(Reuters) – A tearful Ryan Armour won for the first time on the PGA Tour, shooting a four-under par 68 for a five-stroke victory at the Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi on Sunday.
The win came in his 105th career start on the tour.
“I’m tearing up. I’m not going to lie,” Armour said after finishing on 19-under par 269 a day after his son Patrick’s ninth birthday.
“There were some lean times,” the journeyman said of a up-and-down career that has had him on and off the PGA Tour.
“Thought about quitting but my wife wouldn’t let me. Thank God. I love her.
“It goes back to have faith in what you do. If you believe in something go do it, work hard at it and have fun doing it.”
Chesson Hadley used a 68 to finish second at 274 with fellow American Jonathan Randolph, playing on his home course, two strokes back after a 67 that included seven birdies in his first nine holes.
Armour, 41, took a five-stroke lead into the final round at The Country Club of Jackson and kept the edge with six birdies and two bogeys.
“It got a little nervy when I pulled that on nine,” said Armour, whose only professional victory came on the Web.com tour in 2016.
“I hadn’t really missed a shot until nine and made a bogey, but that two-putt on 10 was huge. It kinda got me back to what (we) had talked about, just get it in the middle of the fairway, get it in the middle of the green. Put it on your putter and try and make a putt.”
Three birdies in his first seven holes pushed Armour to three-under for the day before the bogey at the ninth hole.
But he rallied for a par on the 10th and then had birdies at 11 and 14 before another bogey at 16. A birdie at 17 and a par at the last wrapped up the win.
Now he has a decision to make, whether to play in next week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children tournament in Las Vegas or watch his wife run in the New York City Marathon.
(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Salvo, North Carolina, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
