Unlikely Scot leads Senior PGA event

BEACHWOOD (AP) — The leader midway through the Senior PGA Championship has never won a tournament outside his homeland, has no sponsors and is more famous for being the subject of a golf book than anything he’s done on a course.

Meet Scotland’s Ross Drummond, the unlikeliest of leaders at the first major championship of the year for the over-50 set.

“I know it’s going to be difficult and I’m going to be nervous, but you just have to draw from that,” Drummond said Friday after matching the low round of the tournament with a 4-under 66 to grab the lead by two shots through 36 holes.

The 52-year-old Drummond, whose life on the fringes of fame and fortune were told in the popular 1996 book “Four Iron In the Soul,” had a 4-under 136 total.

No European player has won the Senior PGA since Jock Hutchison — also a Scot — in 1947.

Drummond was asked, why not him?

“Well, to be honest, I don’t think I even want to contemplate that,” he said. “It would be a dream come true, obviously. It would be an unbelievable achievement and something to be very proud of. But I don’t think I can even contemplate that.”

The 66 tied the low competitive score at Canterbury Golf Club, which has also hosted two U.S. Opens, a PGA Championship, a U.S. Senior Open and two U.S. Amateurs.

Tom Purtzer, whose 66 tied him for the first-round lead with Scott Hoch, faded to a 72 and was two shots back along with Hoch. Also at 2-under 138 were Jeff Sluman (68), Larry Mize (69) and Bernhard Langer (70).

Drummond’s 24 putts were the fewest by anyone in the elite 156-player field that includes eight members of the World Golf Hall of Fame and 23 players who have won a combined 41 major championships.

The lanky Drummond turned in even par for the day and the tournament but then birdied three of the first four holes on the back nine. With a friend and traveling companion from Scotland, Duncan Kerr, carrying his bag, Drummond made an 8-foot birdie putt on the 10th and then hit an 8 iron to 6 feet at No. 11. After missing a 3-foot birdie putt at the par-4 12th, he holed a 40-footer for birdie at the 13th hole.

He added a 15-footer for birdie at No. 16 and then saved par on each of the last two holes from just off the green.

Gil Morgan (68), Tom Kite (70), Jay Don Blake (69) and club pro Chris Starkjohann — with his wife caddieing for him as he shot a 68 — were at 1-under 139.

Michael Allen also had a 66 Friday and was at 140.

Among those missing the cut of 7-over 148 were Craig Stadler, Fuzzy Zoeller, Nick Price, Ben Crenshaw, Sandy Lyle and Lanny Wadkins.