It didn’t take Grant Milner long to relinquish his lead in the Tennessee Amateur.

The first-round co-leader after a 4-under-par 66 at Chattanooga Golf and Country Club, Milner, the former University of Memphis golfer, started his second round on Wednesday on the par-4 10th hole. When his tee shot sailed out of bounds, Milner had but one thought.  “Welcome back to reality,” Milner said.

The errant swing lead to a double bogey. Two holes later, at the par-4 12th, Milner made a bogey.  “Three over after three,” Milner said. “Really great start.”

If Milner was leaking oil at that point, he plugged the leak quickly, thanks to his putter. As he surveyed a 50-foot birdie putt at the par-4 15th, Milner was just trying to figure out a way to get it close. He didn’t have much confidence in his first pass, taking off walking, ala Craig Stadler, before the ball reached its destination.

“I was thinking it was gonna come up short,” he said.  Short of center, maybe. The ball trickled into the hole and Milner’s round was saved.
“That putt got me going,” he said.

Did it ever. Milner birdied No. 16 from 10 feet, then made four birdies on the front nine (1, 3, 7, 8). He had a chance to match his opening 66, but bogeyed the par-3 9th. Still, his 3-under-par 67 left him at 7-under-par 133, two shots ahead of 2012 U.S. Amateur champion and former Chattanooga player Steven Fox, who tacked his own 67 onto a first-round 68.

Three other players, Hunter Kraus, Will Pearson and Craig Reasor, are another stroke back at 136.

The second round isn’t yet completed. After a near-three hour rain delay, several players were unable to finish and will have to return to the course early on Thursday.

Milner is no stranger to leading the Amateur. He was also the 36-hole leader two years ago, and he wound up tied for fifth. But Milner is a different player than he was then after coming up with a novel idea. Why not try to have fun on the golf course?

“This is the first tournament I’ve played in a long time where I just tried to have fun,” Milner said. “It seems to be working so far. But I’m a realist. I’m not going to shoot 66 or 67 every day. I’m just trying to get as far ahead as I can.

“All you want to do is have a chance with nine holes left.”

A foursome of Chattanooga players still have a chance after the halfway point. Former Vanderbilt golfer Ryan Thornton, Chris Schmidt, and seniors Neil Spitalny and Richard Keene are all at 2-under-par 138.

Schmidt shot the low round of the tournament, a 5-under-par 65. His day was anything but boring. Schmidt birdied his first three holes, bogeyed two of his next three and birdied the long-par 4 8th to turn at 2-under-par 33.

Schmidt got off to another fast start on the back nine with birdies at 10, 11 and 14. He bogeyed 15, another long par 4, but closed with a birdie at the par-3 18th.  Schmidt was looking to take it deep after opening the tournament with a 73 on Tuesday.

“I felt like I had to have a 65 at some point because of the position I put myself in,” Schmidt said. “I needed one either today, tomorrow or the next day. And I may very well need another 65.”

There was only a slight difference between Schmidt’s 73 and his 65.  “I struck the ball the same way yesterday as today,” he said. “I just made a small adjustment with ball position in my putter.”

Keene had an adventurous round, too, doing battle with tall grass, yellow jackets and bogeys before going crazy in his final five holes.
He bogeyed Nos. 1 and 8 on the front nine, and could well have made bogey, or worse, on No. 4 after slashing his tee shot into tall grass left of the fairway. When he addressed his ball, Keene stirred up a yellow jacket nest and was stung a couple of times before beating a hasty retreat and consulting rules official Jean St. Charles.

St. Charles’ ruling gave Keene relief without penalty, allowing him to drop farther back in the tall stuff, hack out a second shot, hit his third onto the green and make the putt for a par.  “I’ll take one bee sting for a par,” Keene said, laughing. “But I ain’t taking four.”

The real excitement awaited Keene on the back nine. Standing on the tee at the par-3 13th at 3-over for the day, Keene didn’t have a great feeling. But his mood improvement considerably when he hit a 52-degree wedge to five feet and drained the birdie putt.

On the par 4 14th, a good drive left him 87 yards to the pin. He hit a 60-degree wedge, the ball landed three feet short of the hole and rolled in for an eagle two. All of a sudden, Keene was back to even, and he still wasn’t finished.  Keene birdied the par-4 15th to go 1 under for the day.  “I was thinking, ‘this is going good,’ Keene said. “And then I just about missed my tee shot at 16.”

But Keene still managed to par the hole, and then proceeded to make another birdie at 17 for a 68 to go with his opening 70.
Spitalny made his share of birdies on Wednesday, five in all, including back-to-back at Nos. 2 and 3. He finished with a 68.

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98th Tennessee State Amateur Leaderboard