Despite not winning the regional golf title last week at Grandview, Wyoming East’s Evan Muscari remains confident that he can be a factor at the state golf tournament, which begins today at Oglebay Park in Wheeling.

“Oh yeah, I feel like I have a chance,” Muscari said Monday evening, after shooting the day’s best practice round with a 74. “They had the pins in some ridiculous spots, and I shot a 40 on the front side, which is probably the easy side. Then I came back and had a 34 on the backside. I do feel confident.”

Muscari, a junior, shot a 77 in the regional tournament, his highest 18-hole score of the year.

Oak Hill’s Nathaniel Begley shot a 71 to earn medalist honors.

“He made every putt and you have to give him credit,” Muscari said. “He didn’t miss anything until the last hole and by that time he had it wrapped up. I was three-under through six and then it kind of fell apart.”

“He lost his focus,” Wyoming east coach Robert “Doc” Warner said. “That happens. Evan only had three rounds over par the whole year. If you think about it, it’s really incredible but he works at his game.”

A third-team basketball all-stater for Wyoming East’s state championship squad, Muscari was an all-stater (Top 10) in golf as a freshman but barely missed the cut last year when he placed 11th.

“I just didn’t play well,” Muscari said. “It happens. I feel better about where my game is right now.”

And well he should.

In addition to firing Monday’s low-round during practice, Muscari had a round of 30 at Clear Fork Valley this season and also had a 32 at Twin Falls.

Muscari averaged 34 1/2 for nine holes this year, after averaging 38 1/2 last year.

“I birdied 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 at Clear Fork,” Muscari said, laughing at the odd-even occurrence. “I told my dad (Mike) about it and he told me if I had done anything on the even holes, I would have had a low round.”

Warner said that judging by regional scores, Muscari should have a legitimate title shot.

“A lot of people lost some good seniors, so other than the Begley boy from Oak Hill, we don’t know anyone,” Warner said. “He just has to go out and play the way he can.”

Begley had the best qualifying score in Class AA with his 71 at Grandview.

Other low scores from regionals around the state include Ritchie County’s Derek Myers (73) and Matt Metz (76), Ravenswood’s Joel Miller (74), Scott’s Harry Howell (73) and Chapmanville’s Zac Gresham (76).

All of those scores are just above Muscari’s 77, but then again, he is capable of going low in any given round.

“If I get in a zone, I feel like if I’m within 150 yards (from the hole), I can get it to within five feet every time,” Muscari said.

Other teams to qualify from the area include:

Class AAA: Region 3 champion Greenbrier East (Nick Dent, T.J. Knight, Logan Kaptis, Daniel Boswell and Garrett Bostic).

Class AA: Region 3 champion Oak Hill (Nathan Begley, Rob Stephens, Jeff Lilly, Daron Light and Zach Suzza) and Region 3 runner-up Shady Spring (Nick Kilgore, Adam Perry, Christian Martine, Evan Thompson and Zach Waddell).

Class A: Region 3 champion Fayetteville (region medalist Nick Carte, Tyler Hughes, James Ingles and Tylor Tabit) and runner-up Pocahontas County (Aaron Totten, Zach Chestnut, Timmy Gibb, Brandon Shoemaker and Reid Harper).

In addition to Muscari, individual qualifiers from the area include:

Class AAA: Chandler Beavers, Princeton.

Class AA: Tyler Farley, Independence; Bo Garrett and Jordan Nelson, PikeView.

Class A: Noah Sparks and Levi Sanford, Midland Trail; Garrett Miller, Richwood; Tyler Sears, Valley.

— E-mail: demorrison@

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