Sport is as life-enhancing, as important to the quality of life, as any branch of the arts

"I was the first Scot to present Grandstand. A bit on edge. Heard the music and said to myself: 'Do not be distracted. Just do the gig.''' And the gig was done. That was 20 years ago. The past is a blur of such memories but Donnelly is focused on the future. He was once the face and voice of Scottish televised sport but now he is in a professional exile from his homeland.

"You will get into a taxi in Glasgow and the driver will say: 'Oh, it's yourself, are you retired? Never see you on the telly any more,''' he says. The reality is that Donnelly is broadcasting to audiences of up to 400 million in a sport ever so slightly more glamorous than the Scottish Premier League. He commentates for European Tour Productions who package the coverage of golf tournaments and supply it direct to 80 countries, including the US. He is silent, professionally, in his native land, however. In Britain, Sky takes the pictures but supplies its own commentary team. Donnelly's brogue is heard in every other country.

"You know you are speaking to the world on one of the great sporting attractions,'' he says of covering a European Tour that contains such superstars as Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood. ''It has been a great challenge and a great joy.''

Donnelly has been on the road with the tour for five years now after spending 32 years with the BBC. Ever the diplomat, he discusses the parting without rancour.

"Basically, I left after doing the 2010 Scottish Cup final. I could see the writing on the wall. I was juggling the BBC with the tour but the BBC have sadly less live sport than they did,'' he says.

"This came at a good time for me and for them. There was less sport for me to do and a lot of the time when they wanted me to do a live game I was on the other side of the world. To be frank, they needed to save money because the licence fee had been frozen for five years.''

There is a suspicion, though, there was pain in the divorce. Donnelly cites "new producer syndrome'' for him leaving the golf team at the BBC and speaks warmly of better times when he was the most visible presenter on the box as he also covered darts, bowls and snooker.

Now it is a steady diet of golf consumed for up to 26 weeks of every year and devoured throughout the world because the European Tour has regular stops in Asia and South Africa and Donnelly will also cover the Ryder Cup in the US this autumn.

It is professionally rewarding but one wonders if Donnelly regrets not covering a variety of sports, particularly football.

"I have not missed the football as much as I thought I would,'' he says. "I do not know whether that is because we are not going through a particularly good spell at the moment. For example, if Scotland had qualified for the Euros this summer I would have wanted to have done that.''

His football experience now is limited to watching matches on the television and going to Broadwood to support Clyde. This is hardly enough to cast a shadow on the appeal of such as Westwood, McIlroy, Ian Poulter and the rest.

"Europeans are now dominating the world of golf and it is a great time. I sense that the barriers have come up in football between players and journalists which were never there. You could take someone out for lunch and a laugh and confidences were respected but that seems to have changed dramatically.

"But it is still there in golf. We travel on the same planes and stay in the same hotels so there is a genuine rapport. I always have lunch with the Scots lads on tour such as Stephen Gallacher, Alastair Forsyth, Paul Lawrie and Marc Warren.''

Lawrie gave Donnelly a "career moment''. He said: "One of my ambitions was to interview a Scot just after he had won the Open and I remember I was nearly greetin' and Paul was so laid back,'' Donnelly says, recalling that dramatic Sunday in 1999 at Carnoustie when Lawrie, a particularly diffident Aberdonian, won the claret jug in a play-off.

Donnelly has also presented Scotland v Brazil in the opening match of the 1998 World Cup, covered seven Olympics and 33 Scottish Cup finals.

Life on the golf course may be lucrative and professionally fulfilling but is there just the slightest ache to return to the studio and to a wider world of sport?

Donnelly discloses he was approached to apply for the vacant position of chief executive of the Scottish Football Association before the appointment of Gordon Smith in 2007.

"I had a couple of phone calls and gave it some thought but I had had enough,'' he says. This reluctance had much to do with his experience at the Institute of Sport where he was chairman until he fell victim to political manoeuvring.

"That was a chastening experience,'' he said. "I had hoped to meet people who were as passionate about sport as I was. And I did. But there were others who were interested in politics, interested in themselves and the blazers and the trips. In my naivety I thought that would not be the case. It turned out to be a fraught relationship.''

So what does the future hold?

There may have been a glimpse of this when Donnelly interviewed Sir Alex Ferguson at the Scottish Football Hall of Fame dinner in November. An audience of hundreds sat, four hours after the first drink was poured, in silence as the Manchester United manager reacted brilliantly to the promptings of Donnelly. It was a masterclass in understated interviewing. Sir Alex was allowed to pause, then gently prodded towards revelation.

The results were breathtaking. Sir Alex spoke of his father's demand for tidiness, manners and timekeeping. He recalled how being dropped for a cup final made him both as a manager and a man. He described the huge difficulties of telling players that their time at United had run out. He was candid, funny and mischievously indiscreet.

"If you can't get a good interview out of Sir Alex you should pack it in,'' said Donnelly, playing down his role in a memorable conversation.

However, the evening inadvertently showcased a Donnelly ambition.

"It is one of the frustrations,'' says Donnelly of 15 years of trying to pitch a sports talk show to the BBC. "I could just bring on pals. I know Dalglish, Fergie, Souness, Gavin Hastings, Monty [Colin Montgomerie] ... these guys are on my phone. But for whatever reason this type of show does not tick the boxes the BBC wanted to tick.''

He becomes animated: "Intelligent sporting conversation will get an audience. You do your homework, ask a reasonable question and listen to the answer. And then ask the next question. It seems now a lot of the talk shows are about the hosts as much as the guest. They are there to get laughs and that's fine, but I still think there is a market for a sort of old-fashioned talk show.

"Sport is as life-enhancing, as important to the quality of life, as any branch of the arts, as a great book. I genuinely believe it has to be treated with an intelligence. I am like most fans in that I am interested in what makes these great sportsmen and sportswomen tick.''

He points out that Montgomerie, for example, would be a fascinating interview. "I did a book event with him and it was packed, 600 people crammed into a hall. He is this extraordinarily gifted, charming man who becomes another beast on the golf course. Who could fail to be interested in that story?''

Donnelly is also pondering an autobiography. "I have interviewed three of the Beatles, Elton John ... I was a disc jockey who went on to the telly. Never had a proper job but I have some stories,'' he grins. His proper job was to be the law but Donnelly quit university to join Radio Clyde. Twenty years later he completed his degree after an invitation to do so by the then Principal.

"And there is a long story in that, too,'' he says. His discourse is interrupted by the Grandstand theme as a guest in the hotel presses the button on a mobile and prepares to talk. Donnelly is ready to chat, too. He must, to discover if a television producer is listening.

Dougie Donnelly

Picture: Colin Templeton