Peter Alliss had an influence on my golfing life long before I met him.  It all goes back to the early 70s when Patricia was about to set off to uni in Edinburgh and Mum wrote to Peter asking him if he could recommend any good coaches in the Scottish capital.  That summed up how Peter was viewed – an ordinary golf viewer like Mum felt she could quite easily correspond with the famous Peter Alliss, a prolific tournament winner and eight-time Ryder Cup player.  In no time at all, a handwritten reply arrived and the great man suggested John Shade.  Patricia acted upon his advice and I soon followed in beating a path to Duddingston Golf Club to spend many delightful hours with JS, as we came to call him.  It was Mr Shade who laid the foundations for my two British Championship victories and it’s an eternal regret of mine that he passed away a few weeks before my win at Nairn.

Many years later, but still pre email, I’d find myself in a TV compound somewhere with Peter and I’d see huge amounts of mail, bundles of the stuff, arriving for him.  I thought perhaps he’d have a secretary to send out a generic reply but no, as he did with Mum, he considered every request and wrote back in his own hand.  Seeing the innate kindness and consideration with which he dealt with people has always stayed with me.  It was something I witnessed every time I was in his company.

I suppose our paths really began to cross when I turned professional.  Peter was the first president of the Women’s Professional Golf Association (now the Ladies’ European Tour) and it was massively important to us and a great boost to have someone of his stature in the game fighting our corner and believing in us.  He gave us credibility at a vitally important time and sponsors felt encouraged to step forward simply because Peter himself was so involved.  He was never just a name on headed notepaper.  He was a foot soldier, in there with us, striving and fighting for opportunities for women to play the game professionally in Europe.  We owe him a lot.

The most time I spent with Peter and with his wonderful wife, Jackie, was, of course, at tournaments where I was fortunate enough to work alongside him.  On one of my very early ventures into the commentary box I was rostered on to have a break immediately after lunch.  Being very new to that world I decided the best use of my break would be to stay at my position in the box and listen in to, and observe, Ken Brown and Peter at work.  It was an education and an early introduction to me of the importance of silence at critical times, an art that Peter felt was being lost in modern day commentary.  Imagine my mixture of delight and terror when Peter suddenly gestured at me to put on my headset, pick up my mike and take part, despite the fact that I wasn’t due on for another twenty minutes.  With a few more encouraging “on you go” gestures from him I took a deep breath and waded in, slightly giddy with the knowledge that the greatest commentator of all felt I may have something of interest to say.  Five minutes later I heard a grunt coming from Peter’s direction and fearing I’d dropped a clanger I turned to look at him.  There he was, headset off, mike down, chair pushed back, hands folded in his lap, ankles (inevitably encased in red socks) crossed, eyes closed……….taking a nap!  Boy, did that bring me back to earth with a bump!

Ken always claimed that Peter reserved his best commentary for when there was no golf being shown – you know the sort of thing, a boy eating an ice cream or a dog running up a sandhill.  His humour was very observational, completely spur-of-the-moment and always apt.  He was a raconteur extraordinaire with an impeccable sense of timing, wonderful recall of past events and a light touch.  His commentary career spanned decades, starting with clambering up scaffolding to draughty commentary positions alongside Henry Longhurst to 21st Century broadcasting from his own home, as he did only a few weeks ago during the Masters.  It’s pretty fair to say he saw it all.

One of my favourite parts of a working day with Peter was the sound checks, carried out just before going on air.  When called upon most of us would uninspiringly manage a “Good Morning” and a count to ten while still checking over notes and research.  Not Mr Alliss.  He’d heartily clear his throat, regard the TV monitor to check the early pictures the cameramen were showing and launch into five minutes of wonderful, stream-of-consciousness stuff that had us all helpless with laughter.  In all my time beside him the only note I ever saw in front of him was a reminder to mention a particular club or person – usually requests that had come from his adoring fans.

A direct, tell-it-as-it-is approach did sometimes land him in hot water, however.  He had some very fixed notions about things and he and I used to have what in my family are called “spirited discussions”.   In other words we would each fight our corner on the topic about which we held opposing views.  Our mantra was we could disagree without being disagreeable and I certainly learned a great deal more from these sessions than Peter did.  He was always interested in what you had to say and keen to understand the opposite point of view but a well constructed and reasoned argument was essential to winning him over to your side.  I think he enjoyed these sparring matches – I hope so.  I certainly did!

