Peter Oosterhuis, stylish and popular golfer who had the measure of the Americans in the Ryder Cup – obituary

Peter Oosterhuis, who has died a day short of his 76th birthday, was one of the best-loved British golfers of the past 60 years, renowned for his charm and good cheer; though he never won a major, he did have nearly 30 tournament victories to his name, and he was a stylish winner of the Order of Merit four years in a row. In retirement he became a popular television commentator before being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

He was a linchpin of the Great Britain and Ireland Ryder Cup team in the 1970s and 1980s, appearing in six in a row. In the 1973 event at Muirfield he was up against Lee Trevino in one of his singles matches, and the Texan had told his teammates: “If I don’t beat Oosterhuis, I’ll come in here and kiss your butts.”

They halved the match, Oosterhuis recalled. “When he walked in the locker room, Jack Nicklaus, Gay Brewer and the other players were waiting, slacks down around their ankles, for the pay-off. Lee didn’t keep his promise.”

Though the US won all six of his Ryder Cup appearances – only the last two included European players – Oosterhuis’s personal record was outstanding. He enjoyed victories over Johnny Miller, JC Snead and Gene Littler, and beat Arnold Palmer in 1971 and 1973. He partnered Nick Faldo to two wins on his Ryder Cup debut in 1977, including a 3&1 success over Nicklaus and Raymond Floyd.

“I was speaking to Jack and reminded him of it,” Oosterhuis recalled in 2015 shortly after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. “He said, ‘Really? You beat us? I don’t remember.’ That’s the difference between Jack’s memory and mine; he gets to choose what he forgets.”

Peter Arthur Oosterhuis was born in London on May 3 1948 and was educated at Dulwich College. His golfing talent was abundantly evident from an early age, and he worked on his game at Dulwich and Sydenham Hill Golf Club (after initially being allowed on to the course only to pick blackberries to take home to his family).

He went on to become the first schoolboy to represent Great Britain & Ireland at the Walker Cup; at 14 he was 6ft tall, eventually growing to 6ft 5in.

He won the 1966 Berkshire Trophy by a stroke from Michael Bonallack, later Secretary of the Royal and Ancient, after a spectacular final round of 67 which included nine 3s in 11 holes. Later that year he won the British Youths Open Amateur Championship. “Oosterhuis, a giant of strength, has a magnificent style,” observed Leonard Crawley in The Daily Telegraph.

In 1968 he was a runner-up in the Golf Illustrated Gold Vase behind Bonallack, tied with Ted Dexter, who went on to find greater fame on the cricket pitch. Oosterhuis turned professional in November that year, and in 1969 victory in the Sunningdale Foursomes helped him on his way to winning the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award.

With Tony Jacklin plying his trade in North America, young Oosterhuis rapidly became the leading light of the European Tour. In 1974 he was awarded the Harry Vardon Trophy after leading the Order of Merit for four consecutive seasons (1971-74).

He won tournaments in Africa as well as Europe – including the national opens of France (in 1973 and 1974) and Spain, plus seven World Tour titles and three on the Southern Africa Tour before crossing the Atlantic to qualify for the PGA Tour in 1975.

But though he recorded several top-10 finishes, victory eluded him in North America, and by 1981 he was struggling to keep his Tour card.

Working with the coach and former pro Bert Yancey got him back on track, and in August that year he registered his only PGA Tour victory, the Canadian Open.

In 1982 Oosterhuis was runner-up at the Open Championship at Royal Troon in Scotland, tied with the Zimbabwean Nick Price a shot behind Tom Watson (that matched his second place in 1974 at Royal Lytham and St Annes, when he finished three shots adrift of the great Gary Player.

Besides those runner-up spots, his other best finish in a major had been in the 1974 US Masters. A third-round 68 – played on the Sunday after terrible weather – left him top of the leaderboard, but on the final day he fell away to hit 74 and finish tied for third place behind Tommy Aaron.

He retired in 1986 (there was an abortive comeback in 1993 that resulted in 13 consecutive missed cuts), and worked for several years as director of golf at Forsgate Country Club in Jamesburg, New Jersey, and the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California.

At Riviera he played a round with Tiger Woods before the teenage amateur competed on a sponsor’s exemption in the 1992 LA Open. “He hit the ball a mile, he hit it high, and he knew what he was doing,” Oosterhuis recalled. “He was the most confident 16-year-old I’d ever seen.”

In 1994 Oosterhuis began commentating for Sky Sports and then the newly launched Golf Channel, before joining CBS in 1997. He was helped considerably, he said, by his obsessive-compulsive disorder, which gave him an edge when weaving facts and stats into his commentaries.

“There was a time when I could recall every course I’d ever played in fine detail, not just pars for the holes but yardages,” he said. But in the 2010s he found that information was becoming increasingly difficult to retrieve, and in 2015 he announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Peter Oosterhuis is survived by his second wife, Ruth Ann, known as “Roothie” – whom he met when she was a member of the Riviera club – and by two sons and two stepsons.

Peter Oosterhuis, born May 3 1948, died May 2 2024