His father, a Chelsea Pensioner was employed as manager of the Temperance Coffee Room in the Dalrymple Buildings, which today is the Readmore Bookstore. He was also a golf caddie and for many years organised the ginger beer stall, situated beside the eighth green on the West Links.

Fred McLeod was educated at the Public School in North Berwick and in 1891 moved with his family from 23, Quality Street to the common stair at 98, High Street where Willie Anderson and his family also lived. The two teenagers would later contest many national golf tournaments in America.

At the age of fourteen McLeod was employed as a postman in the General Post Office at the foot of the stair. He joined the Bass Rock Golf Club in North Berwick three years later.

McLeod took part in an Anglo-American match at Wentworth in 1926 which developed into the Ryder Cup.

Bass Rock Golf Club was founded in 1873 for artisan golfers and to this day the members do not own a clubhouse, preferring to pay a modest subscription, plus the green fees on the West Links. McLeod was selected to represent the Club at the Wemyss County Cup in 1900, 1901 and 1902.

This was a four man team event, open to all clubs in East Lothian, which is now recognized as the oldest foursome competition in the world. In 1901, McLeod was elected to the Bass Rock Golf Club committee and that year, won the Hope Challenge Medal at Kilspindie Links.
McLeod also competed in the 1901 Amateur Championship played at St Andrews. In 1902, he won the Bass Rock Club Scratch Medal playing off a handicap of plus four. Although this was a localised handicapping system, it truly reflected the players ability within the Club and a number of members played off plus handicaps at this time. On 10th March 1903, McLeod resigned from the Club and two months later, emigrated to the United States to join the professional ranks.

His first position as golf professional was at the Rockford Country Club, Illinois (1903-05) where he grabbed the headings in the Rockford Morning Star on 16th May 1903 by setting a new record 32 for the nine hole course. McLeod then transferred to the Midlothian Country Club, Blue Island near Chicago (1906-09) where he succeeded Willie Smith from Carnoustie, a former U.S. Open champion (1899). Following this McLeod was affiliated with St. Louis Country Club (1910-13) and finally to Columbia Country Club in Maryland. He also wintered at Temple Terrace, Tampa, Florida (1925-26) where he worked with James Kelly Thomson also from North Berwick.

Only weeks after his arrival in America in 1903, McLeod entered the U.S. Open at Baltusrol G.C. and in July at the Western Open played at Milwaukee C.C., he tied for 5th place with his old school friend Willie Anderson. McLeod, a wisp of a man standing 5 feet 4 inches tall, made himself into a tremendous player.

McLeod's first tournament victory came in 1905 at the Riverside Open, followed by the Western PGA title, which he again won in 1907. At this time the Western Open was recognised as a more prestigious tournament than the U.S. Open and in 1906 McLeod and Anderson again tied in this event for 3rd place. Amazingly the following year, again they could not be separated, tieing for the runners-up spot. The battle continued at the 1908 Western Open played at Normandie Park G.C. in St. Louis but this time Anderson edged ahead, winning the tournament by a single stroke from McLeod.
The tables were turned on 29th August 1908 at the U.S. Open, played at Myopia Hunt in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, when Anderson was going for his fifth U.S. Open victory. McLeod started the tournament weighing 118 pounds and finished the championship tied with Willie Smith on 322, weighing 108 pounds. McLeod winning the play-off 77 to 83, lifting the national title.

In 1909, McLeod won the North and South Open at Pinehurst. He finished a shot out of a play-off in both the 1910 (Philadelphia Cricket Club) and 1911 (Wheaton Golf Club) U.S. Open's and 1912 saw him win the Shawnee Open. In 1919 McLeod was runner up in the PGA Championship at the Engineers C.C. in New York, to his best friend, Cornishman Jim Barnes. In March the following year, he won the North and South Open for the second time. Incidentally, two days previously, Dorothy Campbell from North Berwick won the Women's North and South Amateur title for the second time in three years.

McLeod became the professional at the Columbia Country Club at Chevy Chase in Maryland on December 2 1912. Accepting the position at fifty dollars a month with no contract being signed for over fifty years with the club, he retired in December 1967. Fred finished third in the 1914 US Open (Midlothian Country Club), and tied for second place with Walter Hagen at the 1921 National Championship, played over his home course at Columbia C.C. In 1924 McLeod won the St. Petersburg Open and in 1927 the Maryland Open, he also tied for the Middle Atlantic PGA title losing out to Leo Diegel. McLeod played regularly in the U.S Open until 1931, finishing among the top ten no fewer than eight times.

In 1921, Fred McLeod return to Scotland to visit his mother and friends in North Berwick and play in an international challenge match between the United States and Great Britain. The previous year, Golf Illustrated magazine of New York suggested a match between the best players in America against Great Britain. With financial backing of the USPGA the ten-man American team were offered $1000 expenses and the match was arranged over the newly opened Kings course at Gleneagles on 6th June 1921.

Fred McLeod and Jock Hutchinson, were by tradition, first off the tee each year to begin the Masters Tournament at Augusta.

