Matt Cooper and Grant Milner, Memphis Tiger golfers past and present, met one another in the parking lot at Chattanooga Golf and Country Club on Tuesday afternoon. Cooper had just finished off a 4-under-par 66 in his first round in the Tennessee Amateur, and Milner was about to tee off.

“I’m just trying to keep up with you,” Cooper told Milner.

“I doubt that,” Milner said.

Actually, Cooper was right. His 66, shot early in the day, made him the leader in the clubhouse, at least until about 5 p.m. when Milner turned in his card. Sure enough, he too shot 66.

Sixty-six proved to be a popular score. Andrew Weathers, a former McCallie star who will play his college golf at Chattanooga, joined Cooper and Milner on top of the leaderboard. They are two shots ahead former Chattanooga player Steven Fox, who will defend his 2012 U.S. Amateur title next week, Payne Denman, Josh Nelms and Travis Rodgers. Tim Jackson, who last year won his fifth Tennessee Amateur at age 53, shot a solid 69 as he seeks to become the second-most prolific winner of this tournament. Jackson is tied with Emmett Spicer with five, trailing only Chattanooga legend Lew Oehmig’s eight.

Besides their University of Memphis backgrounds, Cooper and Milner have another thing in common these days. Neither has been able to play much golf. Milner, a budding sports writer whose website, Memphis Roar, is about to join the 247Sports group, has been busy making that transition and had played 11 rounds of golf all summer before the Amateur.

Cooper is the director of marketing at Tunica National in Mississippi, and before he returned to competitive golf a couple of years ago, he had actually become an accomplished tennis player, traveling the USTA circuit.

“I got pretty good,” Cooper said. “After college golf, I tried to get as good as I could, but never had the results to where I could warrant going pro and trying the [PGA Tour’s] Q-School. My dad is a big tennis player, so I kind of messed around with the game some with him.

“There was a stretch of about three or four years where I played a ton of tennis. I got to where I was four- or five-star rated and I really enjoyed it, but I kind of leveled out. I started running into guys that played their whole life and teaching pros, too. That kind of threw me back into golf.”

Cooper has played well since his return to the links. He qualified for the 2012 U.S. Amateur and he’s been competitive in TGA tournaments. He credits tennis with helping his golf game.

“Playing tennis, there are some pretty high-pressure, tense moments throughout a match,” Cooper said. “You’re kind of under the gun. Just learning how your body reacts, and what you go through mentally in that sport has helped with golf.”

Though his day job prevents him from playing much casual golf, Cooper is able to step outside his office door and work on his short game.

“My short game is definitely better than when I was in college,” Cooper said. “Usually around lunch or after work if I’ve got 30 minutes or so, I work on it. We’ve got a great practice facility at Tunica National. It’s state of the art.”

Cooper started his round on Tuesday with six consecutive pars, but he kicked things into high gear when a good drive at the 513-yard par-5 7^th hole left him 177 yards to the green. He hit a 7-iron to about six feet and drained the putt for an eagle 3.

Cooper returned to the 7-iron again at the par-3 9^th.

“It was about the same distance I had on No. 7,” he said. “About 177 yards. The pin’s on the very front, and I kept my tee shot short of the hole, which you would have thought was impossible to do.”

Cooper made an 8-footer for birdie on 9, added two more birdies at 11 and 14, and after a bogey at No. 15, he answered with yet another birdie at 16. His second bogey of the day came at the par-3 18^th.

Milner did most of his damage early, made birdies on four of his first six holes, including three straight from Nos. 4-6. He added another birdie at No. 9 to turn at 30.

His back nine wasn’t as fun. Milner made bogeys at Nos. 10 and 13, but was solid the rest of the way, adding a final birdie at No. 16.

“This feels good,” Milner said. “Honestly I haven’t played a lot of golf. I was not expecting to shoot 66 today. I’m as surprised as anybody. I had been telling my buddies on the range, ‘don’t expect too much from me this week.’ ”

Milner has been putting in a lot of time on Memphis Roar, which kept him off the course. He hasn’t played rounds on consecutive days all summer and hasn’t practiced much, either. But playing in the Tennessee Amateur seems to get his competitive fire stoked.

“The last couple of years I’ve been close to the lead,” Milner said. “Two years ago I had the lead after 36 holes. I’ve had chances to win this thing.”

Weathers’ day was anything but boring. He made just seven pars, but his round also included six birdies—including three in a row from 1-3, which was his back nine—an eagle at No. 7 and four bogeys.

“Very interesting,” Weathers said.

Weathers did his best to focus amid all the excitement.

“I tried to pick out the best targets I could,” he said. “If I missed a shot, I wanted to miss it in the right place.”

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98th Tennessee State Amateur Leaderboard