Jack Nicklaus to auction off signed memorabilia for charity

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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Ryan Armour shot a career-best 9-under 61 on Friday for a share of the lead with Webb Simpson after two rounds at the Wyndham Championship. Armour and Simpson were at 13-under 127 halfway through the PGA TOUR’s final event of the regular season. Simpson shot a 64. Henrik Stenson was a stroke behind them after a 66. Ollie Schniederjans and Vaughn Taylor and were 11. Schniederjans shot 63, Taylor had a 66. First-round leader Matt Every followed his 61 with a 72 to slip six strokes off the lead. The field at Sedgefield Country Club is once again full of players trying to force their way off the bubble and qualify for the postseason. The top 125 players on the points list earn berths at THE NORTHERN TRUST next week in New York. At No. 187 on the list, Armour isn’t even close to the bubble. “Could turn your life around,” Armour said. “I had some goals at the beginning of the week. I knew where I stood and, you know, right now the goals are attainable.” The 41-year-old who has yet to win on tour and has bounced between the big tour and the Web.com Tour throughout his 14-year professional career, had nine birdies — five on his first nine holes, then four in a row on Nos. 5-8 — to quickly climb the leaderboard. His round was two strokes better than his previous best of 63 nine years ago in Milwaukee. Simpson, a North Carolina native who won here in 2011 and named his third child Wyndham, put himself in position to contend for his first victory since 2014. He had four birdies on the first six holes of his back nine, pulling even with Armour at 13 under after his birdie on the par-5 15th. “Keep making birdies, stay aggressive and know that there’s plenty of good golfers behind me,” Simpson said. “I got to keep the hammer down.” Stenson, who started on the back nine, offset his lone bogey of the round — he missed a 15-foot par putt on the par-4 18th — with three birdies during the four-hole span between Nos. 4-7. “The game plan is there,” he said. “I got the set-up in the bag to give me those numbers off the tee that we need and it’s just about going out there and playing, continue making birdies and giving myself birdie chances. It’s a low scoring golf course … keep it going.” Among bubble players, No. 125 Geoff Ogilvy played his way to the weekend late in his round. He had birdies on five of his final six holes to move to 4 under for the tournament — good enough to help him beat the cut line of 3 under. And No. 141 Johnson Wagner had the shot of the tournament so far, with an albatross on the par-5 fifth, using a 5-iron to hole out his 215-yard second shot from the right fairway. It was the first albatross at the tournament since Fabian Gomez had one on No. 15 in 2011. “I had a bunch of family that’s up by the green and they started going bananas,” Wagner said. “Pretty clear it had gone in.” Wagner shot a 64 to move to 9 under. Some others weren’t so fortunate: No. 129 Daniel Summerhays was at even par while No. 126 Cameron Tringale was 1 under.

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DUBLIN, Ohio – It certainly wasn’t a soft return to the PGA TOUR for Tiger Woods. Playing for the first time in five months thanks to back soreness and the COVID-19 pandemic, the 82-time PGA TOUR winner certainly wasn’t eased back into competition at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. Thursday’s opening round provided tough winds and the weekend provided a hard and fast major championship style setup with the aforementioned winds to test Woods to the limit on his return. Friday also saw Woods deal with a flare-up of his troublesome surgically fused back. The five-time Memorial Tournament champion shot 71-76-71-76 to finish 6 over for the week, well back of another victory. But there were enough signs to suggest, with some more competitive practice, he will continue to threaten to jump out of the tie with Sam Snead at the top of the all-time win list. “It was nice to get my feet wet and compete and play again,” the 44-year-old Woods said. “These were some of the more difficult conditions I’ve played in a long time. Today the golf course got quick and got fast. It was hard to get the ball close. But it was good to get the feel and the flow of competing again.” Woods will take next week off and has yet to reveal whether he will play the World Golf Championships–FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis the week after, prior to taking his place at the PGA Championship at Harding Park in San Francisco. “I definitely need more reps,” Woods said, but he hinted he might get those reps practicing back home in Florida. “I need to work on my putting a bit and clean that up. I didn’t feel comfortable playing break,” he added. “I’ve been in Florida playing Bermuda and seeing minimal break, come out here and playing 10, 12 feet of break was a bit different and something I’m going to have to get used to. “But as far as my swing, it felt good. I was able to hit good shots. Friday was a bit off physically, but overall for my first week back, it was a lot, a lot of positives.” Caddie Joe LaCava pointed at Friday’s finish from Woods as one of those positives. Facing his first missed cut in the tournament in his 18th appearance, Woods finished birdie-birdie-par to end up making the weekend on the number. The competitive fire remains. “Making the cut isn’t the goal, but the way he made the cut was nice, making two birdies and a nice par on nine, knowing we needed to play on the weekend,” LaCava said. “Physically he feels good. He will probably go home and work on what he needs to work on, which is probably everything. “Today was better than the week. He hit good quality shots, rolled it pretty well I thought. Didn’t get a whole lot out of the round. I don’t always look at the final score; I was looking at how he was feeling, and I thought he was moving pretty good and hit it pretty well.”

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