectors – golf fans have that, too. They can tell when something’s being dumbed down or sugar-coated. But the thing that can’t be learned, the thing that Alliss just had, was a great, droll sense of humor and a keen sense when to use it. Not just anyone can replicate that.

Bamberger: Totally agree, Josh. Alliss did not take the game or himself too seriously. There’s an epidemic of that, these days, in golf and way beyond it.

Dethier: I admired his curiosity. Nothing is more contagious than curiosity, and he was genuinely entertained by golf’s little stuff. To Sens’ point, that meant that when he was excited, it was believable, and when he was unimpressed, that was believable too. It all added up for better, more genuine viewing.

Young punk Dylan Dethier is all of 29-years old.  How much do I love the circle-of-life aspect of this, that he has this specific appreciation for a man whose career predates him by decades

And, as you'll see, Alan Shipnuck and I share a GMTA moment:

Piastowski: I agree with all of the above! I’ll add the conversational style, as if you were sitting next to the man in an English pub watching golf. He’ll be missed.

Shipnuck: Also an economy of words, made more powerful by his intonation. When he would sigh, “Oh, dear,” after a bad shot, it was more powerful than a paragraph of big words.

I've gone on long enough, but encourage you to enjoy all of the videos that Shack had posted in those links above.  The Irish Times has this fun compilation of his witticisms, including this poignant bit:

“Oh, I don’t worry about things like that. I just want people to think, ‘He was fun.’” – On being asked how he would like to be remembered.

Then that's exactly how I shall remember him.  R.I.P.

To The Viktor... -  Hey, it was either watch the golf from Mayakoba, or watch the Jets.... Haven't we suffered enough  Just last week we were speculating on the career path of those three young punks, of whom this one took the bronze:

Viktor Hovland is developing a flair for the dramatic.

The 23-year-old Norwegian drained a 10-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to edge Aaron Wise by one stroke and win the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

“I don’t really feel like I’m honestly very good at those pressure situations,” he said. “I was just trying to match the speed with the line, and it was just one of those times where it happened to go in.”

And yet, Hovland’s done it twice this year. He also sank a 20-foot birdie putt at the last hole in February to claim his maiden PGA Tour title at the Puerto Rico Open. In doing so, he became the fifth European player since 1945 with multiple Tour victories before the age of 24 (Rory McIlroy/6, Seve Ballesteros/3, Sergio Garcia/3, Jon Rahm/2).

Strangely, he kind of needed this to keep up with te Joneses....errrr, Wolffs and Morikawas, an odd thing to note about a 23-year old kid.  The TC panel comes at that same issue as last week's item, tough with a twist:

3. Viktor Hovland rallied to win the Mayakoba Golf Classic with a one-stroke victory over Aaron Wise. We’ve seen exceptional play this year from a handful of the game’s young stars — Hovland, Collin Morikawa, Matt Wolff, among others. From what you saw in 2020, which of the up-and-comers are we most likely to see on top of the game in 2030?

It's a fun premise, but I assume that 2030 season will be dominated by a player whose name we have yet to hear.  Or, yanno, Charlie Woods.

Sens: 2030? Nearly nine years is an eternity in golf. But I’ll go with Morikawa. Such a pure, simple swing.

Dethier: The smart money is on Morikawa, who’s the best ball-striker and seems to have the most bulletproof game. But it was such a joy to see Hovland win at Mayakoba that I’m eager for him to get in contention again and again and again.

Bamberger: They’re all great talents. But looking ahead nine years? That gets to drive, ambition, health and how OCD you are for golf. My pure guess is Wolff. Or Hovland. And if not either of those, Morikawa.

Piastowski: Charlie Woods! He’ll be 21 then! Kidding. Maybe. I’m going to go with Wolff. He’s the biggest hitter of the bunch. And they’re telling me that distance is the thing now.

Shipnuck: As Michael suggests, that’s a lifetime away. Tour players are now peaking younger and fading away faster. Let’s just hope all three are still productive in 2030.

Or maybe we should pencil in the Jordan Spieth comeback.... He'll only be in is mid-30's.

Did we know he broke a curse in winning?  Not sure it's a curse anyone cares about, but still:

With the win, Hovland ended one of the strangest curses in professional golf. Prior to Sunday, no former winner of the Puerto Rico Open had gone on to win another PGA Tour event. Based off his amateur résumé, Hovland figured to be the guy who eventually would put that one to bed.

Given that it's an off-field event, who really cares?  What?  Yeah, I guess this guy might:

Next up: Tony Finau.

