Ryan Armour rattled off 10 birdies in a 9-under-par round of 63 on Friday and holds a one-shot lead at the Constellation Furyk & Friends in Palm Coast, Fla.
Armour is just ahead of Paul Goydos and Australian Rod Pampling (8-under 64) after one trip around the Ocean Course at Hammock Beach, which is hosting the event for the first time.
Armour turned 50 in February and began his first season on the PGA Tour Champions soon after.
“(It) took a while for me to get used to it again. As soon as I had more reps under me, you know, it felt normal,” Armour said. “I just didn’t play enough my 49th year, and then when I turned 50 I was still kind of in dad mode, and now I’m in play and grind (mode) and I’m enjoying the processes again of trying to get better.”
He had a slow start to his season, but in his past five starts he has three top-five finishes and hasn’t placed lower than T14.
“I’m not going to (call it my) best round yet,” said Armour, who hit 13 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens in regulation. “But definitely satisfied with especially how I rolled it, because you’re going to get some bumps out here because of the weather, how much rain we had. The putter felt really good.”
Goydos and Pampling also enjoyed birdie-fests while limiting themselves to one bogey apiece. Goydos is 62 and two strokes away from shooting his age.
He’s hunting for his sixth PGA Tour Champions title and his first since 2017.
“A guy like Ernie Els can win this tournament with his B game. I have to have my A-plus game and good things to happen,” Goydos said. “That’s kind of the difference between the talent. Tiger (Woods) talked about winning tournaments with a C game. My C game misses every single cut for the rest of (my) life. So for me, it needs to have some good things happen to have those low scores.”
Pampling started on the back nine and holed an eagle putt at the par-5 14th. He sat at 9 under par through 15 holes but went bogey-par-par to finish up.
“Obviously the tees are up a little bit, but hit driver, 4-iron,” Pampling said of his eagle. “That was one of the big putts. That was like a maybe 25-, 30-footer. So, yeah, just rolled perfect; went straight in. Yeah, first one for the year as well, so there is a lot of firsts this week.”
Vaughn Taylor, Billy Mayfair and Australian Michael Wright are tied for fourth at 7-under 65.
Defending champion Tommy Gainey opened with a 3-under 69.
