Chattanooga’s Nick Blakely cruised along the Chattanooga Golf and Country Club oblivious to his score Tuesday.
He knew it was low, but he didn’t know how low.
The former Birmingham-Southern golfer leads the Tennessee Match Play championship after shooting a 5-under-par 65 in the first of two stroke-play qualifying rounds.
Blakely made nine birdies in a 13-hole stretch only to close with bogeys on two of his last three.
“I didn’t know how low I was,” he said. “I wasn’t really counting, and I just kept hitting the ball on the green and making putts.”
Blakely owns a two-shot lead over Danny Green from Jackson. Chattanooga’s Ryan Thornton is tied for third at 3 under with Brett Patterson of McMinnville and Hixson’s Jeremy Lawson.
Cleveland’s Matt Robertson is tied for fifth and UTC sophomore Steven Fox is tied for ninth in the division that will send the top 16 into match play later this week.
“You want to play well on the first two days so you get a good seed, because you don’t want to be No. 16 going against a hot guy,” Thornton said. “I did what I needed to today to get it in the hole.”
Garry Siddon also found the Chattanooga Golf and Country Club to his liking.
The Farragut resident said the course reminds him of courses he played on while growing up in Ohio.
Siddon shot a 4-under 67 and leads after the first of two stroke-play rounds in the senior match play championship.
“My target was to shoot 70 today, and that will be my target again tomorrow,” Siddon said. “It didn’t seem like a very easy round. I just kept clicking along.”
Chattanooga’s Mike Jenkins is tied for second after shooting 71 along with Tony Green of Kingsport and Kevin Mullins of Savannah, Tenn. Signal Mountain’s Tom Baird is tied for fifth, and Neil Spitalny of Chattanooga is tied for 12th.
In the senior championship, the top eight individuals from stroke play will advance to match play Thursday and Friday.
“I certainly accomplished my major goal of being able to tee off Wednesday with a chance to make the low eight,” said Jenkins, who had three birdies and three bogeys. “With all the rain we’ve had, it’s playing long, but at the same time it’s softened up the greens so they’re not lightning fast.”