<table> </table> The name atop the Senior British Open leader board Friday was nowhere near as recognizable as some of the ones that followed &#8212; except to golf fans in Hutchinson and Larned, Kan., that is.</p><p>There, Bruce Vaughan seems to be on the tip of everyone&#8217;s tongue.</p><p>Vaughan, a 51-year-old Kansan in his second season on the Champions Tour, shot an even-par 71 Friday and leads halfway through the Senior British Open.</p><p>With a 3-under 139 through two rounds, Vaughan holds a 1-stroke lead over John Cook. Fellow Kansan Tom Watson also shot a 71 on Friday and trails Vaughan by 2 strokes, along with two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer and Eduardo Romero at Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland.</p><p>And back in central Kansas, they&#8217;ve been paying attention.</p><p>&#8220;Around here, everybody knows that he&#8217;s a heck of a player,&#8221; Erik Raigoza, assistant golf professional at Cottonwood Hills Golf Club in Hutchinson, said of the unlikely leader.</p><p>While the rest of the golf world is learning that as well this week, Vaughan&#8217;s quick start sure had people talking back in Hutchinson, where he lives, and in Larned, where he attended high school.</p><p>Cottonwood Hills, where Vaughan is an honorary member, was just one hub of buzz on Friday. They were also talking about him at Hutchinson&#8217;s Carey Park Golf Course.</p><p>&#8220;Everybody that walks in the door (says), &#8216;Hey, did you see Bruce is leading?&#8217; &#8221; said Mike Benscheidt, a former Carey Park assistant golf professional. &#8220;It&#8217;s a big deal for Hutchinson, no doubt about it.&#8221;</p><p>And for Larned, where Vaughan&#8217;s career began its launch with mentoring from Ralph Terry, the former major-league pitcher turned senior tour golfer.</p><p>&#8220;What he&#8217;s done is one of the most amazing stories in golf,&#8221; Terry said when reached by phone Friday. &#8220;Talk about digging it out of the ground &#8212; he really did.&#8221;</p><p>Terry would know that as well as anybody.</p><p>Vaughan was a high school senior when Terry, then the golf professional at Larned Country Club, first met him. A man who helped with the club&#8217;s junior program suggested Terry take a look at Vaughan.</p><p>As Terry remembers, Vaughan&#8217;s best score during high school was an 89, but he saw potential in the way the ball jumped off the boy&#8217;s club, the spin he was able to get on his shots. So Terry tweaked Vaughan&#8217;s setup.</p><p>&#8220;I said, &#8216;Now, have a go at it,&#8217; &#8221; Terry recalled. &#8220;And he took it back and hit one of the longest drives I&#8217;ve ever seen. I said, &#8216;That&#8217;s pretty good. Let&#8217;s go to work.&#8217; &#8221;</p><p>So they did. Terry taught Vaughan the fundamentals and things such as course management and how to compete. And Vaughan was a quick learner. By his early 20s, he was dominating the local golf scene, Terry said.</p><p>&#8220;He just kept getting better, and now look at him,&#8221; said Benscheidt, who has known Vaughan for at least 15 years and plays golf with him in Hutchinson during the winter.</p><p>Despite not playing collegiately and getting a relatively late start at the game, Vaughan persisted. He played on the Nationwide Tour and in South Africa, and competed on the PGA Tour for one year in 1995. In his first Champions Tour season in 2007, he finished as high as second in one tournament.</p><p>Now look at him.</p><p>After a 3-under 68 in the first round that included eight birdies, a double bogey and a triple bogey, Vaughan played a steadier round on Friday, with two birdies and two bogeys.</p><p>According to the Associated Press, Vaughan has undergone three partial knee replacements over the last two years and sought therapy for the knee after his round Friday.</p><p>And he has two of golf&#8217;s bigger names only a couple of strokes behind him.</p><p>But who knows?</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a special case,&#8221; Terry said. &#8220;He can hit a golf ball as good as you can hit it. Anything he does, does not surprise me.&#8221;</p><p>But Vaughan could surprise many others if he can fend off his challengers and the aching knee and win this tournament. That&#8217;s what his friends back home are rooting for, of course.</p><p>&#8220;It would be great for everybody,&#8221; said John Hastert, an assistant golf professional at Carey Park. &#8220;Not just here, but for Kansas. He&#8217;s a Kansas boy.&#8221;