PINEHURST – Eleven-year-old Laila McNair is always on the go, usually traveling from course to course and hole to hole playing in youth golf tournaments.

However, her grandparents, Laurinburg residents, had never seen her play competitively until last weekend at the U.S. Kids Golf Foundation 2020 World Championship at Pinehurst No. 6.

“They loved it, especially my dad (Wallace McNair) being from the area,” said Dr. Rameek McNair, Laila’s father. “It was really a joy for them to see her develop into such a great golfer.”

Hundreds of boys and girls from around the world gathered at Pinehurst Resort from July 30 to Aug. 1 to compete in various age brackets, from under the ages of 6 and 7, all the way to age 12.

The Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.-native finished tied for 47th in the Girls 11 bracket, shooting a 41-over 257 during the course of three rounds.

“It was hard at times … I tried to play the course smart,” she said.

After shooting an 88 on the first day, Laila was able to climb seven spots up the leaderboard over the final two days when she shot 87 and 82.

“The first day, I think I could have done better,” she said. “But the next two days I improved a lot. I think I did pretty good.”

Laila said she first took up golf when her father took her to play once. She fell in love with the game and started playing quite a bit after that.

“It was hard to learn, but I got the hang of it and I just kept practicing,” Laila said.

Since then, she’s been steadily competing and improving her game.

“It’s been a joy to see her develop over the years as a player,” her father said. “She has great talent. There are many times you just see the signs of greatness in her play, which is pretty exciting.”

As for Laila’s golf future, her dad says she’s capable of any success that she chooses, and she definitely has the talent to go as far as she desires.

Laila is keeping things in perspective though, and isn’t looking too far into the future just yet.

“I just want to play more tournaments,” she said.

Reach Neel Madhavan at 910-817-2671 ext. 2751 or [email protected]. Follow on Twitter at @NeelMadhavan.