Little did I realise that my last opportunity to spend any time with Peter would be at the 2019 Solheim Cup at Gleneagles.  Jackie, his wife, a tour de force in her own right, was also there and we had pretty much a perfect week with the thrilling finale topping it all off.  Unbiased as we try to be on air we are all simply golf fans at heart and I know Peter was immensely proud of the strides taken by the LET, the fledgling tour he helped to nurture.  In the happy snap below Jackie and I are celebrating with Sam Maynard, the beating heart of the BBC production, while Peter was concluding an interview.  A few minutes later he joined us and safe to say we had a few scoops that evening!

The greatest writers and broadcasters of our time have been prolific this week in writing and talking about Peter and endeavouring to catch the essence of the man.  There have been so many lovely words and I’m sure an avalanche of correspondence is currently engulfing Jackie and the family.  My heart and love goes out to them, as well as my thanks for sharing this marvellous man with us all.  He was, quite simply, the best.

 

Emily Pedersen is an inspiration, she really is.  “Who she?” I hear some of you mutter.  I’m sure plenty of you will know exactly who Emily is but I realise many of you do not follow the professional tours quite as closely as the nerdy Madills, so allow me to enlighten you a little.

Emily was a member of the European 2017 Solheim Cup team which lost to the Americans at Des Moines Golf & Country Club in Iowa.  A former British Amateur champ and the 2015 Ladies’ European Tour Rookie of the Year, Pedersen was worth her place on that team.  However, instead of it being the highlight of her career to that point it turned into a nightmare for her.  She played in three of the five matches, losing each one relatively comfortably.

Annika Sorenstam, Europe’s captain, was found to be lacking the skills required to handle a shaky athlete on a world stage and Emily felt marginalised in the most pressure-cooker week she had hitherto faced on a golf course.  It was the worst time in her golfing life.  A crisis of confidence ensued and Pedersen fell into an abyss of self-doubt and loss of form with the result that at the start of 2020, just before the March lockdown, she was outside the top 500 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

As I write, Emily is arguably the hottest female player on the planet.  She has won four times on the LET this year, including the last three tournaments.  This is only the second time in the history of the tour that a player has achieved the feat of winning three consecutive tournaments.  The trailblazer in that particular regard was the inimitable Marie-Laure de Lorenzi of France – 31 years ago.  I know, because I was there playing at the time.  It was so long ago that some of the commentators don’t know how to pronounce her name correctly!

Pedersen has been dominant all season and showed her class on Sunday in winning the Andalucia Costa Del Sol Open De Espana at Real Club De Golf Guadalmina.  A bogey-free weekend and a final nine of 32, culminating in three birdies on 16, 17 and 18 saw her win by four shots and also add the season-long Race To Costa Del Sol title to her haul of trophies.  However, her greatest prize, arguably, was having her Dad on the bag for Sunday’s win.  He had suffered with her through all the lows and she was understandably emotional to have him by her side as she capped an incredible year, which, by the way, also included winning a men’s event back in her home country of Denmark.

Not that Emily is a player who overly relies on her caddy – and for good reason.  She simply hasn’t got a regular bag carrier.  Her coach caddied for her when she won in the Czech Republic and she “borrowed” Mikey Patterson, So Yeon Ryu’s caddy, for her two wins in Saudi.  Then in Spain last week it was Dad’s turn.  So now she heads to Texas for the US Women’s Open next week – and I just hope Mikey will have sorted out someone good for her.  She may be European No 1 but it pays to have a good dose of experience beside you in a major.

Catriona Mathew may well have the Danish player’s name already inked in on her team sheet for next year’s Solheim Cup encounter in the States and she may be certain of one thing.  This time it’ll be a very different Emily pulling on the European colours – it’ll be a player scarred by this game, certainly, but  one who has come through adversity and who has learned to curb her frustrations with herself.  Most importantly of all she has learned how to win.

Finally, one more thing that struck me forcibly about our new European no 1 and is very obvious in the photograph below……….come on, you corporates, surely you can do better than this?

Earlier in the week I was lucky enough to attend a fascinating online seminar featuring astronaut Tim Peake as the keynote speaker.  In December 2015 Tim became the first British astronaut to visit and spend six months on the International Space Station, conducting a space walk during the mission.  He emphasised the need for a training programme that encouraged the making of mistakes, claiming that “failure is the best teacher.”

An appropriate mental attitude and an all-important flexible mindset cannot be developed or acquired if training in a risk-free environment, he insisted.  These principles resonate through every walk of life – whether that walk is around a golf course or around a station out in space!  It was fascinating and illuminating and a reminder of qualities we should all strive to hone, no matter our path through life.  Valuable lessons for all and sundry.

Here in England we are coming out of lockdown just as several of our friends and family in other parts of the globe are moving back into that strange world we have all inhabited so much this year.  Fingers crossed that we ALL find ourselves back out on the links next year, enjoying the challenge of the game and the company of our pals.  I know that one lesson I’ll take away from 2020 is that I’ll never take golf for granted again.

