From a stormy night in the Potteries all the way to the majesty of Augusta
The champagne – if there’s any left – has gone flat, and now a man who helped bring the Ryder Cup to life for armchair viewers is taking his leave.
For the last 25 years, David Livingstone has been the face of Sky’s golf coverage. He was there from the start as the channel ventured into new territory, before leaving the BBC in its wake.
In his understated manner, the presenter knew the key questions to ask the likes of Butch Harmon and Paul Mcginley to augment the channel’s innovations in the way golf is now covered.
Now he is stepping away to enjoy retirement at his home in Glasgow’s Newton Mearns.
As the sun set in Paris, over arguably the biggest and best Ryder Cup of all time, it was a far cry from how his journey into TV golf started.
“I was working on football at the time and I was doing a game between Stoke City and Port Vale,” he recalls.
“It was a terrible, stormy night, with mud lapping over my shoes.
“Right out of the blue, my boss, Andy Melvin – a fellow Scot – asked me if I would like to present Sky’s coverage of the PGA Tour, which they had acquired.
“I was shivering and looked down at my shoes and thought: ‘ Why not!’ It didn’t feel like it but I was in the right place at the right time.
“The first tourney was the Tournament of Champions from La Costa in California, in the first week of January in 1993, the day after my 40th birthday.
“It was a cold, miserable evening and it was myself and Ken Brown in the studio in
London. We were a couple of novices. I didn’t know too much about golf, and Ken knew nothing about TV!
“Looking back now, it was almost embarrassing.
“We got better and I am very proud to have been with Sky from the start, and to have seen the amazing innovations we have had in our coverage.
“To go out at the Ryder Cup, when all the ingredients came together, was special. I’m not especially partisan, but a victory for Europe leaves you with a good feeling.”
If David has been the front man for Sky’s dedicated coverage of the sport, Tiger Wo o d s has been g o l f ’s continuing headline maker.
Following Woods as he burst onto the scene and then proceeded to take the game to new levels was a real privilege.
“Tiger has been the story of my time at Sky,” agrees David.
“I interviewed him for the first time at the 1996 US Open when he was still an amateur. A media official tipped me off that this was the first time Tiger had made the cut in a Major.
“I asked him about making his f i r s t Ma j o r c u t . He interrupted me to tell it was the second. He had made the cut in that year’s Masters.
“Obviously that was my fault, for relying on someone else’s word and not doing my research, but it got my attention.
“Here was a person who would not tolerate anything less than perfection.
“Because we knew Butch, I got to spend a lot of time around Tiger. All the noise surrounding him was completely and utterly vindicated.
“A lot of people didn’t like the chat that he would dominate golf, but it was jaw-dropping what he did.
“I used to be on the practice range and other players would come over to watch him. They couldn’t believe how well he struck the ball.
“There was never a rivalry for Tiger. Six or seven others, like Vijay Singh and Ernie Els, were running a relay against him. They did it in stages, but Woods carried the baton for the whole race.
“The only word I can use to describe it is phenomenal. And at Sky, we were there every step of the way.”
From those beginnings on the PGA Tour coverage through to Ryder Cups and more recently The Open and The Masters, Livingstone has been there to see the biggest prizes handed out.
But he has a surprise choice for his favourite venue.
“I’ve always had a soft spot for The Players Championship at Sawgrass.
“It’s a modern event played on a stadium course that was built with fans in mind. I’ve always liked courses with water on them and I love the 17th and 18th there.
“The first time I went, I was lucky enough to play the course on the Monday after. My producer and I had a kind of Ryder Cup match against two Americans and we came to the 17th.
“I knocked it over the water and onto the green, quite close to the hole. I enjoyed that and certainly haven’t forgotten it!”