CHICOPEE — Northampton senior Reilly Fowles was in the midst of a déjà vu moment as scores were finalized following the MIAA Division 1 Western Mass. tournament at Chicopee Country Club on Tuesday afternoon.

On the scoreboards outside of the clubhouse, the eight individual best scores were posted, which would automatically qualify those golfers for next week’s state tournament. The board saw five players shoot 78, one shoot 77, one a 75 and the match medalist, Westfield’s Shawn Amari, card a 74. It looked as if Fowles, who shot a 79, would miss the cut by one shot, just as his older brother, Galen, did a year ago. For the second straight season luck wasn’t going to be on the Fowles’ side.

Until it was.

Fowles didn’t feel he played well enough to earn one of the top eight spots, but as he peered at his phone to follow the new online scoring system, he saw his round of 79 was tied for eighth — just good enough to send him through. It turned out that one of the players who shot a 78, Belchertown’s Michael Murray, actually shot a 79. The scorekeepers made a mistake when writing Murray’s score on the board.

That brought Fowles and two others who shot a 79 into a tie for eighth with Murray. In turn, all four players qualified for the state tournament, which will be held at The Haven Country Club in Boylston on Monday, Oct. 21.

“I was checking the online stuff, and I was making sure that everyone who came in didn’t shoot better than 79,” Fowles said. “It looked like I was tied for eighth, which would be in for states, and I heard the names called, but not mine, and I kept checking my phone. Electronically it said 79, and on the board it said 78. I guess they just mixed up the scores.”

Regardless of the confusion, Fowles breathed a huge sigh of relief knowing he has another chance to make up for his below average — to his standards — round on Tuesday.

He feels like he was given a second life, and next week he hopes to make the most of it.

“I mean now, there’s nothing to lose, right?” Fowles said. “I’m just gonna go out there and see how low I can go. [Haven] looks like a sweet course. I’m just happy to be able to give it a whack.”

For Murray, it didn’t matter whether he shot a 78 or 79, either score would have sent him to states. But he knew he had shot a 42 on the front nine and a 37 on the back, so when the score posted on the board was a 38-40, something looked off. After all scores were up and team trophies were handed out, Murray talked to the tournament director to inform him of the mistake.

Each golfer is responsible for keeping score of another player in their group. Those tallying the scores accidentally wrote Murray’s playing partner’s score, not his.

As far as his golf game, Murray played lights out on the back nine, firing a score of 37. He struggled to keep his drive straight on the front nine, but figured it out at the turn to come home in style.

“I was keeping it in between the trees better on the back than I did the front,” Murray said. “I lost probably three shots on the front, and I was right up against a tree on two holes back-to-back. I had to take an unplayable a couple of times, so that costed me strokes. But on the back nine I played a little better.”

Similar to Fowles, Murray said he played poorly. The good news is that the scores are flushed and a new tournament begins at states, so Tuesday’s round doesn’t matter anymore.

The Belchertown junior’s goal is to advance even further, which he again would have to crack the top eight individual scorers to do so.

“The goal is to make New Englands,” Murray said. “I would like to see how it is.”

Outside of Murray and Fowles, the Orioles and Blue Devils teams didn’t have the success they did in 2023. At last year’s Western Mass. tournament, the two teams finished fourth (Belchertown) and fifth (Northampton) respectively, only one and two points out of third place. The top three teams qualify for the state tournament.

This fall, the Blue Devils edged out the Os, but for ninth place instead of a spot in the top five. Northampton turned in a team score of 342, with Fowles (79), Aiden Keeling-Lococo (83), Reed O’Connor (84) and Jack Carpenter (96) contributing. Belchertown took 10th and shot a 348 as a team. Jared Haynes (86), Brady Jolly (90) and Daniel Hulmes (93) joined Murray (79) on the score sheet.

Minnechaug (318) took first with three rounds in the 70s, East Longmeadow (322) snagged second and Longmeadow (325) earned third – each booking a trip to Haven on Monday.

Northampton head coach Bob Boulrice scraped together a team of golfers who prioritize other sports first and put forth a strong effort this season. He couldn’t be more proud with their efforts in 2024.

“We had a lot of raw material to work with, we knew it was going to be a rebuilding year, but we still achieved our goal of making it to Western Mass.,” Boulrice said. “And we’re really happy that Reilly is gonna go to states.”