When the call came to Ryan Armour’s cell phone, he had no idea what it was about.
The caller was Matt Lefferts, the Executive Director of the Ohio Golf Association. The two have been acquaintances for years, dating back to their days of playing junior golf in Northeast Ohio, but Armour had no idea why Lefferts would be calling.
Armour, the former Walsh Jesuit and Ohio State star whose work ethic, competitive nature, and burning desire produced a wonderful collegiate and professional career, was stunned when Lefferts informed him that he was part of the 2024 class of the OGA Hall-of-Fame.
Armour, along with another long-time friend, Lancaster’s Joe Ogilvie, and outstanding amateur Michael Kelley, will be inducted during ceremonies on Thursday at Scioto Country Club in Columbus.
The honor comes as validation of all the hard work, perseverance, and sacrifice Armour has used to turn his dreams into reality and put together and damn good life for himself and his family. The HOF honor came as a surprise to him but a well-deserved honor to others.
This will be the third Hall of Fame induction for Armour, as he previously was inducted into the Walsh Jesuit and Summit County Sports halls-of-fame. He has struggled to come to grips with all three. While he certainly is appreciative, he is reluctant to bask in the limelight.
“Don’t get me wrong, I am honored,” he said during a phone interview from his home in Jupiter, Fla. “I have struggled with any awards or accolades, like the Walsh Jesuit induction, and I still haven’t been able to attend the Summit County induction, mainly because of schedules. But I still feel there’s more to write. I mean, I’m not retired yet. I am at a different priority in my life right now.”
Part of that priority means turning a life of hotels, rental cars, and the exacting world of professional golf into one that includes carpools, school volunteering, and cheering from the sidelines. He has gone from making tee times to making ice and floor times.
“For 20 years I was on the road for 30 weeks a year,” he said. “This year I have been home a lot. Now, I’m more of an Uber driver that doesn’t get paid. But I am loving every minute of it.”
Call it an extended summer vacation.
Armour’s life now includes watching sons Patrick (15) and Nicholas (13) grow up and participate in all their endeavors, mostly athletic. That comes as no surprise as Armour and his wife, the former Erin Kresowaty, were both fine athletes in high school. Patrick plays golf and basketball – lettering on the varsity at Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach as a freshman — and Nicholas plays golf and hockey at an elite level.
“I’ve been able to watch them grow and mature in their crafts and get good grades and all the things that go with parenting,” Armour said. “It’s been awesome. It’s been really fun.”
Armour has been on either the PGA Tour or Korn Ferry Tour since 2004. He will turn 50 on Feb. 27th, 2026. It is no secret – and only logical – that the PGA Tour Champions is in his future.
“Golf is the only sport in the world where you hope to turn 50,” he said.
He has won three times on those tours, earning more than $8,000,000. That does not count the money he earned while playing the Golden Bear Tour and the numerous satellite tours that popped up during his early years in Florida.
Approximately 25 family and friends from all over the country will show up at Scioto on Thursday. Frank Lupica, who coached Armour in golf and basketball at Walsh Jesuit, will be Armour’s presenter, and rightfully so.
Together, they helped make Walsh Jesuit the premier program in Ohio during the 1990s. They won two of the program’s four Division I state championships from 1990 to 1993, with one runner-up and one fourth-place finish.
In 1993, Armour was the individual medalist in the state tournament, shooting 72-73 on the demanding Scarlet course while college coaches from OSU, Kent State, and Stanford closely monitored his progress.
“We were blessed to reach Columbus all four years that Ryan competed,” Lupica said in a phone interview from his home in Myrtle Beach. “Golf is an individual sport, but there’s also the team concept in high school and college, and Ryan took that very seriously. He was always more concerned with the team. He was a team guy from the beginning, a loyal teammate.”
Both Armour and Lupica recall the 1993 state tournament when Armour was the individual state champion, but the Warriors finished second to Upper Arlington.
