Memphis (Tennessee), June 28: Sweden's Richard S Johnson, an avid skateboarder who traded his wheels for golf clubs at age 15, was the unlikely leader here yesterday after two rounds of the 4.5 million-dollar St. Jude Classic.
In only his 15th US PGA tour start, the man who shares names with two PGA rivals fired a five-under-par 66 to share the 36-hole lead with American veteran John Huston at 12-under 103, one stroke ahead of David Peoples.
Johnson, 26, broke a foot, a hand and six or seven ribs doing skateboard tricks.
"It's not a lot of fun to break a rib, but I got lucky anyway," Johnson said. "I started at an early age, so I guess I was a little bit better than the average person in the beginning. But people caught up with me and I got injured and found out that I wasn't very good anymore, and I quit."
In 1992 at 15, his girlfriend's family talked into a safer sport, golf.



"She was going away to France and I didn't have much to do for two weeks so I just tried to go out and hit a few balls and fell in love with the game," said Johnson.



After winning 440,000 pounds on the European tour the past three seasons, Johnson has won nearly 100,000 dollars this season on the US circuit and could pocket a winner's prize of 810,000 dollars on Sunday.


Bureau Report