Channel Hopper: Reined-in Alliss still reigns in Augusta

Published on Saturday 10 April 2010 00:47

The Masters BBC 1, 2 and red button

THE admirable Hazel Irvine has many virtues as a broadcaster, but perhaps this week her most important quality is a negative one. She is not Gary Lineker.

Still popular with millions if the viewing figures for his latest advert are anything to go by, Lineker has never quite hit it off as part of the BBC's golf coverage. He has looked ill at ease when on camera on his own, and has struggled to blend in with the rest of the team.

To be fair to the former footballer, he was given a hard time from the off by Peter Alliss, who memorably suggested that Lineker might not be highly regarded by viewers after his first Masters in 2006. "If I was a golf fan sitting at home looking forward to tuning in to the Masters, I would have given him a three or a four," the veteran said.

"But, you see, that's unfair. Gary was very nervous and he did a very good job. He's very good at reading the autocue."

If Alliss has similar views on Irvine, he has so far been far too gallant to voice them in public. But it seems unlikely.

Anchoring the BBC's coverage from a studio set which is open to the elements, Irvine, so far at least, has been a model of poise. She has a relaxed rapport with Alliss and Wayne Grady, and remains aware of the fact that we have primarily tuned in to see the golf, not her.

Being a man of pronounced views, Alliss does not always emulate the Scot in that respect, but this year he has kept himself reined in. He may succumb to self-indulgence at times (and is often at his most amusing when doing so), but at this Masters he knows there are two good reasons for maintaining a certain rigour.

First, interest in the return of Tiger Woods is dwarfing any other aspect of the tournament, and even Alliss might not be forgiven by his loyal fans for speaking or acting as if he were the main story. Second, the nature of the golfer's indiscretions means they have to be discussed circumspectly, rather than with the rather robust humour in which the 79-year-old specialises.

"I've got to be very mindful about what I say," he told The Scotsman two weeks ago. "It could be one of the biggest tests of my career. I've got to be very careful, because I could destroy myself."

So, no ribaldry. Instead, Alliss is concentrating on the golf, confining his more idiosyncratic moments to safer subjects than the penchant for extra-marital dalliance which kept Woods out of action for five months before this week.

Late on Thursday, for example, as the breeze got up, a fair amount of floral debris had been blown from the trees and was littering some of the fringes of the greens. Alliss looked down at the pictures on his monitor and tried to identify the buds which were proving a minor hindrance.

"Little bodkins, podkins, whatever you call 'em," he mused, before finally settling on the right word. "Catkins."

When it came to Woods, Alliss made only the mildest of ventures into comedy. As the golfer received a club from his caddie at the 11th hole, the commentator decided it was silly-voice time. "Give me the driver," Alliss intoned in a strangely strangulated manner more appropriate to Captain Jack Sparrow demanding to be handed a rapier by his manservant.

More relevantly, Alliss – even if the Thursday programme did begin with him reciting William Blake's The Tyger – was the one member of the BBC team who felt able to cut down on the hyperbole. Irvine declared of Woods that "the eyes of the world were upon him", which was a slight exaggeration. Then Ken Brown discussed one of Woods' approach shots as if it were a stroke of genius, only for Alliss to put it into a more realistic context: the outcome of the drawn shot may have been remarkable, he stated, but it owed a fair amount to luck, and its execution verged on the routine.

As if to prove the latter point, the show cut to Brown doing one of his 'Ken on the course' features about how to draw the golf ball. It's just like making a football curl from right to left, apparently.

He proved the point by delivering a nice little inswinger with a football he had brought along for the purpose, and then replicated the effect with club and ball. Or at least he said he did, because it was not at all easy to follow the flight.

Brown's vignettes reveal the science behind the artistry displayed by top golfers, and are the third most pleasing aspect of the BBC's coverage this year. Irvine and her non-Linekerness are second. Alliss is first, still in a class of his own, self-censorship or not.