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Fred McLeod (born 25 April 1882 in Kirk Ports,
Scotland; died 8 May 1976 in Maryland, USA) was a
Scottish born golfer who had a distinguished
career in the United States, which included
victory in the 1908 U.S. Open (golf)|U.S. Open.

McLeod's mother was English and his father was a
Scotsman from the Isle of Skye, who was employed
as the manager of a temperance book stall and also
worked as a caddy. McLeod began his working life
as a postman at the age of fourteen. At seventeen
he joined the Bass Rock Golf Club in North
Berwick, which was a club for artisans. It did not
have its own course and the members played on a
public links. McLeod soon had some success in
local competitions, and in 1903 he left for the
United States to try his luck as a golf
professional there, a route followed by many other
Scots around that time as the golf clubs which
were springing up rapidly in the U.S. had no
experienced local professionals on whom they could
call. He quickly found employment at the Rockford
Country Club in Illinois, and later worked at
several other clubs.

Despite not having been a leading player in
Scotland, McLeod soon made a name for himself as a
first rate tournament player in the U.S. He
entered his first U.S. Open (golf)|U.S. Open
within weeks of his arrival in America, and later
that year he was fifth at the Western Open. He won
the Riverside Open in 1905 and the Western PGA
Championship in both 1905 and 1907. The principal
achievement of his career was his victory in the
1908 U.S. Open at Midlothian Country Club in South
Hamilton, Massachusetts. He was level with Willie
Smith after four rounds, but won the playoff by 77
shots to 83. McLeod was five feet four inches
tall, and at the end of the tournament he was
weighed at 7 stone 10 pounds (108 pounds, 49
kilograms), making him the smallest man ever to
take the title. He competed in the U.S. Open
twenty-two times and had eight top ten finishes. 

McLeod won several more professional tournaments:
the 1909 North and South Open at Pinehurst
Resort|Pinehurst, the 1912 Shawnee Open, the 1920
North and South Championship, the 1924 St
Petersburg Open and the 1927 Maryland Open. In
1919 he was runner up to Jim Barnes in the PGA
Championship. He took part in both the 1921
challenge match between teams of U.S based and
British based professionals at Gleneagles in
Scotland, and in the follow up 1926 match which
was the immediate precursor of the first Ryder Cup
match in 1927. He also played in the first four
editions of the Masters Tournament from 1934-37,
and acted as an honorary starter at the Augusta
National Golf Club|Augusta event from 1963 to
1976. He was a member of the group of senior
professionals which established the senor division
of the PGA of America|PGA in 1937, and in 1938 he
won the second staging of the Senior PGA
Championship. 

Fred McLeod died on May 8 1976 at the age of
ninety-four. He was buried at the last club where
he had worked as a professional, Columbia Country
Club, in Chevy Chase, Maryland.