Perhaps, but haven't we been saying that for quite some time?

Ladies, The Stage Is Yours - A strange year gets stranger, as the ladies play their U.S. Open in December.  Not sure what to expect, but it's either that or watch the Jets....

In case you haven't heard, there is this one unique aspect to the week ahead, a logical step given the short days:

Any major golf championship is hard to prepare for, obviously. But the 75th U.S. Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club in Houston next week is likely the most difficult ever. And not just because it’s being played in December or during a pandemic, keeping fans from attending. It’s the toughest because instead of becoming familiar with one golf course for the championship, the 156 women competing have to learn two.

Due to the shorter window of daylight in December, USGA officials decided to play the Women’s Open on two courses at Champions for the first two rounds: 6,731-yard Cypress Creek and 6,558-yard Jack Rabbit. Competitors will play one round on each par-71 layout in hopes of ensuring the opening 36 holes are completed before the weekend. After the cut is made, everybody will play Cypress Creek for the rest of the championship.

Apparently the courses are quite different from each other, but I can't see the players devoting much time to Jack Rabbit, given only one loop there.  

The Tour Confidential panel spared two whole questions for the lasses, another "Only in 2020 moment":

1. The U.S. Women’s Open, the final major of the golf year, kicks off this week at Champions Golf Club in Houston. Among the main storylines — December major! Two courses! Loaded field! — which are you most excited to see play out?

Josh Sens: I’m an unwavering Lydia Ko fan. My favorite player to watch, male or female, for the attitude she brings and the game she plays, dissecting courses instead of overpowering them. She’s managed to pull herself up out of a death spiral. I’d love to see her cap that resurgence with another major.

Well, good luck with all that, Josh.  While se has played a little better, faced with the chance to grab a "W" she instead engineered quite epic collapse.  I imagine you'll be chewing those fingernails to the nub should se have herself in the mix on Sunday... 

Dylan Dethier: Brooke Henderson. She’s been all around contention and remains a joy to watch — the swing, the demeanor, the earnest effort. There’s an excellent chance Henderson’s in contention Sunday, and if she is, we’ll be better off for it.

Dylan, did Josh and you not receive the actual question 

Michael Bamberger: I’m excited for the opportunity this presents for the women: a first-rate field, a celebrated course – and nothing else on the golf calendar with which the women have to compete. To borrow a theme from another Texas golfer (Matt McConaughey), this is a greenlight situation for women’s golf.

 Yes, which makes it fraught with peril... 

Nick Piastowski: I agree with Michael. The best in women’s golf are getting the stage all to themselves. Should be exciting. Not only is next week’s U.S. men’s event a non-Tour tournament, it’s also December, when a good chunk of the golfing country is not playing golf, but certainly wanting to watch it.

Are they now?

Alan Shipnuck: Yes to all of the above, but I’m still anxiously awaiting Nelly Korda’s breakthrough. Hopefully this is the week.

As is Mike Whan...  The Tour desperately needs American players to step up, and who else is there besides Nelly

And this specifically on the rota: 

2. How much do you suspect the two-course setup changed the dynamic of the event and the approach of the players?

Sens: A bit more preparation for the players and their caddies, but I think that’s being overplayed as a story. The tournament organizers and the grounds crews have every bit as big an adjustment on their hands.

Dethier: I don’t love the two-course setup just because it’s fun to learn one course as a viewer over the course of a week. The result won’t be anything too dramatic — just a slightly more dispersed early week feel. But come Sunday, the setup won’t take anything away from what we can hope is a dramatic conclusion.

Bamberger: I agree, Dylan. It was a creative and necessary approach for Thursday and Friday and won’t matter at all come Sunday.

Piastowski: I could possibly see the players who play Cypress Creek on Friday, and then again on Saturday on Sunday when the whole field plays the same course, build a little momentum and familiarity. But for the viewer, by Sunday, it won’t matter.

Shipnuck: Yeah, the golf fan at home doesn’t have much institutional knowledge of Champions so no one is going to be too bent out of shape watching one course or the other.

Though it must add significantly to the cost of televising the event.  But, as the guys note, not much of a factor.

But this Golf Digest item, ostensibly meant to promote the event, isn't doing the ladies any favors:

The 18 most memorable U.S. Women's Opens, ranked

As the premier event in women's golf is played for the 75th time, we look back at the championship's iconic moments

Which sounds promising, until you start reading the accounts.  For instance, well within the top are these two clunkers:

8. An unexpected champion (2003)

Hilary Lunke’s brief career had one shining moment when she shocked women’s golf by winning the Women’s Open at Pumpkin Ridge, defeating Angela Stanford and Kelly Robbins in a playoff. At 24, the Stanford grad was the first winner who had gone through local and sectional qualifying to play her way into the field. It was her only victory in an otherwise lackluster career, and she retired five years later after only seven seasons on the LPGA Tour. In 24 career major starts, her next best finish was a T-37.

