Every Tennessee State Amateur golf tournament is special in its own way. It's a state championship, after all. And when you win an event that's now been around for 104 years, it can't be anything but impressive to have your name engraved on the large silver trophy alongside all those earlier winners.
But when the State Am comes to The Honors Course, as it has this week, there's apparently a little bit of extra energy and buzz.
"We had 295 players sign up a year ago," said Chad Anderson, executive director of the Tennessee Golf Association. "We had 518 this year, and that doesn't include the 20 who called after the deadline. Obviously, The Honors Course is a very special place."
Nor was it just the number of golfers hoping to qualify for one of the 144 spots guaranteed for Tuesdays and today's opening two rounds before the field is slashed to 60 for the final two days of the 72-hole tourney that was unique.
"The highest qualifying score was a 73," Anderson noted. "Everyone else was par or better. It's a pretty impressive field."
The most impressive of Tuesday's golfers was Nolan Ray, who just graduated from Tennessee this spring and will use his final year of eligibility - he redshirted as a true freshman at UT - playing for Lipscomb University in Nashville.
Teeing off in the morning, Ray shot a 4-under-par 68 to lead Knoxville's Tyler Johnson by a stroke. Half of those four strokes in the red for Ray came courtesy of an eagle on the par-5 17th.
"I hit a high 2-iron within 20 feet of the hole, then made the putt for eagle," Ray recalled. "I hit it really well today. And when I got in trouble I got it out and made par. The course is so good right now. The greens are fast, but they'e also nice and soft. The fairways are pure. The whole course is some kind of good right now."
In a general sense, The Honors Course is always some kind of good. After Augusta National, it's arguably the best course in the entire southeastern United States, and even that might be open for debate.
But it's especially good this week, thanks to a perfect amount of rain and heat over the past three or four months.
"I don't know that it's ever been in better shape," said Henrik Simonsen, the Honors' longtime club pro. "We're always excited to have the State Am here. This is our chance to showcase what we're all about."
What The Honors Course always has been most about is honoring amateur golf. It's why the U.S. Amateur came here in 1991. It's why the NCAA has twice held its national championship here. It's also why the Honors has hosted the Tennessee State Am every 10 years, beginning in 1989.
"Dick Horton (who headed the TGA for 35 years) came to (Honors Course founder) Jack Lupton in 1989 and asked him to host the State Am," Simonsen said. "Mr. Lupton (now deceased) said, 'Absolutely, we'll do it every 10 years.' And we have in every year that ends in a 9. We also host the Women's State Am on every year that ends in an 8."
The significance of this goes beyond the event being able to visit the Honors, which recently was ranked the 28th best course in the country by Golf Digest.
"Before Mr. Lupton agreed to host the tournament, the TGA had had difficulty getting the state's best courses to host the event," Simonsen said. "After that, all the best clubs in the state got behind it."
Mark WiedmerAn impressive list of area golfers aren't too far behind Ray heading into today's second round. Cleveland's Parker Gray is one of 10 golfers who shot 70. Ringgold's Ben Rebne fired a 71. Signal Mountain's Michael Feher shot a 72. Fifteen-year-old Baylor School student Sheldon McKnight recorded a 73, as did Lookout Mountain's Winston Brown and Signal Mountain's Richard Spangler.
"You want to reward players for playing well," said Allison Brown, whose job it is to set up the course for the tournament via daily pin placements and such. "I want a good, fair setup. This course gives you a lot of options."
Brown has been with the TGA for five years. She also annually oversees the course setup for the NCAA women's championship.
"You try to control the things you can control," she said. "You might set up a certain hole expecting the wind to blow a certain way. If that changes, maybe you adjust to that the next day. The hole placements change every day."
The weather changes every day as well. Those soft, fast greens that Ray and others so enjoyed on Tuesday are expected to be harder and faster by Thursday. Stronger winds could also arrive before a decent chance for rain comes in Friday morning.
Brown, for one, isn't worried about either the course or the golfers adapting to any changes.
"The Honors is one of the best golf courses anywhere," she said. "Period."
The TGA has 223 extra signups from last year to this year to prove it.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.