After Voice of Golf rants about women on fairway, meet his new colleague!
Veteran BBC golf host Peter Alliss has often landed himself in the rough for his ribbing of women players.
But it would appear the 86-year-old presenter has finally met his match.
the new face of BBC golf coverage is a 34-year-old woman who campaigned for more women in the sport.
eilidh Barbour will take over from Hazel irvine, 51, who is stepping down after 25 years as a golf presenter, and eight years as BBC golfing anchor.
Barbour joins a team that includes Alliss, Ken Brown and Andrew Cotter. she will make her debut at the PgA Championship in May.
this year’s Masters from Augusta will be irvine’s last golf event, although she will stay the face of snooker and host major events such as the olympics.
she has covered golf for BBC radio 5 live and has been a reporter on Foot-
‘Oh, girls can do that job’
ball Focus, Final score, the euro 2016 tournament and FA Cup games, as well as women’s football and rugby.
Barbour wrote to irvine when she was 14, asking for advice on becoming a sports broadcaster.
Watching irvine on grandstand, Barbour said: ‘i suddenly thought, “oh, girls can do that job”.’
irvine was happy to welcome Barbour to the post but the appointment may anger Alliss.
the presenter has branded women’s equality campaigners as ‘bra-burning merchants’ and sparked controversy several times with his jibes at women.
He famously claimed that the fight for gender equality on the golf course had ‘buggered up the game for a lot of people’. He also said women invaded golf clubs to do ‘nothing’ and should marry a member if they wanted to join.