George Livingstone

George Wylie Alexander Livingstone (December 14, 1880 – December 17, 1968) was a Scottish golf professional who emigrated to the U.S. in 1912. He is best known for breaking Bobby Jones' world record for 36 consecutive holes of tournament play in 1926 at the Southeastern PGA Tournament with a 67–66. Livingstone left his home in North Berwick, Scotland, at age 31 to come to the United States, hoping to capitalize on golf's explosive popularity there. He was undoubtedly influenced by the success of several of his boyhood golfing companions from North Berwick, including Willie Anderson and Fred McLeod, who had each won the U.S. Open.

After arriving in New York, he fortuitously found an opening at a rising country club in Tennessee; sportswriter Grantland Rice was asked by them to interview him and report back. Livingstone was hired and kept the position as head pro at Nashville's Belle Meade Country Club for 35 years (1912–1947). Known for his thick Scottish brogue and sometimes brusk manner, he exerted a major influence in golf organizations in the South by establishing standards of how tournaments were run. He organized many golf exhibition matches to benefit charities. Livingstone was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. Today, an honorary golf "Heritage Trail" is mapped out through North Berwick, with a plaque at the site where Livingstone was born.

Early life

Livingstone (pronounced Livings-tun) was born on December 14, 1880, in North Berwick, Scotland. It is a small costal town on the south shore of the Firth of Forth (an estuary of the River Forth), about 25 miles east of Edinburgh. Golf had been played at that site as far back as 1798. His father, James Livingstone, was a fisherman and seasonal golf caddie. His mother was Mary Taylor, from Buckhaven, another costal town just north. The Livingstones' living quarters were adjacent to a golf course. "The holes ran past my front yard...I guess I was about three years old the first time I had a [Golf] stick in my hand", Livingston said. The rent was low in their tenement; it had no electricity or gas. Robert Louis Stevenson spent many holidays there in his childhood. The British Prime Minister, Arthur James Balfour, was a regular visitor to North Berwick in the late 1880s. For years, Balfour came there for a month each September and played golf almost every day. Livingstone left school at age 14 to take an apprenticeship in joinery. Livingstone won many local golf championships.

Move to the United States

At age 31, despite having no job prospects lined up in the United States, he sailed alone on the SS California from Glasgow to New York on March 9, 1912. He went to New Jersey to stay with his old school friend from North Berwick, Jack Hobens, who was the club pro Englewood Golf Club. Hobens had come to the U.S. in 1899, and had placed in the top ten finishers in seven recent U.S. Opens. Every Monday, the two men would go to New York City to buy supplies at Spalding's golf equipment store. On one of these visits, the store manager said he had that day received a telegram from one of their southern district salesmen, saying that a country club in Tennessee wanted to cancel their order for golf equipment because their present pro had died suddenly of a heart attack. The manager, Matt Kiern, wired Nashville to suggest Livingstone for the vacant job. Livingstone followed the messenger back to the telegraph office where he wired his application. The Nashville's club's secretary, Bradley Walker contacted a friend, sportswriter Grantland Rice, to ask him to interview Livingstone and advise them. After receiving a favorable opinion from Rice, Walker gathered the members of the Nashville Golf and Country Club to convince them that hiring a Scot was the right thing to do because all the American pros "were spoiled",

Nashville

Livingstone arrived at the Nashville Golf and Country Club, located on Nashville's West End Avenue, on May 28, 1912. It turned out that club, like many urban golf clubs at the time, was hatching a plan to abandon the present clubhouse and golf course to move to a new site in the suburbs about four miles west.

In 1924, Livingstone defeated Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in an exhibition match at Belle Meade; in the same year, he won the Nashville City Open. He played in the 1926 Southeastern PGA Championship, also at Belle Meade. He shot 66-67 in the first two rounds for a total of 133, breaking the previous world record of 134 set by Bobby Jones. Such exhibition matches were popular events, often fundraisers, that helped promote golf. On April 5, 1931, Babe Ruth was in Nashville for a Yankees exhibition game to be held in the afternoon. That morning, Ruth was hosted by Livingstone to play golf at Belle Meade; Ruth shot 81(41–40).

Legacy

Livingstone's manner could be gruff at times. One of the club members, Harrison Hill, learned do a near-perfect imitation of Livingstone’s mannerisms, and when Livingstone saw it, he dissolved into laughter. Today, an honorary golf "Heritage Trail" is mapped out in North Berwick, featuring a plaque at the site where Livingstone was born.