The Tour newcomer from Florida seems entirely unfazed by the occasion, writes Philip Reid.

For sure, Boo Weekley ain't your stereotypical professional golfer. For starters, in a sport where professional players criss-cross time zones with the frequency of a navigational satellite, this product of the Florida panhandle didn't even possess a passport until the week before Christmas of last year.

Who knows if finally acquiring a passport has led to him broadening his horizons, but the 33-year-old American's first encounter with the British Open on a links you'd assume was alien to any course he had played has been in its own way rather uplifting.

Yesterday, Weekley, who put his foot in it last week when asking Paul Lawrie how he qualified for the championship, unaware the Scot won here back in 1999, added a second-round 72 to reach the midway point on 140, very much in the pack pursuing the leader, Sergio Garcia.

Having claimed his full card on the PGA Tour via the Nationwide Tour last season, Weekley has made people sit up and take notice this season, rising to 41st in the world rankings and including a breakthrough win in the Heritage Classic, when he chipped in twice over the closing holes. There was a sense of justice about the win, as he had lost out to Mark Wilson in a play-off at the Honda Classic.

Weekley is unconventional. Although christened Thomas Brent, he has used the name Boo - from the character Boo Boo in the Yogi Bear cartoons - since childhood, and his road to golfing stardom was far removed from that of cheque-book-wielding agents.

It took Weekley time to settle. Of his first experience on the circuit in 2002, he remarked, "I was pretty lost, nervous. I didn't think I belonged. You come off the mini-tours and straight on to the PGA Tour and I didn't think I earned my credit to get there."

This time, he admits, it is different.

"I'm a firm believer that, if you work at it and keep trying and believing, you're going to get where you want to go, especially in golf . . . it is all about keeping yourself from making those bad numbers."

It has been a long road for Weekley to get where he is now, on first name terms with Tiger and Phil and palling around with Bubba Watson, whom he knew from high-school days.

In fact, Weekley studied turf-grass science in college before deciding he'd rather work as a labourer at a chemical plant in Pensacola, Florida.

That was just a precursor to life as a golfer. He turned professional in 1997 and spent much of his time on the mini-tours, where players pay to play and the prizemoney is pooled, before turning up at the US Tour's Q-school in 2001, when he stood out by wearing tennis shoes and rain pants because of an allergy to cotton.

Weekley might well need those rain pants over the weekend; the forecast is for rain and wind. But so far he has made a good fist of his British Open debut, even if the sheer scale of the event has taken him by surprise.

"I knew it was the British Open . . . but I figured the way the weather was going to be there wouldn't be that many people out there."

What has really surprised him is the support he has received from the galleries. Apparently, he has some Scottish blood somewhere along the line but doesn't know where.

"I just know it's south of here, down near the border (with England). That's all I know."

So, with a gathering army of fans, Weekley heads into the weekend contending in a major. How does he approach it? "It's just another golf course. I just play golf. However the golf course is set up is how I play it. If we've got to bump-and-run it, we bump-and-run it. If we have to fly it, we fly it. It all depends."

With Boo, what you see is what you get. He has no hang-ups. Don't expect him to be frightened of pursuing Garcia. He's just not that type of guy.