Tyler Samaan couldn’t miss a golf shot, even when he thought he did.

As the Burlington Central senior followed through on his third shot to the par-5 18th green from 117 yards out Wednesday at Pinecrest Golf Club in Huntley, he released his club in disgust.

Much to Samaan’s surprise, the ball landed three feet from the cup, setting up his ninth birdie putt, which he rolled in for a winning 6-under-par 66 in the Class 3A Huntley Regional.

Mind you, Samaan never played golf until the summer going into his freshman year, which explains why he played on the JV team that fall.

His score Wednesday was six shots better than runner-up and teammate Matthew Zierk.

“I couldn’t really see the ball because of the sun, so I thought it went a little right,” Samaan said with a sheepish grin of his knockdown gap wedge on No. 18. “But I looked up and saw it was pretty close to the hole. It was a little embarrassing.”

So much for the idea that bumping up from Class 2A would have Central’s golfers shaking in their soft spikes.

Led by what Samaan called his best tournament score, Central won the regional with a 296, seven strokes better than Huntley (303), which finished second ahead of Hampshire (321), as all three teams advanced to the Buffalo Grove Sectional on Monday, Oct. 6 at Buffalo Grove Golf Club.

Jacobs (329), which advanced five individuals, finished fourth, with South Elgin (340), Dundee-Crown (381), Elgin (419) and Streamwood (426) rounding out the field.

Central finished third in Class 2A last year and has been to state the past two falls.

“Definitely the competition’s a little higher in [Class] 3A,” Samaan said. “Sectionals on Monday will be a lot more challenging. We got to shoot a little bit lower to make the cut for state, but I’m excited, and I’m pretty confident in on our team.”

Rest assured, the Rockets will be ready. They also counted junior Tommy Wyse’s 76 and junior Colin Gritzman’s 82 at Pinecrest. Central sophomore Evan Sarallo and senior Devin Hughes shot an 83 and 84, respectively, on a day with temperatures in the mid-70s and about a 15-mph wind.

“[Moving up to Class 3A] has been a discussion [with the team] because obviously it’s going to be a lot tougher with bigger schools, more competition,” the junior Zierk said after shooting an even-par 72. “But I think we’ll be fine if we play up to our potential.”

Samaan, who finished 11th in Class 2A last year, had five birdies on the front nine, including three in a row on hole Nos. 3, 4 and 5. He also birdied the ninth hole, with a bogey on No. 7.

He started the back nine with a bogey on No. 10 but rolled in birdie putts on Nos. 12, 13, 14 and 16, before carding a bogey on the par-4 17th.

“I just stuck to my process today,“ Samaan said. ”My wedges were amazing, got up and down from a lot of places. Anywhere inside 100 yards I really got up and down, which helped me make a lot of my birdies. I rolled a lot of good putts today."

He did so despite putting on greens that were recently aerated.

“It was a struggle for some of the kids,” Samaan said. “Our putts were zig-zagging all day, but I picked up on that and adjusted a little bit.”

That’s what Huntley senior Gray Birkmeier did as well. Birkmeier shot a season-best 73, one shot better than senior teammate Jack Policheri (74). Senior Austin Matich (77, tie for seventh) and senior Nick Mamrot (79, tie for ninth) rounded out the Red Raiders’ scoring.

“It got better as I went along,” Birkmeier said of his putting. “I just kept working at it.”

Birkmeier carded birdies on Nos. 4, 6 and 9 for a 3-under 33 on the front nine, before bogeying four of his first five holes on the back nine en route to a 40.

“Everything [was good], my drives, putting,” Birkmeier said.

Zierk had a mixed-bag front nine, carding three birdies and two bogeys. He finished with a bogey on No. 18.

“My approach shots were really solid today,” Zierk said. “I hit a lot of greens, which really helped me get the putts rolling.”

He, too, learned to navigate the aerated greens.

“One-hundred percent, it was really tough to putt,” Zierk said. “You didn’t really know where the ball was going to bounce, which direction, but we made it work.”

Hampshire was led by matching 79s from senior Nolan Adamczyk and sophomore Will Harkin. The Whip-Purs also counted senior Riley Kagel’s 81 and senior Jason Horton’s 82.

Advancing to the Buffalo Grove sectional for Jacobs were sophomore Logan Henning (77), freshman Brayden Grummer (82), junior Michael Weel (84), freshman Andrew Karczewski and freshman Trevor Hudson (93).

South Elgin advanced senior Rocco Peters (76), sophomore Drake Shah (82), junior Zac Cahill (88) and sophomore Andrew Moore (94).

Dundee-Crown sophomore Trace Moldenhauer (92) also advanced.