RISING FAWN, Ga. - Mitch Hufstetler shifted a few items in the cab of his truck to make room for a new addition to his house.
Another trophy.
Hufstetler won the senior division of the Chattanooga Men's Metro tournament Saturday at Canyon Ridge Golf Club by three strokes over Pat Corey. It's the second time he's won the event, and he's been eligible to win that division for only two years.
Hufstetler, a former softball coach, shot an even-par 142 with a 70 on Friday and a 72 in the second and final round of the senior division.
"Neil (Spitalny) gave everybody else a chance by going out of town," Hufstetler joked about this year's senior division winner in the invitationals at Cleveland, Signal Mountain and Dalton.
"I'm fortunate to win it," he said. "I just kept it in the middle and kept it out of trouble."
Richard Spangler has followed the same plan for the first two days in the open division. He leads after shooting a 3-under 139 during the first two rounds. Spangler, a past champion of other Chattanooga TPC events, has never won the Men's Metro.
Taylor Lewis, a back-to-back champion in 2006 at Brown Acres and 2007 at Signal Mountain, is three strokes back along with Gordon Lee High School rising junior Justin Hickman.
"I didn't do anything different than yesterday. I just made more putts," said Spangler, who began his Saturday with three straight birdies and played even the rest of the way, with another birdie and one bogey. "I just held on after (the hot start). The rest of the day seemed like there were a lot of lip-outs and leaving putts on the lip, too."
Spangler could left Lewis in a lurch and out of the competition a day earlier. The latter's 2013 F-250 Ford truck blew its back right tire while climbing Georgia Highway 136. Lewis pulled over and called Spangler, who also happened to be running late for their grouping - which represented Council Fire in the team championship.
"The light came on my dash, and about a minute later I heard, 'Clunk-clunk-clunk,'" Lewis said. "So I called Richard since we were playing together. He picked me up. We played, and I fixed it on the way back."
First-round leader Shonn Weldon, a Gordon Lee teacher, fell out of contention with four bogeys in the first 11 holes. Then he essentially fell off the mountain on the par-5 No. 12, where he recorded a quintuple-bogey 10. His tee shot came to rest in the rough and in a hazard. His next shot - an attempted punch - ricocheted off a bounder 20 feet away from him and even deeper into the hazard. His next shot also went right and never was seen again.
Weldon finished with a 10-over 81 and is tied for 14th.
"I probably should have taken an 'unplayable,'" he said after calculating the total number of strokes several times before having a joke at himself and exclaiming with arms raised, "A perfect 10."
Hickman, who could be one of Weldon's students in school this year, recorded an eagle, three birdies and two bogeys to shoot a 3-under 68. He holed out on No. 10 for that eagle.
Lewis had a hot streak as well with three birdies in a row starting on No. 12.
"My goal today was to try and get back to even for the tournament, and I figured if I did that, then I'd have a chance on the last day," Lewis said. "I was able to do that, so I'm happy."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP