A thanksgiving service to celebrate the life of Peter Alliss was held on the eve of the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews.
Over 400 guests, including family, friends, colleagues and golf industry professionals, attended the ceremony held at the University of St Andrew’s Younger Hall to remember the life and achievements of Alliss, who died on December 5, 2020, aged 89.
The veteran broadcaster had been due to hang up his microphone at the end of 150th Open Championship, which was due to be held in 2021, but the cancellation of the 2020 event and, of course, his death shortly after commentating on the delayed 2020 Masters, put paid to those plans.
Tributes were paid by a wide range of golfing figures, including PGA Captain Sarah Bennett, fellow BBC broadcasters Steve Rider, Hazel Irvine, Eddie Butler, Andrew Cotter and Judy Rankin; DP World Tour deputy CEO Guy Kinnings, and Jean Van de Velde, the golfer whose spectacular implosion at the 1999 Open Championship at Carnoustie tested the Voice of Golf’s commentary skills to the full.
Simon Alliss, one of Peter’s three sons, read out a poem he wrote called ‘’I’m famous you know’, referring to his father’s self-deprecating reaction to being approached for an autograph or engaged in unsolicited conversation by a stranger.
Rider, who worked with Alliss for 30 years, recalled: “He told me that what he wanted to do was illuminate the eccentricity and innate silliness of this glorious game of ours He had the imagination and vocabulary of a poet and the timing of a great stand-up comedian. And I cherish the moment when he described one particular player who was fiddly, neurotic and nervous in his pre-shot routine. Peter likened him to a wet Labrador trying to get comfortable in front of a log fire.”
Kinnings described Alliss as an incomparable broadcaster, the unmistakable Voice of Golf and the soundtrack to the sport. “He had a wit like no other,” he said. “He was a raconteur with no compare and the finest dinner company imaginable. He was admired and respected throughout the world of golf, for which there are many reasons. In golfing terms there was only one thing – his complete credibility.”
“Peter’s voice will never leave my head and I’m very grateful for that,” said Hazel Irvine. “When you look back on some of the key moments in the history of golf, what Peter said about them is as much a part of our memory as that which we actually saw. Not many broadcasters are as closely woven into the fabric of their sport as was Peter Alliss.”
After the service, St Andrews’ North Street was closed off to allow a lone piper to lead guests to a reception where more stories of Peter Alliss’s lasting legacy on the game were shared.
To watch a video of the full thanksgiving service, click here.
