7 May 2012, World Golf Village near St. Augustine, Florida, USA
Well, thank you, Terry, for that very under stated welcome.
I've watched a lot of these ceremonies, you know, the Oscars and the Emmys, and I've always marveled at everyone who goes up to get a prize and they never know what to say, do they, and they're all in tears and they're all gushing and saying how surprised they are, but I always assumed they'd known who'd won the prizes a few days before.
So I must thank somebody, and there's so many people here tonight. I've really done very little in my life. I've just waffled along, loving the game of golf and being observant, and things have always just come my way. I listen to people and they say, I've always wanted to do that job or that job and they've worked and schemed and connived to get it, whereas all these wonderful things have just fallen into my lap for some inexplicable reason.
Two people I should really thank first of all are my mother and father. I want you to picture the scene and the time. It was late April, 1930. My father was the golf professional at the Van Zee Golf Club on the outskirts of Berlin. He'd been in the first world war, and he fought with the Argyle Southern Highlanders, was wounded twice. Came out, though. He was born in 1897. He came out as a 20, 21 year old and went into the world of golf. He'd done a bit of caddying and that sort of thing.
Anyway, in 1926 he decided, I thought bravely or foolishly, when a job was advertised in Germany that he would go and work there because on the continent you became a professor, whereas in Britain you were just‑‑ on the continent you were really something a bit special. He built up a very good reputation as a teacher at this club, which was very splendid, and I can picture the scene at the end of April, father had a busy day teaching. They lived in a handsome bungalow, in the middle of the Black Forest where Van Zee Golf Club was situated. I can see mother standing at the door with the light behind her probably wearing her best Winceyette nightgown with the high collar and long sleeve, and father arriving back home, and supper is ready dear, what sort of day have you had? And he would say, well, it's been a bit tricky today. The word Nazi had not been invented then, but there were some nasty people, and he explained to my mother what a miserable day he'd had and these people were horrible.
But as he drank his soup, he started to smile, and he said, “but I sent two of them away with the worst slices you've ever seen”. He said, “the sort of slice that is totally incurable and will stay with them all their days”, and somehow I felt that that was indeed a little bit of a comeuppance for his two bullets that had gone through his arm two years ago.
I was indeed the heaviest baby. 37 years I had that record. I was one of twins would you believe. The other boy did not develop. Mother was 5'2" and weighed about 120 pounds. So she had a very difficult time. I mean, I was that sort of big, almost ready for work as soon as I popped out.
She did have a difficult time, and I know for a fact it was almost seven months before she rode her bicycle. That was a joke for the gynecologists actually.
1932 the family came back to Britain, father went on his professional career playing and teaching, good golf jobs, and I went to school and all that stuff. But the first competition I ever played was 1946, the boys championship, played on the west side of Edinburgh at a course called Brunsfield. I went there and I was playing off scratch at that time, and I went there and they picked me to play for England boys against the Scots, and I played very well and we beat the Scots. They'd been beating us every year we went about 8 & 6 or something. I was installed as one of the favorites to win, sailed through a few rounds, and I was up against a little lad calls Donald Dunston in the semifinals, a rather pasty, pale looking boy with a very bad complexion, and I was six foot tall and bordering on the beautiful, I suppose. I really was. I mean, I look at those old pictures, and I really fancied myself.
Anyway, we set off, and I won the first couple of holes, and I was‑‑ it was a beautiful day. Anyway, he beat me 3 & 2, which brought me down to earth a bit, and going back on the train, my father said, well, you've learnt your lesson, you should have done this, you should have defended when you attacked, but I don't think there's any point in you trying for any further education, you're not going to be a doctor or lawyer at calm den. You could come and be my unpaid assistant. I thought that was very generous. He was remember a Yorkshire man and had been spending a lot of time with the Scots in the first world war. So it came to pass I went to work for my dear old dad, and I had no concept at that time going back a bit crest fallen having been beaten by this pimply‑faced youth when I had so much to offer, I had no idea that the game of golf would take me down so many wonderful paths.
I played pretty well, got in my first Ryder Cup cap in 1953, went on to play in another seven, World Cups 10 times, winner of 20 odd tournaments, and then the chance of television came along, journalistic experience, writing for a couple of newspapers, magazines, and so on and so on.
