McLaurin enjoys drawing attention on the course

Jordan McLaurin likes to draw attention to himself on the golf course.

On Tuesday, for the first round of the AJGA Dalhousie Junior Championship, the Ironton resident wore bright blue pants.

On Wednesday, it was a black shirt and bright yellow pants that represented his school colors at Arcadia Valley.

Today?

"We've got a purple shirt coming," he said. "I'm all out of pants. It was getting real hot today."

But McLaurin also will be noticed today for his place in the field. He carded a 5-under-par 67 on Wednesday that put him in a first-place tie and the final group for today's conclusion at Dalhousie Golf Club.

"I hit the irons really well," McLaurin said. "I finally got off the tee well, and I stuck some wedges in there where I didn't have to really worry about the putts."

McLaurin, who became the only player to shoot under par on both days of the tournament, opened with two birdies in his first five holes. Following his birdie on No. 10 to get to 3-under par, the Missouri State-bound golfer was confident of posting a good score.

"I knew I had two reachable par-5s coming in and I knew it could be a pretty good round," he said.

He lost a stroke on the par-3 13th — "The pin was right next to those big pot bunkers and that scared me," he said — but did get the birdies on the par 5s, Nos. 15 and 18, and added another on 16.

"There were a couple of tough pins," McLaurin said. "You really had to manage where you wanted to go at a pin.

"I've been playing well and hitting the ball well, just not scoring well this summer. I've been compounding my mistakes and not finishing well."

Even after his round of 70 on Tuesday, he looked at a leaderboard that included a lot of low scores, including Dustin Korte's opening 64.

"That was a great round of golf," McLaurin said. "I was even surprised with the 67 [by Marshall Talkington]. I knew Dalhousie and their reputation, they would come out with a tough course today after seeing that 64.

"I knew it was going to be tough out there today. I was just hoping to shoot somewhere around 70, and I hit the wedges really well today."

McLaurin also saved himself on the difficult par-4 17th with an up-and-down from the right side.

"It was a little harder par than I wanted, but it was a good par," McLaurin said.

McLaurin, who has played Dalhousie "10 or 15 times," appreciates the course's difficult greens probably more than most players.

"Even with all that play in the morning and afternoon, the greens are still rolling pure," McLaurin said. "It's kind of hard out here when you've got that 10-foot putt to be aggressive when the greens are rolling a 12 or 13 [on the Stimp meter], because once you get aggressive with it and you happen to miss it, you've got a 4-foot comeback downhill, and it's tough.

"You've just got to manage where you hit the ball on the second shot placement on the greens."

But enough about golf.

McLaurin has decided to close his junior golf career with a bang. The black and yellow he donned Wednesday is something he wore often during his high school career, which included top-four finishes in the Class 2 state tournament all four years. He tied for medalist honors as a junior and was second this past spring.

"He couldn't talk anyone else on the team into being brave enough to put those on," his mother, Pam, said of the yellow pants. "This is his last junior tournament and he wanted to dress as loud as possible."

He liked the attention for his wardrobe.

"You definitely get some looks out on the course," McLaurin said, "which I enjoy sometimes."

It works out even better when you're playing well.