Wow, wow, wow!  What a Masters!  A record score of 20 under by new champ Dustin Johnson; an amazing performance of shooting all four rounds in the 60s by uber-talented Aussie, Cameron Smith – the first man ever to achieve that feat; and a record number of hours that yours truly sat on an ever-broadening backside and immersed self in the whole November Masters vibe and experience.

And I wouldn’t have changed a single thing about it all.  Actually, that’s not quite true.  A McIlroy win would be the cherry on top for this particular blogger.  Alas, an opening albatross of a 75 meant that despite being the best player on the course for the last three rounds Rory could only manage a joint 5th place.  All very laudable, but it’s probably almost as tough being a Rory fan at the moment as it is being Rory.  Perhaps he needs to work with a performance coach – Dave Aldred comes to mind.

In the recent past, Aldred has worked with Luke Donald, whom he steered to No 1 in the world, and Francesco Molinari who became Open champion two years ago and the only European to win five points out of five at the Ryder Cup.  I recall a conversation I had with Denis Pugh, Francesco’s coach, a while back when I quizzed him about Aldred’s methods.  It boiled down to every practice shot being competitive and with a consequence, just as it is on the course.  By all accounts it’s a brutal regime, designed to knock the player off balance, push all his buttons and tire him mentally, all the while demanding precision shots.  The reasoning is that your practice should be infinitely more taxing than anything you may meet in tournament play.

I suspect there’s only so much a player can take of that and as Denis succinctly put it, “If you actually LIKE Dave when you’re working with him, then he’s not doing his job.”  Perhaps this would benefit Rory but I’m not sure I could ever see him turning himself over so completely to any coach, performance or otherwise.

An unexpected bonus of this edition of the Masters was the hitherto unheard of use of drones at Augusta National.  They provided stunning photography and gave those of us at home a real appreciation of the undulating landscape, slopes and angles that the players have to face.  There is no doubt these pictures were enabled and enhanced by the fact that there were no patrons present. This year the required space to manipulate these little beauties was readily available without their irritating buzz being within earshot of the protagonists.  We were treated to the camera swooping in at ground level, giving us a worm’s eye view of the examination test – something that may well be impossible when those slopes are once again cloaked with thousands of patrons.  What’s the betting the green jackets will have patented a noiseless drone come next April?

Sunday was a very special day in the life of DJ, but also, in a much more modest way, it was a good day for me.  Apart from winning the sweep and looking forward to buying some very nice red wine, I received a call from the WestwoodOne radio crew from on site at Augusta.  We have worked together at the Masters for the last four years but the company is not sanctioning any international travel at the moment.  Neither am I, of course and I did enjoy my week at home but it was the highlight of my day to hear from them all.  Here’s hoping next April isn’t too early to expect to be able to travel.

As if I hadn’t overdosed enough on golf I also found time to turn to the Aramco Saudi Ladies’ International Presented by Public Investment Fund.  That really trips off the tongue, doesn’t it?  The Royal Greens Golf & Country Club looked spectacular and the demanding, closing par-5 18th hole was one of the best holes I’ve ever seen in a play-off.  It was the ultimate risk-reward test where even the lay-up was scary.  I was rooting for Welsh player Lydia Hall, who finished a creditable sixth behind the multi-talented Dane Emily Pedersen, who produced a stunning birdie in extra time to edge out the ever-consistent Georgia Hall.

I hadn’t really any intention of tuning in to the tournament because I’m not really certain that I approve of the Tour being there.  I’m well aware of the potential positives – if they do indeed happen.  We’ll wait and see.  Neither do I blame those players who have travelled there.  After all, a $1,000,000 prize fund dangled in front of players who struggle to have enough tournaments a year in which to hone their games can be very persuasive.  There is a second team tournament taking place at the same course this week and I will watch with interest to see if ultimately this liaison proves to be more than “sportswashing” on behalf of the Saudis, i.e. using sport and large prize funds to attract global goodwill while not addressing an appalling human rights record.  However, communication and  interaction CAN lead to great breakthroughs…..so, fingers crossed.

Our bubble has reduced back down now that Patricia has returned home to Staffordshire.  We will both miss her, but NOT the inordinate amount of time she spends endlessly recycling every plastic container within sight.  Each is stripped of its paper label, which is then neatly folded ready for its designated bin.  Each plastic pot and lid is washed and put to drain on the rack and the mountains of creased and folded tin foil “ready to be sorted” have thankfully diminished.

Could this be the new definition of “wasting one’s time” I wonder?  Be that as it may, life has, for the moment, returned to its Covid-normal.