[1] Livingstone left his home in North Berwick, Scotland, at age 31 (1912) to come to the United States, hoping to capitalize on golf's explosive popularity there.

[2] 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.

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.

[4] Today, an honorary golf "Heritage Trail" is mapped out through North Berwick, with a plaque at the site where Livingstone was born.

"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.

[2]: 12 North Berwick became a fashionable holiday resort in the late nineteenth century thanks to two scenic sandy bays with golf courses at the end of each.

[3]: 27  The school's headmaster was George Tait, an avid golfer himself, who happened to be captain of the town's Bass Rock Golf Club at the time.

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 Nashville's club's secretary, Bradley Walker contacted a friend, sportswriter Grantland Rice, to ask him to interview Livingstone and advise them.

[21]: 157  He and his crew were busy from dawn to dusk clearing rocks and planting trees hauled from nearby land, that later became Percy Warner Park, to the site.

Livingstone began building his own stone two-story home near the new golf course, on a dirt road at the south end of Nashville's Warner Place that became Westview Avenue.

[3]: 38  Meanwhile, he learned distressing news that his father, James Livingstone, had written to the North Berwick Town Council to appeal against his Assessment (tax) on the grounds of poverty.

[21]: 158  Livingstone tightened up the state amateur tournament entry process with help from the newly-formed (1914) Tennessee Golf Association.

[23]: 112 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.

[1] In 1919, Livingstone and his amateur partner Chick Evans were defeated by Bobby Jones and Perry Adair in a benefit match for the Red Cross, played over the Belle Meade course.

[2]: 17 Sportswriter Fred Russell said of Livingstone, "I have known few men more devoted to their work, truer to their loyalties, and honest in their dealings with their fellow man."

[21]: 158  Even near the end of his life, he retained his thick Scottish brogue and used such quaint phrases as: “without the word of a lie” and “I’m of the mind.”[3]: 182  Livingstone died at age 88 on December 17, 1968.

[4] Today, an honorary golf "Heritage Trail" is mapped out in North Berwick, featuring a plaque at the site where Livingstone was born.