It wasn’t a good day for the higher seeded players in the first round of Chattanooga TPC match play on Friday.

When the eight matches were complete, the top three seeds from Thursday’s qualifying round were gone, as was the fifth. And No. 4 seed John Lambert had to make a birdie on the first playoff hole to advance.

"All these guys out here are so close in skill level," said Matt Mathis, the former UTC golfer, who, seeded 16^th, defeated No. 1 seed Larry McGill, 1-up. "There aren’t two shots difference between us when we play in tournaments. So the seedings don’t mean all that much. Most of these guys can beat anybody out here on a given day."

Besides McGill, No. 2 seed Neil Spitalny lost to Richard Keene, 4 and 2, No. 3 seed Jay Potter, Jr. fell to Greg Privette, 2 and 1, and No. 5 Brian Kopet lost to No. 12 Tom Schreiner, 3 and 2. Not that those matches were necessarily considered upsets. Schreiner won the Chattanooga Metro championship and the Brainerd Invitational this summer. And Keene is a two-time winner of this tournament.

"You can’t predict what’s going to happen in this thing," Keene said. "It’s like practicing throwing dice. It’s a waste of time."

The McGill-Mathis match was perhaps the most dramatic of the day, considering it featured huge momentum swings and lasted until the 18^th hole. Mathis went ahead 4-up after five holes and seemed in command until McGill rallied by winning Nos. 6 (with a birdie), 7 and 8 (also with a birdie). Mathis’s 1-up lead was gone by the 11^th hole, when McGill birdied, and from that point, the match was on.

McGill took a 1-up lead at the par-4 15^th, and the match came down to a 12-foot putt Mathis faced to salvage a par and a half at No. 16.

"I knew I had to have it or the match was dormie," Mathis said. "I put a good stroke on it, but I got a little lucky when it fell in the side."

That putt got Mathis excited, which influenced his club choice at No. 17, a par-3 that was playing 197 yards.

"I’d just seen Kevin Law (who beat former Tennessee teammate Andrew Black, 2 and 1) hit a 5-iron to the back of the green. I was pumped up, so I decided to make a good swing with a 6-iron. The shot felt good when I hit it."

Sure enough, Mathis’s shot never left the flag, stopping about 12 feet behind the hole. He made the putt to square the match.

Mathis stepped up to the 18^th tee, and despite battling his driver all day, ripped a solid drive down the middle, leaving him just 215 to the hole. McGill, who had bisected every fairway to that point, pushed his tee shot right into the trees, forcing him to pitch out sideways.

McGill’s travails didn’t influence Mathis’s decision on how to play his next shot. After very little debate, he decided to go for the green. He ripped a 4-iron to about 15 feet right of the hole, and when he lipped out his eagle putt, McGill, who had reached the green in five shots, conceded the match.

"What a day," McGill said. "My golf game is about like that (ups and downs). I play so little, I’ve come to expect it."

Keene turned a close match into an easy victory with a three-hole burst to end the front nine. But actually, his rally started a hole earlier, when he dumped his tee shot into the left hazard at the par-5 sixth. Keene took a drop, hit his next shot in the middle of the fairway, and then hit an 8-iron to two feet, salvaging a par and halving the hole.

When Keene chipped in for birdie at the par-3 7^th, he felt the momentum turn his way. And sure enough, Keene made birdies at No. 8 and 9 to take a 3-up lead.

Keene’s advantage stretched to 4-up when he birdied the par-5 11^th. Spitalny won No. 14 with a par to cut the lead back to 3-up, but Keene wasn’t about to squander any more of his advantage.

"I was just trying to make pars from that point," Keene said. "If he made four birdies to beat me, that was OK."

Two of Thursday’s matches stretched into extra holes, and both were won with birdies at No. 1.

John Lambert hit a gap wedge approach shot to about six feet and made the putt to beat Nick Bailes. And Patrick Williams hit a 74-yard pitch off a downhill lie to about two feet to outlast Steve Johnson. Williams’s subsequent birdie capped a great match that saw both shoot 68 in regulation play.

"I had to make that putt," Williams said. "I didn’t want to be the only Valleybrooker not to make it [to Friday’s round]."

With Williams and Lambert advancing, half the field of eight remaining players are members of Valleybrook (Mathis and Law are the others).

"It’s a tough crowd at the ‘Brook," Lambert said.

Friday’s Matches

No. 16 Matt Mathis def. No. 1 Larry McGill, 1-up

No. 15 Richard Keene def. No. 2 Neil Spitalny, 4 and 2

No. 14 Greg Privette def. No. 3 Jay Potter, Jr., 2 and 1.

No. 4 John Lambert def. No. 13 Nick Bailes, 1-up 19 holes

No. 12 Tom Schreiner def. No. 5 Brian Kopet, 3 and 2.

No. 6 Aon Miller def. No. 11 Jimmy Watkins, 7 and 5.

No. 10 Patrick Williams def. No. 7 Steve Johnson, 1-up 19 holes

No. 9 Kevin Law def. No. 8 Andrew Black, 2 and 1

Saturday’s Matches

1:30 p.m.—Law vs. Mathis.

1:40 p.m.—Lambert vs. Schreiner

1:50 p.m.—Williams vs. Keene

2:00 p.m.—Miller vs. Privette