Two years ago Barrett Josey won the Spartanburg County Junior championship. After the first round of the Spartanburg County Men’s Amateur he could be on his way to winning a bigger county title.

The soon to be freshman golfer at USC Upstate got off to a hot start in his first round at Woodfin Ridge.

He went 4-under par on three holes carding a birdie on number 3, an eagle on number 4 and another birdie on the fifth hole.

The former Byrnes High School golfer bogeyed his 10th hole, but got a stroke back on number 17 and parred out to take the lead away from early finisher Trevor Phillips, the 2018 county champion.

Phillips, who recently graduated from Georgia, had six birdies and three bogeys in his round, but his par save from the water on 18 gave him the lead at the time.

Alan Stepp and Craig Parris also finished at 3-under par to tie with Phillips in second place.

William Brooks at 2-under par and Tyler Jones at 1-under par were the only other golfers to go under par in the first round.

Defending champion Kevin Roberts is in a group of 7-golfers tied for 11th place at 1-over par.

Three other past champions are in the field, but back in the pack. Robbie Biershenk, Tyler Macolly and Bobby Newman have some ground to make up in the second and third round to move into contention.

The county championship also features a Tournament Division.

Stephen Boucher has a 4-shot lead over 3-golfers after the first round in the division.

James Mikutowicz, Kevin Moore and Ric Oyervides are in a 3-way tie for second place.

The field will begin play in the second round at 7:30 am on Saturday with Josey teeing off last at 2 pm.

The Spartanburg County Amateur is presented by First Tee Upstate and is sponsored by Delaney’s Irish pub, R.J. Rockers and Budweiser of Spartanburg.

Complete scoring is available at https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/7237349147664239111