Conner Caprara, Natalie Javadi win top honors

Friday, January 1, 1904

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Conner Caprara could have been sitting in a classroom at Cleveland High School on Thursday morning.

Instead, he enjoyed the beauty of The Honors Course and won 5 and 3 over Carson Griffin in the boys' 16-18 final of the CDGA Junior Classic.

"It's 100 times better being out here instead of in class," Caprara said. "This is actually my first tournament win this year."

Caprara, who had not played the Honors before Wednesday, relied heavily on friend and regular Honors caddie Cody Godfrey, who won the Chattanooga Men's Metro last month.

"He helped a ton," Caprara said. "He would give me a line, and even though it didn't look good to me, I trusted him and it turned out well. And there are putts out here where I thought it was left edge and he said it's moving the other way."

Most of the final 10 participants in the Junior Classic have begun their school seasons. But Heritage High golfer Sport Allmond will have to wait until the spring for another tournament.

"I'm OK with ending my season with this flag," said Allmond, who beat Lake Johnson 3 and 2 in the boys' 14-15 age division. "A little bit of everything was working. I was hitting it well and making some putts. This is my third time out here, so I knew how things would work."

Tyson Venable won the boys' 12-13 age group 5 and 4 over Justin Hickman.

Kaitlyn Sneed won the girls' 12-14 title with a 5 and 4 defeat of Mary Melissa Manual. Natalie Javadi won the girls' 15-18 final 4 and 3 over Rachel Rebne.

"I played well today and I was hitting it far, and that helped," Javadi said. "It's really good to end the summer season with a championship. I was happy that I played well today, and that's what I really wanted to do."