The American team arrived at Southampton the week before and travelled north by sleeper train to Glasgow. The new Gleneagles hotel was still under construction and the players were offered crude accommodation consisting of five railway carriages moved into a siding at the station near Achtermuchty and the players were forced to fetch and carry their own water for much of the week. The international challenge match was organised to coincide with a much bigger tournament, The Glasgow Herald 1000 Guineas, offering considerable prize money and attracting many of the top British players. Water Hagen was in the American team and although twice winner of the US Open, had not made his mark in Britain and the big attraction were the two Scots in the American team, Jock Hutchison and Fred McLeod.
George Duncan won the 1000 Guineas tournament, receiving £160 for his troubles, and Andrew Kirkaldy's men won the international match. Each team was presented with a commemorative gold medal by the Glasgow Herald. Although initially this international match did not catch the public's imagination, but Walter Hagen continued to support the idea. When Sam Ryder offered a trophy for such an encounter, Hagen jumped at the opportunity to put a team together and a match was arranged between United States and Great Britain in 1926, when McLeod again took part.

Owing to the uncertainty of the situation following the General Strike in May 1926 it was unknown up to a few weeks before the event was to start how many Americans would travel, so Sam Ryder decided to withhold offering his trophy that year. Rather than cancelling the 'inaugural match' the United States team invited other players to make up the numbers. Fred McLeod was in Britain to play in the Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St. Annes, where he finished seventh behind the winner Bobby Jones. During the long waiting time between the regional qualifying rounds, McLeod was invited to take part in the Anglo-American tournament at Wentworth. The match took place on 4th and 5th June, when the British won thirteen and a half points to the visitors's one and a half. The American team included four expatriate Brits and one Australian; A. Watrous, C. Walker, W. Mehihorn, T. Armour, R. Cruickshank, E. French, J. Farrell, F. McLeod, J. Kirkwood, J. Barnes and W. Hagen. The Americans who missed out were G.E. Sarazen, MacDonald Smith and R. Cruickshank.

In the singles, Fred McLeod was beaten by Arthur Havers 10 and 9, and in the afternoon foursomes McLeod partnered by C. Walker were beaten by T. Ray and F. Robson 3 and 2. 'Wild Bill' Mehihorn scoring the only point for his side and Emmet French halved his singles match with Arthur Havers. To compensate the Wentworth Club presented each team member with a medal and the Ryder Cup was presented the following year at Worcester C.C in Massachusetts.

In March 1934, Fred McLeod was invited by Bobby Jones to play in the first Augusta National Invitational Tournament, which he continued to play in for the next three years. McLeod attended the Masters all 40 years it was played and from 1963 was the honorary starter along with Jock Hutchison who was two years his junior. Both were the oldest surviving U.S. National Champions and were by tradition, first off the tee to begin the Masters Tournament. Hutchison retired in 1973 and McLeod continued on his own until 1976. There was no honorary starter for four years until Byron Nelson and Gene Sarazen were invited to continue the tradition in 1981.

In 1937, McLeod attended a meeting in a hotel in Augusta along with a number of elderly professionals to establish a senior division of the PGA. At that meeting it was decided to organise a national tournament for players fifty-five and over. In early December, a Seniors' Championship took place and Jock Hutchison was the first winner. The following year at Augusta, McLeod defeated Otto Hackbarth in an 18 hole play-off to lift the title. In 1939, the PGA Seniors' tournament attracted sponsorship and the event moved to Florida. McLeod competed in thirteen Seniors' Championships and was still able to shoot a 66 at the age of sixty-six. In 1960 he was elected to the PGA Hall of Fame.

Bill Strausbaugh took over as head professional from McLeod at Columbia C.C where they instituted the McLeod Strausbaugh Memorial Fund to provide scholarship and bursary facilities for the ground maintenance staff and caddies wishing to attend college. Something the young caddie from Edington's Cottage in North Berwick would have been proud.

Sadly, McLeod's father did not live to share in the success of his son's career, he died when Fred was fifteen years of age. For many years, his mother remained at 98 High Street, North Berwick where Fred returned to visit on numerous occasions.

Throughout McLeod's retirement the Columbia Country Club provided an apartment for him at the clubhouse and a generious pension. After a serious fall at his quarters McLeod was moved to the Westwood Retirement Home in Bethesda where he lived until he was admitted to Sibley Hospital. In April 1976, the Washington Post reported that Fred McLeod had suffered a heart attack and died on 8th May at the age of ninety-four.

Among those who spoke at his funeral was Joe Dey the former director of the USGA, Commissioner of the PGA Tour and at that time captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. " He said McLeod had brought with him some of the great traits for which the Scots are well known, not least of which was economy - and I don't refer to money in this respect. I refer, to his examples in economy of time in playing the game of golf. One of the rounds in which he and Jock Hutchison started off the Masters Tournament some years ago, they finished in two hours and eighteen minutes." Fred McLeod, described as a simple and modest man was buried at the Columbia Country Club, in Maryland, U.S.A.