Chattanooga’s Seth Brandon
photo by Tennessee Golf Association
Knoxville’s Jack Smith
photo by Tennessee Golf Association
Nashville’s Grant Milling
photo by Tennessee Golf Association
Nashville’s Tucker Jenkins
photo by Tennessee Golf Association
Sewanee’s Taylor Mottern
photo by Tennessee Golf Association
A total of 14 golfers managed to emerge unblemished after Tuesday’s opening day of the 26th Tennessee Match Play Championship. But making it beyond the preliminary pool play portion of the tournament to emerge as one of the fortunate 16 who advance into Thursday’s match play bracket is an entirely different matter.
With the 64 participants split into four-man pools playing a round-robin format, several golfers gained an early advantage by winning both of their matches on Tuesday at the Vanderbilt Legends Club’s South Course.
Two pools had a pair of golfers go 2-0 in their opening matches, setting up a winner-take-all showdown Wednesday morning to see who will advance. Knoxville residents Jack Smith and Tate Woodruff are undefeated and will face each other to determine their pool winner, as will Nashville’s Grant Milling in his deciding match against Walker Webb of Brentwood.
The other ten golfers who won both of their matches included Nick Daugherty of Andersonville, Adam Condello of Brentwood, Taylor Mottern of Sewanee, Seth Brandon of Chattanooga, Jonas Rayfield of Cleveland, Trenton Johnson of Brentwood, Ian Taggart of Harrogate, Ryan Ward of Nashville, Jackson Whaley of Collierville and Tucker Jenkins of Nashville.
One pool has three players tied with one point each featuring Ryan Greer of Knoxville, Austin Vasquez of Hendersonville and Alex Gaetz of Clinton.
Nashville’s Billy Whalen and Knoxville’s Brad Burling are deadlocked at 1.5 points each in their pool, as are Scotty Hudson of Nashville and Lafayette’s Maddox Crowder in another pool.
John Thomas McKenzie of Cleveland holds a slim margin with 1.5 points while Winston Margaritis of Germantown and Cameron Quinn of Nashville each earned 1 point.
Those earning a spot in match play will compete in the Round of 16 match Thursday morning, followed by the Quarterfinals that afternoon. Friday’s final day will conclude with the Semifinals and Championship match.
For complete results, go to Tennessee Match Play.
Paul Payne can be emailed at paulpayne6249@gmail.com