In our weekly series, Yahoo Sport’s Nick Metcalfe features a famous voice of sport. This week, as The Open at Royal Troon heads towards its conclusion, the BBC’s No.1 golf commentator Peter Alliss goes under the spotlight.

We can always be sure of one thing - there will never be another voice of sport quite like Peter Alliss. He truly is a one-off.

Long before his life behind the microphone, Alliss was a very fine player. He turned professional at the age of 16, in 1947. And it wasn’t long before he was faring very well indeed. He made Britain’s Ryder Cup team at the age of 22 in 1953 and won his first big event, the Daks Tournanent, in 1954.

In 1957 he claimed a significant victory at the PGA Close Championship and was part of the British team that won the Ryder Cup in America later that year.

His finest year of all, 1958, saw him win three tournaments in three successive weeks - the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese Opens. He continued to make British Ryder Cup teams, appearing in eight contests in all. Alliss is seen putting during the 1965 Ryder Cup at Birkdale.

Alliss continued to win tournaments during the 1960s - finishing with a career total of 31 - including another PGA Close Championship title in 1962. He also competed twice in the Masters at Augusta, in 1966 and 1967. He continued playing into the 1970s, making his final appearance on the European Tour in 1974.

His last Open, at Royal Lytham & St Anne’s in 1974, was his 24th successive appearance at the game’s grandest major.

As with Richie Benaud, who I profiled in May, many younger viewers will not even be aware that Alliss was a top player at all. For one thing, like Benaud, he rarely harks back to his playing days during commentary. He may like talking about the past - more of that to come later - but not usually his own past out on the course.

In the future, there’s no doubt that Alliss will be most remembered for his time as a broadcaster. He first worked for BBC Television at the 1961 Open. He only moved into the TV business on a full-time basis when he retired from playing in the 1970s, becoming the BBC’s lead commentator in 1978. Here we are 38 years later and it’s a role he still occupies. That’s longevity for you.

Such was his natural charm and presence on screen that the BBC gave him golfing vehicles away from tournament play. Alliss presented Pro-Celebrity Golf in the 1970s and 1980s - he worked on 140 programmes in all, over a 14 year period. And his ‘Around with Alliss’ programme on the BBC in the 1980s saw him play golf with a host of famous people, as well as finding out a little about their life story. The programme was revived in 1997 for one series, called A Golfer’s Travels.

It’s fair to say Alliss has a style all of his own. Whimsical might be the word that sums it up best. He certainly seems to belong to a bygone age.

On a purely practical level, isn’t it remarkable that somebody broadcasting when the likes of Benaud, David Coleman, Dan Maskell and Ted Lowe were in their pomp is still going strong today?

If a casual viewer heard Alliss for the first time, they could be forgiven for thinking he was in a world of his own. I’m certain that isn’t it at all though - it’s actually a very clever and well honed routine he’s got going.

One of the beauties of Alliss is that he can’t let anything go. If the cameras pick up a child eating an ice cream, many commentators wouldn’t reference it at all. Alliss simply couldn’t stop himself talking about it, quite possibly at length. You can probably imagine it now. “Look at that - oh yes… very tasty. I would have a Flake with mine. A 99 on a day like this. Yes please. Lovely.”

Look at this splendid example of Alliss at his best as he mimicks Nick Faldo’s caddy. It’s vintage Alliss actually.

“I don’t know, I keep trudging round this course with him. I’ve spent the best years of my life with this fella. All he does, up the fairway and down again. It’s a wonder he don’t get me holding the flag. Cor blimey O'Reilly, I’m going to get a good pay day whatever happens. I can’t wait to get in for a pint. Clear off out the way, get back there, Lord alive.”

He really is one of the most colourful broadcasters there’s ever been. It’s not just about whether Rory McIlroy or Jordan Spieth can make a birdie on the par four. It’s about the fans, the scenery, the weather. The whole show. Alliss can paint pictures with words and he knows it.

Here’s another example. The excercise routine of Miguel Angel Jimenez would probably be memorable on its own. But Alliss just adds something so entertaining to it. Watch and enjoy in all its glory. “Go on my son, get it out there. That’s more like it.”

He also has an extraordinary ability to veer off subject and talk about a character he might have known decades ago that the rest of us have never heard of. Or to wish the locals well at some such club or other around the country. Again, a place at least 99 per cent of those watching know nothing about at all. That’s what I mean about some thinking on first viewing that he might be in a world of his own.

But after all that talking round the action, when the big moments come, he so often finds the right words. I didn’t need to look up his best lines, they’re stored away in the memory bank. “Not a million miles away, is it?” as Sam Torrance holed the putt that memorably won Europe the Ryder Cup in 1985 (a first defeat for America in the contest since Alliss helped Britain to victory in 1957). “The meek shall inherit the earth,” as American Larry Mize chipped in from miles away to win the 1987 Masters.

When Jean van de Velde somehow threw away the 1999 Open on the 72nd hole at Carnoustie, Alliss was in his element, especially as the Frenchman appeared to consider hitting the ball out of the Barry Burn in front of the 18th green.

“What on earth are you doing? Would somebody go and stop him, give him a large brandy and calm him down. He’s gone gaga. To attempt to hit the ball out of there is pure madness.”

That was a controversial moment from Alliss actually. One of so many. From the outset, this series has always set out to be a positive one. An affectionate one. These special voices in our lives deserve it in my books. But every so often there will be somebody that clearly does divide opinion, and that simply has to be reflected. Alliss falls into that category.

Many will always love him. But there will be others that say he represents the worst of the cozy golf club culture. One thing is for sure - he is definitely right of centre is Alliss. Most certainly old-fashioned. Unreconstructed. He knows what he likes, and he likes what he bloody well knows.

I was amused to read an interview with him for the Radio Times just before this week’s Open at Royal Troon. As ever, it was pure Alliss. “It’s amazing isn’t it, quite how much life has changed?,” he lamented. “You don’t have to go to the shops any more, even for spuds and carrots - you can get it all on your computer. The world is becoming smaller and smaller and less sophisticated. Or maybe more sophisticated. I’m not sure.

“And I’m not sure I like it all. Style, consideration, courtesy, manners, all these old-fashioned things are disappearing. People point their fingers and say ‘you’re old-fashioned, you’re living in Victorian times’, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being considerate.

“But golf, the great game, that’s different. In a morass of ugliness, this fuddy-duddy old game with some silly rules and regulations has managed to keep its head above water with a glimmer of manners and style.”

There aren’t many characters like Alliss left in Britain. You can still find them, but you need to look hard. And there’s no point pretending his approach to life hasn’t landed him in trouble on a few occasions.

When the BBC covered The Open live for the final time in 2015, Zach Johnson was the champion at St Andrews. As the American stood over a putt to win the title, the cameras cut to his wife and Alliss remarked: “She is probably thinking, if this goes in I get a new kitchen.”

Oh Peter - you don’t really belong in 2016, do you? You suspect Alliss was much happier in 1976, at the time when Pro-Celebrity golf was in its pomp.

Even recently, when Muirfield upheld its men-only membership rule, Alliss said: “If somebody wants to join, well you’d better get married to somebody who’s a member.”

He’s never going to stop saying things like that. He doesn’t want to. He’s totally comfortable with who he is. Life may be changing at an alarming pace, but the 85-year-old voice of BBC golf most certainly isn’t.

For the millions of fans of the game, the lack of live golf on free-to-air television is a great shame. BBC coverage now is restricted to two days at the Masters. Leaving aside the new Olympic golf tournament that is. Naturally, Alliss has been pretty strident with his views on that too, calling the loss of BBC rights to The Open “sad” and “embarrassing”.

With Sky taking up the reins for this week’s 145th Open, the BBC are left with two hour nightly highlights programme. And Alliss. Still at the heart of a tournament he first played in back in 1951. A permanent witness if ever there was one.

I’ll leave the final words for this latest feature to Alliss himself, from this week’s Radio Times.

“I’m not a statistician. I have never used stats to fortify my commentary. I’m arrogant enough to think I’d go on any programme and be as entertaining as the other, younger commentators. I’d give them a two-up start if you like, and I’d talk about life and sport and memories, which is what I do. Nobody has told me not to.”