'Political incorrectness gone mad'

The venerated British broadcaster Peter Alliss had his work at Augusta National scrutinized by Times (U.K.) columnist Giles Smith, who concludes that Alliss and the game on which he reports are mired hopelessly in the past.

"The difficulty is that, over the four days just passed, Alliss probably made as many as a hundred crisply illuminating and entirely welcome remarks about players' club selections, approaches to the hole, the lay of the green, etc. Yet what stays with one is the limping parody of Cabrera's accent: 'I forget to use the meedle of the club.' Or — still more thumb-bitingly awful — the point at which Shingo Katayama left the 18th green. 'Sushi tonight, lad. Bit of sake,' Alliss commented.

"At those moments, you can't quite believe what you're hearing. It's political incorrectness gone mad — a reminder that the world strides forward in leaps and bounds, but that golf and Peter Alliss somehow don't."

-- John Strege