7. The ultimate birdie for Birdie (2005)

Morgan Pressel, then a 17-year-old high schooler, was trying to accomplish the improbable at

Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver and become the second amateur to win the Women’s Open—and the youngest ever winner of a major title. She was tied for the lead on the 72nd hole, standing in the fairway and watching the other co-leader, Birdie Kim, play her third shot on the par 4 from a greenside bunker. The 23-year-old South Korean proceeded to shock everyone—particularly Pressel—when she holed the tricky sand shot for a birdie. “I was never a good bunker player,” Kim said. “Finally, I make it.” Pressel couldn’t regroup, bogeying the hole to allow Kim to win by two, her only LPGA victory.

Alas, the next sighting of either of these players was likely on a milk carton.  That 2005 installment at least featured a shocking denouement, whereas the LUnke playoff might have been the dreariest day of golf I ever watched.

Given the course of women's golf subsequently, this gets my vote for the most significant Women's Open:

3. A win that inspires a nation (1998)

She was only 20, still mostly an unknown outside of South Korea who’d surprised American fans by winning the LPGA Championship six weeks earlier. Yet Se Ri Pak probably would have been

considered an underdog in the playoff at the Women’s Open at Blackwolf Run had it been not for the person she was facing. Jenny Chuasiriporn, a 20-year-old Duke undergrad, made a 40-foot putt on the 18th hole to force extra holes and was trying to write her own “can you believe this” story. Tied still after the 18-hole playoff, the pair went another two holes before Pak pulled out the victory with a birdie. The championship was televised in South Korea, and Pak’s victory ignited a movement that has resulted in South Korea’s LPGA dominance. “Back then, there was not the communication there is today,” Pak said when recalling the win. “It wasn’t until a week after I won that I learned that all of Korea was watching. It was unbelievable to me.” Following Pak’s lead, 46 more South Korean golfers have won LPGA Tour titles and all told 18 South Koreans have combined to win 33 majors. “At that moment,” said 2011 U.S. Women’s Open winner So Yeon Ryu of Pak’s win, “just golf is my hobby and violin my dream. But now violin is my hobby, golf is my dream, my job. So totally changed.” Pak went on to win 25 LPGA events, including five majors, before retiring in 2016. She is in the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Just ask Hank Haney...

And these two are worth your time as well, given the ladies involved:

2. Comeback from cancer (1954)

Fifteen months after undergoing cancer surgery, Babe Zaharias, at 43, became the oldest player to

win the Women’s Open, running away with the title by 12 strokes at Salem (Mass.) Country Club, her third Women’s Open victory. “My prayers have been answered,” said Zaharias, who had missed the 1953 Open due to the surgery. “I just told the Lord to let me play again, and I’d take care of the winning. Today, we sealed the bargain.” Indeed, her performance was described in Golf World magazine as “the greatest sustained golf ever in a women's championship.” At year’s end, the Associated Press voted her the female athlete of the year for the sixth time. Zaharias would not have a chance to defend her title a year later, forced to miss the championship because of back surgery that revealed the cancer had returned. She died in September 1956, at 45. 

1. The Open’s greatest champion shines once more (1964)

Any U.S. Women’s Open list has to include Mickey Wright, who won the last of her four Women’s Opens at San Diego Country Club, the golf course on which she grew up alongside

friend Billy Casper. “That was a very personal tournament,” Wright said years later. “It was my home. It was the first tournament that my mother and father had both seen me play in a tournament.” Wright beat Ruth Jessen, who also had San Diego ties, by two shots in an 18-hole playoff. “I hate to lose,” Jessen said, “but there is some consolation in losing to the greatest woman golfer in the world.” Indeed, it was Wright's seventh win of the season and she would add four more titles before the year was out. Wright eventually ran her LPGA victory total to 82, including 13 major championships. Wright’s connection to the Women’s Open will continue on past her death earlier this year at age 85; in Wright’s will she bequeathed her estate and possessions to the USGA, which announced that it has named the medal the Women’s Open champion received starting next week after Wright.

 As a lifelong Yankees fan, did you think I could pass on The Babe and The Mick?

I shall bid you adieu here.  I'll be back later in the week, probably every other day or so.