Renton Laidlaw, President of the Association of Golf Writers, was presented with a retirement gift by George O’Grady, Chief Executive of The European Tour, during this week’s European Tour Golfer of the Year luncheon.
Laidlaw’s career in golf began when he started out on the Edinburgh Evening News in 1957. After a spell in television, first with STV then Grampian TV and, finally, the BBC as its news anchor in Edinburgh, he returned to golf with the London Evening Standard from 1973 to 1998. During that time he also commentated for BBC Radio, ITV, TWI, Eurosport and Screensport.
A move to full-time broadcasting followed as he became an integral part of the European Tour Productions commentary team and these days Laidlaw’s dulcet tones can be heard on The Golf Channel.
Earlier this year Laidlaw became the first non-American to cover 40 Masters Tournaments, and he has now covered 16 Ryder Cups and more than 130 majors.
“Thank for your support of The European Tour, through European Tour Weekly and every form of broadcast we have had over the years. You have been a great friend to the Tour,” said O’Grady.
The presentation was made during the European Tour’s annual luncheon where O’Grady also paid tribute to golf writers and others within the golfing family who had passed away over the past 12 months including leading Scottish sportswriter Norman Mair, whose funeral was being held that day, and Katrina Dawson, the daughter of former R&A Captain Sandy Dawson, so tragically killed in the Sydney hostage situation this week. Others remembered were renowned coach Bob Torrance, Italian golf writer Maria Pia Gennaro, Scotland’s Ian Broadley, Andre Jean LaFaurie from France, Hilary Barnes, wife of Ryder Cup player Brian, Honorary Life Vice-President of the Tour Claude Roger Cartier, caddie Iain McGregor and the European Tour’s Gillian Oosterhuis.
