Ryan Armour rides higher play to Furyk & Friends lead on PGA Tour Champions
PALM COAST — Much of the pre-tournament speak focused on Ryan Palmer, who’s making his PGA Tour Champions debut on the Furyk & Friends on the Ocean Course.
However, a surprisingly impolite welcome awaited Palmer, who struggled mightily and posted the day’s excessive spherical — an 81.
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It was one other Ryan — Ryan Armour, nearing the top of his rookie 12 months on the over-50 tour — who bookended Palmer on the leaderboard. Armour’s 9-under 63 was good for a one-shot lead on a day when the course performed smooth resulting from this week’s rain, but in addition a day when a sketchy forecast relented and allowed the umbrellas to stay holstered.
Ryan Armour’s outcomes have been drastically improved in current weeks and now he is opened the Furyk & Friends with a 63.
It helped that the tee occasions had been moved up 3½ hours, as they will be Saturday for a second spherical now scheduled to tee off at 8 a.m.
Who’s simply behind Ryan Armour on the Furyk & Friends?
Paul Goydos and Rod Pampling had been one off the lead with 64s. Vaughn Taylor, Billy Mayfair and Michael Wright every shot 67.
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Armour, taking part in within the second group off No. 1, birdied 5 holes on every 9, with a lone bogey on the par-4 thirteenth. That early begin was a bonus.
“It was very nice to have recent greens, being second off,” he mentioned. “The greens rolled approach higher than I anticipated after all of the rain we had.”
The occasional mud-ball on the Ocean Course fairways was remedied by tour officers permitting for “elevate, clear and place,” which can seemingly stay in place by the weekend.
PGA Tour Champions chief was a late-blooming rookie
With the rain-weary fairways and greens on the gradual facet, tee markers had been moved up and the course performed shorter than its listed yardage of seven,149.
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“I’ve by no means been a protracted participant, in order that helped,” mentioned Armour, who admits to coming into this rookie senior marketing campaign lower than ready — he did not have a top-10 till late August, however has three top-fives in his final 5 begins.
“I simply did not play sufficient in my forty ninth 12 months,” he mentioned Friday. “And then once I turned 50, I used to be nonetheless type of in ‘dad mode.’ It took some time for me to get used to it once more.
“I used to be at all times driver of the golf ball, and I might hit a pair every day the place I used to be like, ‘Where did that come from?’ As quickly as I had extra reps below me, , it felt regular.”
This article initially appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Ryan Armour rides better play to Furyk & Friends lead on PGA Tour Champions
