Palo Verde aims to keep momentum going

Before the Sunset Regional golf tournament, Palo Verde coach Jeff Wolfram said none of his players had had any great rounds during the season.

Then senior Chris Viravongsa fired a 4-under-par 68 to win the regional title.

The Panthers will need more outstanding rounds if they hope to contend for the state title. The 36-hole Class 4A state tournament begins at 8 a.m. today at Somersett Country Club in Reno. The final round is set for 8 a.m. Tuesday.

“If anybody was due, it was Chris,” Wolfram said. “He just put it together. I talked to him (Saturday), and he sounds real positive like he’s got it going. So hopefully he can put together two more rounds for us.”

The Panthers, who won the 18-hole Sunset tournament with a score of 379, will need Viravongsa and others to be at the top of their game to contend.

Northern champion Spanish Springs shot a two-day 758 to win the Northern Regional. Sunset runner-up Bishop Gorman was six shots back at the regional, a margin that could be made up over the course of a two-day tournament.

And the other three teams in the tournament — Green Valley, Coronado and Carson — were right around 400 per 18 holes during the regional tournaments.

“Spanish Springs won that Northern Region, and they lit it up,” Wolfram said. “Of the six teams, there might be four or five that could win it. It might be very, very competitive — more than we’ve seen in the past.”

Wolfram, who is taking a team to state for the sixth time in seven years, said the key to winning the tournament is avoiding a bad round.

“You’ve got to put together one really good round, and you’ve got to back it up with a pretty fair round,” Wolfram said. “You can’t have a good day and a bad day, and that’s kind of what we’ve done in the past.”

Green Valley coach Greg Murphy hopes his team’s experience will help the Gators, who won the Sunrise Regional, make a run at the title.

Green Valley’s Damian Coughlin, Joseph Harrison and Darius Estrada have state-tournament experience.

“I believe we have a great opportunity,” Murphy said. “We’ve got three kids that have had opportunities to play in the last three state championships, so I believe they have the tournament experience to go out and play their best.”

Boulder City will look to defend its crown in the Class 3A state tournament, which will be played today and Tuesday at Somersett Country Club.

The Class 2A tournament will be Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday’s round is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Genoa Lakes Golf Club in Genoa. The final round is to start at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Edgewood-Tahoe Golf Course in Stateline.