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December 13th, 2007
Hit it Alice
I was on the golf course yesterday and once again I heard that redundant golf saying—Hit it Alice, which is suppose to belittle, in a humorous way, that a male golfer strength is that of a woman’s. Which in itself is a stereotypical response.
The origin of the saying is really about Peter Alliss, the British TV golf commentator and former tour player who had difficulty with short putts. Each time I provide my golfing partners with insight on the origin of the word they are both enlightened, and somewhat lost regarding the meaning of life as it relates to short putts. I can feel a sense of loss and there entire manhood being questioned. “What do I say now”? How do I rib my friends when they miss a putt short?
Other folks might think that, “hit it Alice”, comes for the Honeymooners TV show of the 50’s and 70’s. Some of us who are in our 50’s + years think of the Jackie Gleason show with Ralph, Ed, Alice and Trixie and it wouldn’t be hard to imagine Ralph giving golf lessons and saying this very thing. What would more than likely happen is Alice would probably putt her ball closer to the hole than Ralph. One of the funniest golf episodes ever on TV was the Honeymooners –“The Golfer” episode # 82 of the honeymooners–check out TV.com to find out how to see this episode again. This was the episode where Ralph bragged to his boss how good of a golfer he was, (he didn’t think this would ever be challenged because another co-worker was scheduled to golf with the boss), and then was asked by his boss to sub for one of his co-workers who had gotten sick. What ensued next was total disaster. Ralph had never golfed in his life.
So, Hit it Alice. Does your wife play golf? And all those other sayings that we’ve heard over the years can be attributed to one man—Peter Alliss.
Hit it Alliss.
January 13th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
I always thought it was about being a wimp. Thanks for clarifying this.