COMMENT: Are the stars spoilt?

AN amusing little spat developed during the BMW PGA Championship after Peter Alliss didn’t hold back with his comments about the golf played in the third round.

Conditions were certainly tough – and enough players claimed the greens were far from perfect for us to accept that was the case – but the former Ryder Cup player found little reason to temper his criticism of the standard of play.

The players, led by Nick Dougherty, hit back by claiming the BBC commentator should have shown them more respect.

Alliss, somewhat inevitably, had the last word though. When Jyoti Randhawa hit a second shot fat to the 12th the veteran commentator said: “Are we allowed to say that is a mis-hit – or is that too cruel?”

Lovely stuff.

While I’m full of admiration for the skill of today’s players, surely they are not too thin-skinned enough to accept when they have played badly.

You’d think they would have enough psychologists and advisors around them to massage their egos back up to the necessary standard after the savaging from Alliss.

Sometimes you do feel the stars of today are too pampered and just a little removed from reality, especially when someone brought up in such a disciplined way as Dougherty was comes out with statements such as that.

Never mind Alliss, who was in his pomp 50 years ago, the likes of Nick Faldo and Sandy Lyle were no doubt shaking their heads at the comments, given the courses they played on on the European Tour in the early 1980s - they were not the manicured beauties today's stars enjoy.

A succession of Major championship wins suggests it didn’t do them all much harm, either.

By Chris Bertram