Chattanooga-area trio advances in Q-School

photo Stephan Jaeger

Stephan Jaeger is headed to Kiawah Island to celebrate.

The former Baylor School and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga All-American was one of three Chattanooga-area golfers who advanced from the first stage of Web.com Tour qualifying school Friday.

Jaeger shot an even-par 288, tied for 14th place and earned one of 32 advancements from Pinewild Country Club in Pinehurst, N.C.

Former Rhea County and Middle Tennessee State golfer Hunter Green tied for second at 13-under 275 at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Ga. Former McCallie and University of Georgia golfer Adam Mitchell tied for eighth at 9 under and advanced from there. Former Baylor and Vanderbilt golfer Ryan Thornton and former UTC golfer Thomas Smith failed to qualify.

"My game wasn't quite there, but I got through and sometimes you have to work a little more than you want to," Jaeger said. "It could have been a lot worse and I not made it. But I fought through tough times. Now I've got three weeks to work on things."

His work will be pleasure today. Jaeger said he has an early afternoon tee time to play the Ocean Course at Kiawah, which hosted the 2012 PGA Championship.

"I'm definitely going to buy something," Jaeger said. "It will have that logo on it."

Mitchell said he will take much of the next week off to recover from the first stage of Q-School.

"I got the job done and it doesn't matter if you finish first, eighth or 30th, I'm happy to be through to the next stage," said Mitchell, who opened the tournament with a 6-under 66. "I'll take it easy this week; then when I'm a couple weeks out, I'll ramp it up like I did for this stage."

Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.

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