CONWAY SENIOR BOWS UP FOR TITLE

CONWAY -- Casey Ott entered her round facing a seven-shot deficit and wearing a massive, white bow in her hair. By the end of her day, the Conway senior had the Class 7A medalist honors all wrapped up. Ott fired a bogey-free, 5-under-par 67 as she overtook Fort Smith Southside's Sydney Staton for the individual title at Centennial Valley Country Club, winning the state tournament by four strokes. "At the beginning, I just told myself to go have fun," said Ott, who finished the two-day event with an even-par 144. "This was probably going to be my last time to play this course in competition, so I decided to have fun and play loose. I knew at the beginning that if I could get her on the ropes a little bit I'd have a chance." Staton's 78 on Wednesday gave her a 148. Bentonville's Lilly Thomas finished third with a 158. Bentonville earned the team championship with a two-day total of 505. Conway was the runner-up with a 515. Southside's Xinyi Qiu turned in the shot of the day, hitting a hole in one on No. 4, a 119-yard par 3. Ott lost five strokes to Staton on the final seven holes of Tuesday's first round, finishing with a 5-over 77 on the 5,384-yard layout. She said she approached Wednesday's play with a completely different attitude. "I felt [pressure] a lot yesterday," Ott said. "Everybody after the round yesterday just said, 'calm down, go have fun tomorrow, don't worry about it.' Today was a much different vibe and feel for me." Ott erased her seven-shot deficiency in the first seven holes, making birdies on No. 2 and 7 while Staton suffered three bogeys and a double bogey on the first four holes. Thanks to a birdie on No. 9 -- a 484-yard, par 5 -- Ott was in the lead for good. "Today I started off bad. Yesterday my start was amazing," said Staton, a senior who will play golf at Arkansas Tech in Russellville next fall. "I was a little nervous and I came back a little on the final nine holes, but there's not much you can do when Casey shoots a 67." Staton dropped five strokes to Ott on the first three holes. While Ott picked up the first of five birdies on the 125-yard, par-3 No. 2, Staton missed her par putt. On the 322-yard, par-4 No. 3, Staton hit into the front-side bunker and took her two shots to get out. Ott parred the hole to close to within two shots of the lead. "I would never wish bad on her. I love Sydney," Ott said. "We're good friends. I wanted her to do her best and me to do my best, but obviously she had an off day and I had a good day. It worked out in my favor. When she hit that shot, I knew it would be tough for her to get out of that bunker. We had a four-shot swing on back-to-back holes. I knew that was in her head and it was in my head. The momentum changed." After losing another shot with a bogey on No. 4, Staton made five consecutive pars, birdied No. 10, then made four pars in a row to stay within striking distance. Ott, however, used a pitching wedge off the 14th tee, striking her drive 115 yards to within a foot of the pin. It was the shot that all but sent her on to victory. "It was one of those shots where I knew it was going to be good," said Ott, who tapped in the birdie for a two-stroke advantage. If the birdie on 14 didn't clinch it for Ott, Staton's double bogey on No 15, a 400-yard par 5, did. "My back nine was fine, it was just my first four holes that butchered me," Staton said. Ott collected three of her birdies on the course's par-5 holes. She also birdied two of the four par-3s. She parred all 10 of the par24 holes. As a way to loosen herself up, Ott sported an oversized bow. She said the decoration started as a gag, but wound up being a good-luck charm. "It was a joke," Ott said. "But I think it looks good. I'm not one to make grand gestures, but when I walked in this morning wearing it my team said I had to wear it on the course. I wore it and good things happened."

CONWAY SENIOR BOWS UP FOR TITLE

Photo Credit: Thomas Metthe

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