Drummond’s Nine Straight Birdies Earn Share of Lead at Portugal Legends Championship

• Paul Lawrie, Scott Drummond and Jean Hugo share the first-round lead.
• Drummond made nine consecutive birdies, from the 6th hole to the 14th.
• Johan Edfors and Mark Brown are one shot back.

Scott Drummond equalled the record for consecutive birdies in professional golf with a run of nine on Friday, earning a three-way share of the lead at the inaugural Portugal Legends Championship at Pinheirinho.

The Scot, who won the PGA Championship at Wentworth in 2004 and was the European Tour’s Rookie of the Year that season, signed for a 66. That left him level at 6-under with 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie and South African Jean Hugo. According to the tour, nine in a row has been achieved only a handful of times in the professional game.

Johan Edfors, a two-time winner on the Staysure Legends Tour this season, and Mark Brown are one stroke back. Craig Farrelly, who won the Senior Italian Open last week after Brown had shared second, is in a group at 4-under.

How did the run unfold?

Drummond missed a couple of good birdie chances early on. His run started at the 6th, where he hit a sand wedge to 10ft. At the par-5 7th he chipped his third close, and he followed that with putts from 15ft, 6ft, 12ft, 7ft and 18ft.

“We were kind of smiling a little at this point, the putts were just pouring in,” he said. “Then I hit a 3-wood and an 8-iron to about 15 feet on the next and drained that one, and a driver and sand wedge to about 12 feet for the ninth in a row. It was pretty surreal.”

The streak ended at the 15th.

“I knew that guys had made nine before, but I didn’t know what the record was. It makes it a bit more disappointing that I didn’t make my putt for 10 in a row,” said Drummond.

He credited his distance control on a course with tricky green complexes.

“Today I had a lot of good numbers, so I could hit pretty solid shots and not worry about being too short or too long. I was just going straight at the flags.”

Low round’s of the day 🔥 Jean Hugo, Paul Lawrie and Scott Drummond all card opening six-under 66s at Pinheirinho Comporta. Three different routes to the same score 👀 #StaysureLegendsTour #PortugalLegendsChampionship https://t.co/gjCfOAmESY

— Legends Tour (@euLegendsTour) October 30, 2026

Hugo and Lawrie keep pace

Hugo made seven birdies in his 66. The South African won his first Legends Tour title in Beijing earlier this month, and he expects the closing stretch to decide the event.

“There are some tricky holes down the back nine, and I think by Sunday it will be a vital stretch,” said Hugo.

Lawrie was among the later starters. He completed the three-way tie by holing a testing par putt on the 18th, where the green sits at right-angles to the fairway and the approach has to carry a lake. The course is a Jorge Santana da Silva design that our Comporta travel feature described as a hidden gem.

“It hasn’t been a great 18 months, to be honest,” said Lawrie. “I thought, right, I either have to dig in and do some work or just stop, and I wasn’t ready to stop.”

He described his ball-striking as “excellent” and said he had been working on a new putting method with his nephew.

The second round starts at 09:00 on Saturday, and entry is free for spectators.

Related: Peter Ellegard visits Comporta, Lisbon’s new golfing playground

It’s rare for a totally new golf area to emerge, let alone one just a two-and-a-half-hour flight from London. Yet one has sprung up within an easy drive of Portugal’s capital, Lisbon, and it is set to shake up the golfing holiday scene.

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Portugal Legends Championship Leaderboard