FROM THE HERALDSCOTLAND.COM WEBSITE
By DOUGLAS LOWE
Alex Hay, 77, and his long-time BBC commentary partner Peter Alliss, 79, were both honoured last week when they received PGA Recognition Awards respectively in Glasgow and London.
“I play about four days a week. I play off five and, yes, I’m a bandit,” confirmed Hay (pictured right). “A few of the members in this room would confirm that.
“Bill McLaren went to 79 and was distressed he didn’t make 80. I think Alliss will go through the 80 barrier. He’s two years older than me,” added Hay, who provides commentary these days for an ever-decreasing schedule.
“The BBC are down to about four tournaments a year, so the workload isn’t big. He’s there as an institution and to me he’s the one worth listening to. We get on well and we had a long partnership.”
Hay was educated at Musselburgh Grammar School and joined Ben Sayers at Musselburgh as an apprentice golf club maker before heading south.
On the advice of Jimmy Adams at Wentworth, he wrote to the secretary of the British PGA, who then had a desk in a workshop at Kilmarnock Barassie, saying he would like to become an assistant professional. This was 1950 when he was still in the RAF. “I got a reply saying: ‘We do not consider clubmakers worthy of becoming professionals’, he recalled.
“I took the letter to Ben Sayers. He said to leave it with him and three days later I received a letter from the PGA saying I had been accepted. I asked Sayers what he had done. He had written to them saying: “Where the hell do you think we all came from? People then didn’t throw clubs in the bin like they do now – they had them repaired,” explained Hay, who was an assistant to Bill Shankland at Potters Bar, then professional at East Herts and Dunham Forest. For 13 years he was the professional at Aldridge before moving to Woburn, and also linked up with Tom Scott at Golf Illustrated, not missing an issue for 17 years.
Then Sky offered him a contract to sit alongside Euan Murray.
“That would have meant doing 90 tournaments a year and I would have had to give up Woburn,” said Hay who regarded that part of his life as crucially important. “That was too important to me so I stayed and the BBC gave me a nice long-term contract. Alliss and me were too old and too dangerous.”
Hay was chairman of the southern region of the PGA and was joint head of teaching and training, creating the first teaching manual for young professionals. “So the great success of European golf we put down to that manual. That was the turning point,” he said.
Ian Poulter came through the PGA training school. “He is an outstanding man and a wonderful golfer. He’s not a classic swinger but he is a wonderful player with an outstanding confidence,” said Hay.
“Like Paul Lawrie, he came in the hard way and Leighton Buzzard [where Poulter was assistant pro] was not a prosperous club. It used to be nine holes and was made up to 18. His attitude then was that he was going to become a successful tournament player – and he did. Now he is at Woburn and he has his own parking spot. There’s one for the Duke of Bedford, one for me and a double-lined one for him because he has one of those American racing cars with big doors so we had to give him extra space. It’s not because of the size of his head.”


Peter Alliss, pictured left, notched another achievement in his illustrious career the following day when he received the same award at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London.
Having started alongside father Percy as an unpaid assistant at Ferndown Golf Club, Alliss quickly blossomed as a player and between 1954 and 1969 won 21 professional tournaments including three PGA Championships. He was also a two-time winner of the Vardon Trophy and in September 1958, he won the national championships of Italy, Spain, and Portugal in three consecutive weeks. In addition he made eight Ryder Cup appearances and is one of only two father-and-son duos to have represented their country at this level.
Alliss twice captained the PGA – in 1962 and 1987 – and golf is still going strong in the family with his son, Gary, a PGA Master Professional and his grandson, Craig, also a PGA professional.
“Peter is one of the best-loved people in golf who has excelled in several areas of the game from playing through to course design and most famously as the voice of golf on television,” said the PGA chief executive, Sandy Jones. “As a broadcaster particularly, he has done a tremendous amount to generate interest and awareness in the sport and his passion and enthusiasm remain undimmed.
“He comes from a family steeped in the traditions of golf and it is a great honour for the PGA to be able to bestow this award on Peter to reflect his outstanding contribution to the game stretching back more than 50 years.”
Few could disagree with the sentiment – it could easily have been expressed about either man.