When Pat Corey found out who he would be playing with in the second round of the Chattanooga Men’s Metro at Council Fire on Saturday, all he could do was laugh.

“I’m not as long as these kids,” said Corey, whose first-round 5-under-par 67 was matched by Lee University All-American Josh Coley and UTC junior stalwart Bryce Leford. “One the par-5s, I’m hitting 3-wood and these guys are hitting 5 iron. What are you gonna do?”

Not much to do, actually. And Corey wasn’t quite right about how much club the youngsters needed into Council Fire’s five par 5s on Friday. Ledford, who could be the longest hitter in Chattanooga history, hit 9 iron into No. 2 after pounding a drive over the humongous lake that guards most of the right side of the fairway. That’s right, over.

“And I should have hit wedge, to be honest with you,” said Ledford, who had 145 yards to the pin. He two-putted for his first birdie of the day and proceeded to birdie the four remaining par 5s. On No. 18, after a mammoth drive, he hit an 8-iron on the green.

For Ledford, who’s a member at Council Fire, the course plays like a par 67, especially when the tees are moved up, as they were on Friday.

Coley, meanwhile, used no more than a 6 iron to reach Nos. 2, 11, 13 and 18 in two, and he birdied them all.

“You see what I’m going up against [Saturday],” Corey said. “I’m going to be 30 to 40 yards behind those guys on every hole. I’ll just slop it up there. But I look forward to playing them.”

Corey does his damage the old fashioned way, which is to say he works for whatever he gets. Not happy with his swing the night before the tournament began, Corey went to the range and worked out a swing key that got him through Friday’s round. “I’ll tell you what it is if it carries over into Saturday,” Corey said.

Corey also had a little help reading the greens from Honors Course caddy master Dave Collins. “I thought I could read putts,” said Corey, for years perhaps the best putter in the city. “But he can read them better. I’d read a putt, then he’s say, ‘No, no, this is the way it is. I trusted it, and it was good.”

Corey needed just 28 putts on the day, and he finished with a flourish with one putts on three of his last four holes. The first came at the par-4 15th, where he drained a 40-foot birdie putt. “I read it totally differently, and Dave said, ‘It’s going this way.’ I just poured it in the hole.”

Corey made a 25-footer for birdie at the tough par-4 16, then reached No. 18 with a 3-wood and made a 12-foot eagle putt.

“I got lucky today,” said Corey, who made five birdies and an eagle, to go along with bogeys at No. 8 and 10.

“I was slopping it around on the practice tee Thursday night, then finally found something I could use. I tried it today and it felt pretty good.”

“I’d love to play more [tournaments],” said Coley, whose last tournament of the summer will be the Tennessee Amateur. “But unlike some guys around here, I’ve got to work. “I don’t have a membership somewhere. I’ve got to work [he works at Cleveland Golf and Country Club] and get to play that way.”

The only par-5 Coley didn’t birdie on Friday was No. 6. But he made up for that by making birdies at the par-4 5^th and 15^th holes and the par-3 fourth hole. Two other par 3s had Coley’s number; he made bogeys at No. 12 and 17.

Ledford who won two tournaments for UTC last season, has learned how to harness his great power. A humbling experience in the 2004 Chattanooga Classic was an enlightening experience for the youngster.

“I have a power game,” said Ledford, who made seven birdies against two bogeys (Nos. 7, 15). “But I’ve learned not to try and overpower a golf course. When I played in the Chattanooga Classic, I tried to overpower Black Creek, and I hit it in the worst spots. Seeing those [touring pros] position themselves on the fairway so they’d have the best angle to the pins, that helped out a lot.”