But of all the places and things I've had‑‑ people say, which part of your life did you enjoy the most. I've enjoyed it all because I've never really worked very hard at it, just dear old Gary Player will absolutely guarantee that he never saw me out practicing. I used to hit a dozen balls with a 2‑iron. I was bloody good with a 2‑iron. And the ground was a bit rough. If I hit sort of seven decent ones out of 10, I didn't see the point in spending all day long hitting any more. I knew how it worked, and if it went all right, it was fine.
I must tell Tiger that one day if I get a chance.
But it was a wonderful time for learning, and then of course I started doing television in the early '60s, and by 1974 pro celebrity golf had started, and through my association with Mark McCormack and IMG, he introduced me to the world of television over here and working for ABC television.
It's very difficult to pick the BBC or ABC. I'm an Englishman, and of course one is always happiest at home. But I never enjoyed myself more than coming here and working with ABC. Why? Well, there were lovely people. One or two of them shouted a bit and swore, but they didn't swear at me too often. And the big boys always wound up the tournaments. They did the 17th and the 18th holes, so I could clear off after the 16th green. I suppose in four days of television I might have actually spoken for about an hour, and they paid me a ridiculous amount of money. And a first‑class airfare from London, and if it was necessary, use the Concord.
So I had nothing to complain about at all, but I've loved coming here and working on the television and watching the changing face of the world of golf. The Allisses have been around the game for over 100 years, and we've pretty well seen everything, all the changes in equipment and clubs and what have you, and people say, well, what has been the most significant part of the game, and probably something silly like cylindrical mowers to cut the fairways. In early days, and I've always said the players between 1900 and 1930 were probably the most skillful the world has ever seen. And they look at you and they say ‑‑ I do believe that if you look at the equipment they had, and you can go to the museum and look at it, the balls weren't round, the equipment was very weird, the greens weren't cut. The two sheep would nibble away and that was that.
The bunkers weren't raked. They perhaps from 1926 on they raked them on Mondays and Fridays and that was it, and players had to scoop out the holes they made on the bunkers. And yet they were going around with 72s and 74s on our championship courses which was quite remarkable with the tools they had, people like Bobby Jones and the people before him, quite remarkable. That doesn't mean to say that we don't marvel of the skills of the players today. But I do believe, and I'm not saying this as some old fart, with the equipment today, it has changed the face not only of golf but sport. One of my dearest friends is Sterling Moss, motor racing driver. When he was in his peak, they used proper petrol in the car, not whatever it is today, and if you hit something, the car burst into flames and you died. Now they have wonderful cars which you can hit a wall at 200 miles an hour and the chances are you'll escape with a couple of broken ankles. Everything has improved.
I saw Roger Banister break the 4 minute mile, and when he went through the tape he almost died. Now they do the 4 minute mile in about 3? minutes, and they come off and the fellow is waiting, well, what do you think about that? I don't feel much. It'll clear off, but they're hardly out of breath. These fellows and women are hardly out of breath. So times have changed quite dramatically. I've loved every moment of it, and coming here, I'm not saying this just because you're all here and everyone is looked after, my wife and my son and his dear wife, Kelly Rose, while we've been here. I'm not saying all that because people are expected to say it. This facility is most remarkable I've seen in the world of golf. It's sort of golf's answer to Disney World to me because you go to Disney World and you marvel at what was created there. The museum, the golf courses, the hotel, when you come in from the main road, the way the gardens are prepared, the trees, the staff, the volunteers, it's quite magical. And I've seen a fair bit of stuff in my time. But it is truly amazing the way they've done the museum, the way it's encapsulated all these personal bits and pieces of memorabilia. It's quite stunning. Quite stunning.
So it's time to‑‑ I could waffle on for another four or five hours. I just want to say this: I think of it often because I did leave school early. I was quite bright, but I remember my last report which was sent home. We had a headmistress that my modest school was called cross by house school. She was a Mrs.Violet Weymouth, and she was a short Welsh woman. She always had a cigarette dangling out of her mouth and the smoke used to trickle up here, and you could see where the smoke went. There was sort of a brown line up there. But she was‑‑ you didn't mess about with Mrs. Weymouth, I can tell you that. I'm always staggered today where I read that children go to school and beat up the teachers. They wouldn't have done that in my day, I'll tell you. But 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 loathe to use it. His only interests appear to be the game of golf and Violet Pretty, a girl I liked. She never knew about Iris Baker, but they were the two that uced 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. So mom and dad died a long, long time ago, and 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 occasional. But they are remarkable. They put up with all my nonsense, and I love them dearly.
And Mrs.Weymouth, if you're there, (holds up middle finger).