The first true fall day of the year arrived just in time for the finale. The warmth of another summer stretching into October finally gave way to gray skies and multiple layers. Scioto Country Club, always the stage for golf that matters, gave no quarter or comfort to the players on its firm, fast greens at the 2025 Southern Ohio Tour Championship. What it did give was room for one of the best head-to-head showdown’s in SOPGA history. Both Bob Sowards and Sam Arnold delivered.
Golf’s history is rich with duels between champions. Nicklaus and Watson’s “Duel in the Sun” at Turnberry, Mickelson and Stenson at Royal Troon, Vardon and Ouimet in their greatest game. All great clashes are remembered through a turn of phrase. Given Scioto’s diabolical hole locations, perhaps “The Duel of No Fun” is a fitting name for the marathon of endurance and nerve on display Wednesday.
The final round began with Arnold and Sowards in the last group after matching opening rounds of 72. Jared Jones of Scioto joined them, two shots back. Arnold struck first with a birdie at the third hole. He picked up two more when Sowards doubled the devilish par-3 fourth. By the turn, Arnold held a three-shot advantage.
Sowards, who has made a career out of steady, relentless golf, leaned into what he knows best: control. A birdie at the 13th got him back within two. He pulled a full reversal on the 16th, rolling in another birdie while Arnold made bogey. He followed that with another birdie on 17 to flip the script entirely. The leader all day suddenly found himself trailing on the final tee.
He’s been here before. Last week at the 29th Ohio Cup, the Southern Ohio team found themselves looking at the singles leaderboard with concerned eyes. Originally full of SOPGA blue, Northern Ohio was making their move to chip away at the lead and someone needed to stop that red wave. Enter Sam.
Arnold stood over a 25 foot birdie putt on the 18th green at Wedgewood Golf & Country Club, needing to make it to halve his match against Northern Ohio captain Mitch Camp. His putt never left the center and gave Southern Ohio a huge half point on their way to securing the win. His captain then? Bob Sowards.
This time, facing Sowards himself, Arnold delivered again. A perfect drive, pure iron, and a 15-footer that tumbled in for birdie to force extra holes.
By the time they reached the playoff, the day felt older than it was. The sun, barely visible behind the clouds, hovered low, its light thin and tired. The playoff began on Scioto’s first. Both players found the green and made routine pars.
Number two at Scioto underwent a pretty remarkable transformation as part of the 2021 restoration under Andrew Green. Once a brutish and somewhat tight par-4, it now shares a fairway with the par-5 sixth hole, and requires strategic placement of the tee shot. Too far right and the heavily-canted fairway will funnel balls into the right rough and a blind second. Too far left and a sweeping collection area will channel balls into a low area that cuts off any direct approach to the green. Sowards feathered a butter cut to position-A, Arnold’s tee shot drifted right into that bowl on the left, complicating his second shot.
What happened next will be talked about for a long time in SOPGA circles. Arnold’s second shot clipped a tree and knocked the ball backward and left, not 25 yards from its original position. His third was a low hook that miraculously ran to 30 feet. It was an extraordinary recovery, the kind that echoes.
It was so good, it might have affected Sowards’ birdie effort. The second green sneakily runs back to front, grading gradually back toward the fairway, and sees a lot of four foot putts go twelve. Gravity got Sowards on his third, carrying the ball beyond the hole and into the bottom tier of the green, leaving him a testy uphill 25-footer for par. In another classic Sowards move, he almost made it, one turn shy of an epic two-putt. Instead it was a three-putt bogey and the door opened for Arnold to drop another bomb to take the title.
Gravity grabbed another one. Arnold barely breathed on his downhiller and it still rolled out to around eight feet. Standing over the putt to stay alive, Arnold took a final look and struck it firm. It was the kind of effort that goes in almost anywhere but instead, the ball took a cruel quarter inch turn right at the very end. A heartbreaking lip out.
Double bogey. Ballgame.
Sowards removed his cap, exhaled, and shook Arnold’s hand. Both players were absolutely exhausted from the challenge and the competition.
“Not all wins are pretty,” said Sowards afterward. In truth, that’s all he really needed to say.
His victory, another in a career already full of them, wasn’t loud or showy. It was earned, the way the best golf is: through patience, through the small mastery of enduring conditions that make everyone else uncomfortable.
Behind them, the leaderboard spoke to Scioto’s difficulty. Jones, the club’s own, finished third at nine-over. Alex Martin was another shot back in fourth. The field, full of accomplished players, had been tested and humbled by a golf course that always seems to know when to bare its teeth.
Arnold deserves a few column inches of credit. He’s a quiet warrior in spikes, unafraid of chasing the dream while dealing with a day job. He got through the first stage of Champions Tour Q-School late last year and got some well-deserved national media attention. He was an Ohio Cup hero and is a credit to PGA professionals, everywhere. He played great golf all season long.