“I remember I had to ask everyone, like the media and the OHSAA officials, to give Ryan a little time after he had won,” Lupica said. “He needed time to collect himself. While he had won the individual title and could have been happy, he was extremely upset that the team finished second.”
Said Armour, “You know, you look back on some things and I remember winning, and I was proud that I won. But you know, we finished second to Upper Arlington, and that kind of bothered me a lot. I didn’t like losing. I felt like even though I’d won the individual state title, I could have done better to get us closer to Arlington. I remember it was kind of bittersweet. I guess that would be the right word. But I remember leaving Columbus upset.”
That tells you plenty of what you need to know about Ryan Armour.
“Ryan’s personal philosophy that guides him every day is ‘Have you worked hard enough today?’” said Lupica. “I have known him since he was 14 years old and witnessed him follow that philosophy every day in his academic studies and athletic endeavors. I do not believe that there has ever been a time when he walked off a golf course or basketball court when he didn’t give his full and best effort to improve.”
Few people are aware that Armour was an outstanding basketball player at Walsh Jesuit despite being about 5 feet, nine inches and about 140 pounds.
“During the summer months when junior golf was at its peak, Ryan was always faithful about being involved in the basketball summer programs that we had while still finding time to refine his golf skills and compete against the best junior golfers in the United States,” said Lupica.
That includes Tiger Woods.
In the finals of the 1993 U.S. Junior Amateur at Waverly Country Club in Portland, Ore., Woods birdied the final two holes to Armour’s pars to force a playoff, which he won on the first hole with a birdie.
One year earlier, Armour lost 4-and-3 to Woods in the quarterfinals of the same event at the Wollaston Golf Club in Milton, MA, and one year before that, Woods defeated Armour’s former Walsh Jesuit teammate, Don Padgett III, in one of the early rounds.
Undeterred, Armour went on to a great career at OSU, earning all-Big Ten honors in 1995 and 1998 when he was the medalist in the Big Ten tournament.
“I have been fortunate,” Armour said. “I have had a lot of people believe in me more than I believed in myself and that has been very important.”
It will be a busy five days. Armour and Patrick are flying to Columbus on Wednesday and plan on playing the Scarlet Course on Thursday. They will drive to Akron on Friday and attend the Walsh Jesuit vs. St. Ignatius football game and the school’s ceremony to retire Mike Vrabel’s football number. Saturday is the 80th birthday of Armour’s mother, Jude.
Armour turned professional after graduating from OSU in 1999 and had immediate success on the Golden Bear Tour. In 2000 he moved to Orlando with Todd Lancaster, Greg Boyette, and Chris Wollmann and began playing events against players such as Boo Weekley, Bubba Watson, and Heath Slocum. That eventually led to him making it to the Korn Ferry Tour. After years of grinding and practicing and using the work ethic he had learned as a youngster, he reached the PGA Tour in 2007.
“I always felt that I had to practice to become better,” he said. “If I didn’t practice, someone else was. I don’t want to sound like Hogan, but it’s truly in the dirt. You have to find it yourself.”
Lupica tells the story of a tournament basketball game at Akron North, which gives insight into Armour’s competitiveness.
“We were down the entire game until making a run in the final minutes,” Lupica said. “During a free throw, Ryan approached me on the sideline and told me to take him out of the game because he was ill and was going to throw up. The trainer took him to the locker room, and when he returned, we were down by three with 10 seconds to go and had taken our last timeout.
“He stood directly next to me and said, ‘Coach, put me back in, and I will hit a 3-pointer, and we’ll beat these guys in overtime. No one in the huddle was making eye contact with me except Ryan, who was giving me the ‘Armour glare.’ I knew that meant he was locked in for what needed to be done. He hit the 3-pointer as the final horn sounded, and we went on to win in overtime. That’s my favorite Ryan Armour basketball story.”
And a great story it is. Just as his induction into the Ohio Golf Hall of Fame will be another part of the Ryan Armour story. We can’t wait for the next chapter.
