Former Buckeye Armour warms to Scarlet with 68

GOLF

Like any proud alumnus, Ryan Armour has his share of positive memories from his time as a golfer at Ohio State. As a professional, though, the Scarlet Course hasn’t extended him much courtesy.

Halfway through the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, he’s changing that. After missing the cut in his last six events held here and breaking par only twice during that span, Armour shot a 3-underpar 68 for the second consecutive day and finished tied for fourth, four shots behind leader Keith Mitchell.

It’s made for an extraenjoyable homecoming for Armour, an Akron native who has spent more than two decades bouncing around various tours including three seasons on the PGA Tour.

“I love it,” he said of coming back to Ohio State. “It’s home. I was here five years and coach (Jim) Brown is still here and I’ve got friends in the area still. It’s a pretty special place.”

A member of the class of 1999, Armour was a third-team All-American in 1998 and earned all-Big Ten honors in 1995 and ’98. He teed off at 7:41 a.m. Friday, which curtailed his ability to watch the football team fend off Indiana in Thursday night’s season opener.

“I went to bed at halftime,” he said. “When I woke up, I was like, ‘Whoa, all right. They put the pedal down.’ I don’t know what happened.”

The plan was to watch the rest of the football game Friday evening while also keeping tabs on his place in the standings. His score of 6 under was tied with Mitchell atop the leader board when completed, but Mitchell, the day-one leader who started on No. 10, moved to 7 under par with a birdie on 17 and closed with another on 2 to widen his lead.

When he made a putt on No. 6 for his fourth birdie of the day, Mitchell said he knew things were going his way.

“That was a superfast putt,” he said. “We weren’t trying to be aggressive with it, and it just kind of barely fell in the front edge. Thank goodness it made it to the hole.”

In contrast to the opening day of the Web. com Tour Finals, the second round was contested under gray skies with blustery winds and afternoon rain showers. Armour dodged the worst of the conditions, but Mitchell said he wore four layers of clothing to keep warm after starting at 12:41 p.m.

After finishing 1 over on the opening day, Seth Reeves came one stroke shy of tying the course record with a 7-under 64 to move up 23 spots and into second place overall at 8 under. He birdied Nos. 6-9 and then had back-to-back birdies on 14 and 15, and closed with a 6-foot putt to applause from the gallery, finishing three strokes better than the rest of the field.

“I think (the course) was playing really tough,” he said. “I just played really well. I just was in control of my golf ball most of the day.”