Bill & Golf
Bill had a great love of golf. He obviously played it from an early age and was good enough to play in the Hawick Club Championship, and into his seventies could easily play to a handicap of 12 or less. He must hold the record for the most holes ever played on the Vertish. When I knew him, he played nearly every day with his faithful caddie. He said he couldn’t afford to pay her what she was worth.
I was lucky enough to play with him during holidays, sometimes day after day. I think he only put up with me because I was easy meat. He had a regular Thursday game with Harry Whitaker when he retired. This was a different proposition because Harry had a lower handicap and this brought out the competitive spirit in Bill. Not that it wasn’t always there. If he played on his own, he kept his score at every hole. He was also a member at Gullane: not that I was ever good enough to play him there. He loved his holidays with Bette at the Royal Marine Hotel North Berwick – even more when the family joined them there. He obviously loved the views of the golf courses he played, because he had several paintings by the late Jack Young of some of his favourite holes.
He did make a video which featured his golfing skills, called 'A Round with Alliss' and shot at Rosemount. He plays very well on the video but he told me it was well edited. They got to play a tee no longer in use at Rosemount which faced on to a parallel fairway. Bill said he hit a monster drive, walked off the tee proud as punch, only to be told to go back and hit another shot as they didn’t have any cameras where he’d hit it. I have a copy of this video but my great regret is I don’t have a video he made of a programme called 'Personal Choice' from the early 70s although bits of it were shown as part of the John Inverdale documentary. He was filmed playing the first two holes at the Vertish with his family. At the time Bill’s swing had an outrageous loop at the top and when it was shown the club went up the club came down but they had edited out the loop at the top.
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