Peter Oosterhuis, a British golfer with a 6-foot-5 frame and an elegant compact swing, who became one of the first Europeans to compete full time on the PGA Tour in the 1970s, and who later found a second career as a longtime golf commentator on CBS, died May 2 at age 75.
PGA officials announced the death in a statement but gave no further details. Mr. Oosterhuis, who lived in Charlotte, retired from broadcasting in 2014 because of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
For nearly two decades, Mr. Oosterhuis (which he pronounced OH-ster-house) was one of golf’s most distinctive players on both sides of the Atlantic. He blasted towering fairway drives, swinging extra-long clubs to accommodate his height. With his short game — folding himself over his wedges and putters — he showed a finesse and deft touch that often left spectators roaring.
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In his lone PGA Tour victory, at the Canadian Open in 1981, he chipped a perfect shot from the sand on the final hole and then knocked in a one-foot putt, giving him a single-stroke win over three runners-up including Jack Nicklaus, who had designed the course.
“You’ve been very patient, Peter, and now you’ve won one,” Nicklaus told him.
“I don’t know if I’ve been patient or just stubborn,” replied Mr. Oosterhuis, who was widely known as “Oosty.”
Just his presence on the PGA Tour was something of a novelty. His decision in 1975 to compete fully on the PGA circuit made him one of the first Europeans on the tour, and helped show the possibilities to other international players at a time when the PGA carried the biggest prize money and prestige.
“I came over to the States and I think maybe I was just happy that I was on the PGA Tour,” he told Golf magazine. “At that time, it was an achievement.”
Even before his PGA years, Mr. Oosterhuis had made a mark on the sport. He was among the dominant golfers on the newly formed European Tour, winning back-to-back Open de France titles in 1973 and 1974, a year he also won the Italian Open. At Britain’s Open Championship in 1974, he was runner-up, four strokes behind South Africa’s Gary Player.
His most-watched moment during that run came in the United States. At the 1973 Masters, Mr. Oosterhuis stunned the field and fans. After 54 holes, he had a three-stroke lead at Augusta National Golf Club with shots that included a dazzling 60-foot putt for an eagle.
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“Nervous?” someone asked Mr. Oosterhuis as he headed for the fourth and final round.
“Yes,” he replied.
The previous night, he forgot to tell the hotel to block his calls. A friend in Britain phoned at 3:45 a.m. to wish him luck. He said he couldn’t fall back asleep for an hour.
From the first hole, the lead Mr. Oosterhuis had built was chipped away. Nicklaus and American Tommy Aaron were surging. By the 10th tee, Mr. Oosterhuis had surrendered the lead to Aaron and J.C. Snead, the nephew of golfing great Sam Snead. Still, Mr. Oosterhuis was just a stroke back. A steady push to the finish could keep him in contention.
On the 520-yard 15th, Mr. Oosterhuis misplayed the drive, forcing him to take an extra shot to reach the green. Then his putting, normally a reliable part of his game, failed him. He missed a 10-footer for a bogey, his fourth of the round. He could not recover.
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Aaron finished at a four-under 283 for his first and only Masters victory. Snead was second at 284; Mr. Oosterhuis was third at 285 along with Nicklaus and Jim Jamieson.
Share this articleShare“I played a scrappy round,” Mr. Oosterhuis recounted, “but didn’t play particularly well.”
Mr. Oosterhuis retired from professional play in 1986 and turned his golf knowledge — along with his self-effacing wit — into a broadcast career. He worked for Britain’s Sky Sports and the Golf Channel before debuting for CBS Sports in 1998. For the next 16 years, he was part of the network’s golf coverage team.
At the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Mr. Oosterhuis and his colleagues noticed that his memory and usually prodigious attention to detail appeared to be slipping. “When an [obsessive-compulsive disorder] person can’t obsess the way he used to,” he recalled, “he starts to obsess about his inability to obsess.” He later received a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and announced he was stepping down.
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In a 2015 interview, he was asked if he had moments of anger over his inability to continue broadcasting. He joked that he never gets angry. Then he added a caveat. “Maybe once,” he said, “when I missed a few short putts.”
‘Thinking globally’
Peter Arthur Oosterhuis was born May 3, 1948, in London. His father, who had fled the Netherlands during World War II, was a commodities broker for coffee and other products. His mother was a homemaker who was a low-handicap golfer.
As a boy, he was permitted on the grounds of a golf club, Dulwich and Sydenham Hill, to pick blackberries. “I used to eat all the blackberries I picked,” he said, “so I was soon dismissed from that and I started to play golf instead.” Within a few years, he was winning junior tournaments.
He represented Britain in amateur international play in 1967 and 1968 before turning professional. He finished sixth at Britain’s 1970 Open Championship, where Nicklaus defeated fellow American Doug Sanders in a playoff. (In 1982, Mr. Oosterhuis narrowly missed again at the Open, finishing a stroke behind Tom Watson.)
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From 1971 to 1974, Mr. Oosterhuis held the No. 1 ranking in Europe. As part of Ryder Cup competition — U.S. teams vs. Europeans — his one-on-one record during the 1970s included twice beating Arnold Palmer.
Mr. Oosterhuis said his move to the PGA Tour was inspired by countryman Tony Jacklin, who had been taking part in American competitions since the late 1960s. “After Tony I was really the only guy in Europe thinking globally,” he once said. “I made the effort to go over, and I proved to myself that I could compete.”
After leaving the professional circuit, Mr. Oosterhuis was golf director at country clubs in New Jersey and outside Los Angeles before returning to Britain for the broadcast job with Sky. He also contributed golf commentary for the BBC.
In his golf bag, he always kept a copy of National Geographic’s “Complete Birds of the World” to help identify new species that he spotted while playing. He tallied about 500 over his career.
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His marriage to Anne Coney ended in divorce. In 1993, he married Ruth Ann Pittluck. Besides his wife, survivors include two sons from his first marriage; two stepsons; and four grandchildren.
During a 1973 Ryder Cup match in Scotland, America’s Lee Trevino announced that he would kiss his teammates on the rear if he lost to Mr. Oosterhuis. They tied. Even so, the American team waited for Trevino in the locker room with their pants lowered as a joke.
“I didn’t know about that until years later,” Mr. Oosterhuis recalled. “I guess I should take it as a compliment that I must have played well enough to get Lee Trevino’s attention.”
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