Like anyone else who has picked up a club, Ricky Honeycutt has a love-hate relationship with his golf game. Last Wednesday, Honeycutt was in the full-on hate mode.

For most people, the 73 Honeycutt shot in the second round of the Harold Eller Pro-Am in Nashville wouldn’t have evoked so strong a negative emotion—quite the contrary, in fact. But for Honeycutt, about to enter his senior year on the University of Tennessee golf team, the 73 was tantamount to disaster. The long-hitting son of former Major League pitcher Rick Honeycutt didn’t hit a single fairway and hit just five greens in regulation.

Though Honeycutt salvaged his poor ball-striking day with a red-hot putter, he knew some hard work was ahead of him. Thursday, he asked an assistant professional at The Honors to watch his swing on videotape. Satisfied he’d identified a slight flaw he could correct, Honeycutt spent the next three and a half hours on the practice tee. "I felt like I’d lost 20 pounds," Honeycutt said.

Drained as he may have been, Honeycutt wanted to put his theory to the test on the course. After 27 holes, he declared himself ready for the first round of the Chattanooga Men’s Metro.

Friday at Valleybrook, there was ample evidence that Honeycutt’s work had paid off. His 5-under-par 66 tied him for the first-round lead with Furman freshman Chris Gilliland. How good were those two scores? No one else shot better than 70. Jay Walston, Derek Rende, Philip McCutchan and Patrick Williams were tied for second at that number. Defending champion Tom Schreiner and Josh Coley matched par with 71s.

Honeycutt came within a foot of equaling his lowest-ever competitive round. That’s how long his approach on No. 18 rolled off the green. He chose to putt, and the ball hung up on the fringe just enough to slow it down and leave Honeycutt with a 5-footer for par. He missed.

Suffice to say Honeycutt wasn’t happy with a bogey on the final hole, but overall, he was fairly pleased with his round.

"If only I’d made a putt," Honeycutt said.

He wasn’t quite serious. Honeycutt made a lot of putts, but not nearly as many as he did two days earlier in Nashville.

Honeycutt’s round got off to a shaky start when he three-putted the par-5 2^nd hole from five feet. "It wasn’t really a tough putt," Honeycutt said. "I just hit it too firm and too far outside the hole."

Left with a 4-footer, Honeycutt missed, but he quickly atoned for the miscue, making a birdie at No. 3. He missed a 5-footer for another birdie at No. 4, but drained a 20-footer for a three at the par-4 6^th and was finally under par for the day. A birdie at No. 8 got him to 2-under, and he turned in 33.

Honeycutt carried his momentum to the back nine, though he didn’t birdie No. 11, a par-5 that, at 464 yards, plays like a par-4 for him. But he did make birdies at No. 10 and 12.

On the home stretch, Honeycutt made a 5-footer for birdie at No. 15 and two-putted for another birdie at the par-5 17^th.

Heading into No. 18, Honeycutt had a number in mind.

"I wanted to make a birdie and shoot 64," Honeycutt said. "I’d shot 65 in tournaments and a 63 [at Willow Creek] just messing around at school last year, but never a 64."

Honeycutt hit a 3-wood off the tee, but his ball rolled just off the fairway and settled into the rough. He hit a 9-iron from 150 yards.

"It hit about two or three feet from the hole, but it just didn’t have any spin," he said. That set up the bogey that cost Honeycutt the outright first-round lead.

Honeycutt has a busy week of golf ahead. First there are Saturday’s second round and Sunday’s final round of the Metro. On Monday, he’ll try to qualify for the Southern Amateur at The Honors. If he makes it, Honeycutt hopes he’ll get four more rounds at The Honors, which is hosting the Southern Amateur for the first time since 1986.

"Next week is going to be a big tournament, if I get in," Honeycutt said. "If I could even make the cut in the Southern, that would mean my game has really gotten better."

Gilliland, son of Council Fire director of golf Hunt Gilliland, has made the most of his limited local amateur tournament appearances this summer. In his only other events, Gilliland finished second, losing in a playoff to Josh Nelms, in the Ira Templeton Chattanooga Open and tied for fourth in the Red Bud.

Like, Honeycutt, Gilliland spent his first year in a Division I golf program adjusting.

"I struggled in the fall," Gilliland said. "But I just hung in there and worked on my game. I really worked on my tempo, and I finished the year with a lot of confidence."

Gilliland chose to red-shirt last season, during which Furman won the Southern Conference Tournament and advanced to the NCAAs. But with three seniors having departed, he fully expects to contribute next year.

"I’m expecting to play a lot," Gilliland said. "I’ve put in a lot of work, and now I think I’m doing everything pretty well. I’m not a mechanical person. I just work on my rhythm. And my short game."

Gilliland putted well on Friday. He offset a bogey at No. 4 and got his round going after draining a 15-footer for birdie at No. 6, then hit a 3-wood to six feet at the par-5 eighth hole and made that putt for eagle.

Gilliland added another birdie at No. 11 after reaching the green with a 7-wood, but bogeyed No. 14. After chipping in for a birdie at No. 16, Gilliland was told the score he had to match—Honeycutt’s 66.

"I was pretty excited after chipping in, then I heard Ricky had shot 66," Gilliland said. I knew I had a chance to match it."

Gilliland hit his tee shot into the left trees at No. 17, but punched out and then knocked an 8-iron to a foot for a second straight birdie. He finished the round at 18 by ramming a 15-footer into the hole for a birdie.

"If that wouldn’t have gone in the hole, it would have gone 10 feet past," Gilliland said.