Local pair knows it faces long odds

As Jordan Sheets and Joe Wiggans killed a few free moments mashing golf balls on the driving range Thursday at Dalhousie Golf Club, the talk turned to -- of all things -- hair.

Namely soccer-related hair-dos.

Wiggans, a Notre Dame senior-to-be, told Sheets he was getting ready to get the Bulldogs' traditional blond highlights in his hair, but he had to wait until after his senior picture was taken.

Sheets, heading into his senior year at Central, responded that he is preparing for a more drastic change -- a Mohawk -- but his parents told him to wait until the completion of the American Junior Golf Association's Dalhousie Junior Championship.

"I've been growing it out," Sheets said, removing his cap to show off a bushy, curly clump of hair. "It isn't going to be pretty. My girlfriend isn't happy about it. But I'm a senior now."

Sheets and Wiggans will be pushing off those initial soccer practices for a few days to compete in the second annual AJGA tournament at Dalhousie Golf Club.

And the laid-back attitude may help when standout golfers from around the country come to town this week. The Dalhousie event, named last year's tournament of the year on the AJGA tour, will have a better field with two boys among the top 140 players and another who had an AJGA tour win last year.

The AJGA tournaments are open to boys and girls ages 12 to 18 and offer a chance for exposure for college scholarships. Dalhousie will have a field of 144 golfers following this morning's 18-hole qualifying tournament. A junior-am will be played Monday, and the tourney will be Tuesday through Thursday, with the field being cut after Wednesday's second round.

Wiggans and Sheets are hoping just to make it to the final day, but they are excited to represent their hometown -- and their home golf club -- in this week's tournament, though they acknowledge the pressure that comes with others' expectations.

Wiggans and Sheets earned two of Dalhousie's exemptions for top local golfers, joining Jackson's Tanner Werner, the runner-up at the state's Class 4 tournament to cap his freshman season, and Cape Girardeau's Emily Matthews, a Missouri State-bound golfer who also played in the event last year.

Werner and Poplar Bluff's Trent Hillis, the fourth-place finisher in the state's Class 4 meet, may be the top contenders among the locals. Wiggans said Werner's and Hillis's consistency makes them tough to beat in high school competition.

"We might be able to beat them if we played it as a scramble," Sheets joked.

Sheets and Wiggans will have a home-course advantage -- and serve as the unofficial hosts. Both families are members at Dalhousie.

But they aren't kidding themselves about their chances. Wiggans said his best competitive round at Dalhousie is a 7-over-par 79, and Sheets has a goal to shoot rounds of better than 83. Last year's winning score over three days was 4-under, and the cut after the second day was 160.

"I'm not going to lie," Sheets said. "I've heard some stories about some pretty low scores, and I just don't want to get dead last.

"I know those guys are better golfers than I am, so I'm just going to go out and try to shoot for myself. Anything under 83 will be great with me. I know it won't do anything compared to the scores that will be out there, but it will be all right with me.

"I can't think about what other guys are doing or my head will probably explode from thinking about too much."

Sheets said, however, playing with top junior golfers -- watching their tempo and being in an environment with pressure on every shot -- will help him improve his game as he gears up for his senior season.

"It will take the pressure off high school matches," Sheets said. "When you play something like this with nationally ranked players, the nine-hole high school matches will be a lot more comfortable to play."

Wiggans agreed.

"I've been playing a lot of tournaments this summer, but this is pretty big," he said. "Playing this competition changes the atmosphere, and it's more stressful. Hopefully, I know the course well enough and I've been practicing enough.

"You never want to play bad, of course, you never want to shoot 90, but playing in a tournament, you just want to learn from it."

Wiggans has shot 90 before at Dalhousie, which proves a difficult challenge for area high school golfers during the spring when the Saxony Lutheran Invitational and the SEMO Conference tournament are played at the course. But he also has toured the layout -- which he plays four or five times per week -- in as few as 71 shots. That kind of play would put him in good position this week.

"When you're out by yourself, you can hit a bad shot and just walk away from it and not care," Wiggans said. "But if you get in a bad situation in a tournament, it can change your whole day and you may not recover from it."

Dalhousie can put golfers in bad situations. Wiggans said his appreciation for the course has grown since he began working summers on the maintenance crew.

"You just learn to appreciate how nice the course is and how much work they put in," he said.

"On most of the courses we play on in dual [high school] matches," Sheets added, "you can slice one or hook one and still be in another fairway, but here you have to be safe and play your odds."

A conservative approach from a guy about to get a radical haircut.