British golf broadcasting legend Peter Alliss dies at age 89

Peter Alliss (YouTube)

According to the Associated Press on Friday, golf legend Peter Alliss passed away at the age of 89. Alliss was a fixture for the British Broadcasting Corporation when it came to the sport of golf. He began broadcasting golf in 1961, and became the main commentator for golf on British television starting in 1978.

Alliss was well known to American television viewers as well. He would be heard annually during the British Open coverage each summer when the world’s best golfers would compete in the only major in men’s golf in Europe.

A native of Berlin, Germany, Alliss lived in Germany as a child because his father Percy was a golf professional at the Wannsee Golf Club in the 1930s. He would later move to the south of England to attend boarding school.

Prior to being known as a world-renowned golf broadcaster, Alliss was a high-performance golfer. He won three British PGA Close Championships in 1957, 1962, and 1965. The tournament is now known as the BMW PGA Championship, and has been held at the Wentworth Club on the European Tour since 1984. When Alliss won the British PGA Close Championships, the events were held at the Maesdu Golf Club, the Liston Aston Golf Club, and the Prince’s Golf Club. The only player to have won the BMW PGA Championship more times than Alliss, is Nick Faldo, who won the event four times.

Alliss won 20 professional golf tournaments in all, and finished in the top 10 in five British Opens. He also played in eight Ryder Cups from 1953 to 1969, and was part of the English team that won in 1957, by a score of 7 1/2 to 4 1/2. This was only the third time that Great Britain had won the Ryder Cup. Their previous wins came in 1929 and 1933.

In 2012, Alliss was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. He is also known to have taught the great actor Sean Connery golf before the filming of Goldfinger.

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