As the last few spectators drifted toward the warmth of the clubhouse, the cold finally settled in for good. The season’s end was here. Sowards, holding the trophy for a second straight year, smiled the kind of smile that knows the work behind it, the hours practiced, the quiet belief. In his left hand, another Tour Championship trophy. In his right, the Ohio Cup.
“One of these is the important one,” he said, gesturing to the Ohio Cup. “I want to keep that around.”
FINAL RESULTS: Southern Ohio PGA
2025 SOPGA Tour Championship
Scioto Country Club, Columbus
Wednesday, October 15 – Thursday, October 16, 2025
Blue Golf Hole-by-Hole Results >
1 Bob Sowards, Kinsale Golf & Fitness Club (p) 72 – 71 = 143 $2,000.00
2 Sam Arnold, Vineyard Golf Course 72 – 71 = 143 $1,600.00
3 Jared Jones, Scioto Country Club 74 – 75 = 149 $1,390.00
4 Alex Martin, Golfweek Junior Tour 76 – 74 = 150 $1,210.00
T5 Michael Auterson, Hickory Woods Golf Course 76 – 75 = 151 $885.00
T5 Andy Montgomery, Kinsale Golf & Fitness Club 75 – 76 = 151 $885.00
7 Chase Wilson, Columbus Country Club 77 – 75 = 152 $680.00
T8 Doug Wade, Off-Par Golf & Social 79 – 74 = 153 $525.00
T8 Trent Kopala, GOLFTEC – Dublin 75 – 78 = 153 $525.00
10 Peter Dornisch, Muirfield Village Golf Club 79 – 75 = 154 $350.00
T11 Chris Muse, Hickory Hills Golf Club 80 – 75 = 155
T11 Jeff Olson, Wedgewood Golf & Country Club 78 – 77 = 155
T11 Kyler Booher, Miami Shores Golf Course 75 – 80 = 155
14 Corey Weckerling, Moraine Country Club 80 – 76 = 156
T15 Anthony Andrews, Blue Ash Golf Course 77 – 80 = 157
T15 Joe Moore, Beavercreek Golf Club 76 – 81 = 157
T17 Christian Hayden, Granville Golf Land 85 – 73 = 158
T17 Chris Black, The View 80 – 78 = 158
T17 Taylor Suggs, Heritage Club 80 – 78 = 158
T20 Brad Loomis, Miami View Golf Club 83 – 76 = 159
T20 Matt Brewer, Cincinnati Country Club 80 – 79 = 159
T20 Andrew Martin, Muirfield Village Golf Club 76 – 83 = 159
23 Dan Halley, GOLFTEC – Dublin 79 – 81 = 160
T24 Paul Macke, PM Golf Lounge 86 – 75 = 161
T24 Casey Lewis, Sycamore Creek Country Club 84 – 77 = 161
T24 Ben Chandler, Mark MacDonald Golf Academy 79 – 82 = 161
27 Drew Muhich, The Golf Club at Stonelick Hills 83 – 80 = 163
28 Jon Balyeat, Kenwood Country Club 83 – 81 = 164
29 Michael Mayhugh, Topgolf – Columbus 83 – 82 = 165
30 Mike Stills, Jefferson Golf & Country Club 83 – 83 = 166
31 Melissa Yeazell, Tri County Golf Ranch 86 – 81 = 167
32 Wyatt Wilson, Long Shots Entertainment 86 – 82 = 168
33 Ashley Thomas, Mark MacDonald Golf Academy 87 – 83 = 170
WD Richard Denny, Jamaica Run Golf Club
WD Daniel Sorgini, Blacklick Woods Hills
WD Ben Kern, Hickory Hills Golf Club
SENIOR DIVISION
1 Bob Sowards, Kinsale Golf & Fitness Club (p) 72 – 71 = 143 $1,050.00
2 Sam Arnold, Vineyard Golf Course 72 – 71 = 143 $870.00
3 Mike Thomas, Sharon Woods Golf Course 77 – 72 = 149 $680.00
4 Dave Bahr, Maketewah Country Club 79 – 71 = 150 $500.00
5 Paul Hollenbaugh, New Albany Country Club – North/East 78 – 76 = 154
6 Joe Moore, Beavercreek Golf Club 76 – 81 = 157
7 Bob Stephens, PGA Life Member 78 – 80 = 158
T8 Chad Ammer, Maketewah Country Club 79 – 80 = 159
T8 Brad Loomis, Miami View Golf Club 83 – 76 = 159
10 Larry King, Tri County Golf Ranch 81 – 79 = 160
WD Tom Bach, Heatherwoode Golf Club
NC Tim Krapfel, Golf Galaxy – Dublin
ASSOCIATES DIVISION
1 Jon McDonald, Sycamore Creek Country Club 79 – 77 = 156 $500.00
2 Max Helgreen, Kinsale Golf & Fitness Club 79 – 78 = 157
3 Taylor Holt, The Lakes Golf & Country Club 85 – 76 = 161
