Cooper, Misemer take home Kansas City Junior Championship golf titles at Swope Memorial

Davis Cooper and Julia Misemer claimed Kansas City Junior Championship titles this week after two days of competition at Swope Memorial Golf Course.

In the boys division, Cooper held the overnight lead and maintained it with a final-round 70 to finish at 8-under. Chance Rinkol and Ryan Lee shared runner-up honors at 3-under.

Cooper, a Blue Valley North golfer who has committed to the University of Kansas, won the 2019 Kenneth Smith Award as the top high school golfer in the KC Metro.

“I played well in basically every part of the game this week,” Cooper said. “Yesterday (Monday) I started hot and made some putts and carried that over into today (Tuesday), where I was making more mid-range putts. … It made it feel pretty easy, for the most part.”

Misemer, a Kansas state champion from Blue Valley West, put on a show in the girls division to defend her KC Junior championship from 2019. She, too, was the leader heading into the final round, shooting a 69 to close out the tourney at 5-under.

Faith Hedges and Audrey Rischer tied for second at 8-over.

“I three-putted the first two holes in the first round,” said Misemer, who will be a junior at BV West this fall, “so I was kind of down, but then I thought, ‘Let’s just come back and have a good round,’ and then I ended up coming back ...

“My putting kind of saved me in the end.”

This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 4:35 PM.