I mean, really. How could I ever turn down a trip to Pinehurst? So when Golf World magazine called with the assignment to cover the U.S. Kids Golf Championship, there wasn’t any hesitation on my part. A chance to stay at The Carolina Hotel, to stroll through Pinehurst Village on a lazy summer evening, to while away half an hour with a nightcap in a rocking chair on the Carolina porch and, of no less importance, to partake of the breakfast buffet in the Carolina dining room (and you wonder why I run as much as I do?)…what better way to spend a weekend in August?

Oh, wait–you mean there’s a golf tournament going on, too?

As a freelancer who’s constantly on the road, it’s easy to look forward to the trappings of the trip. Depending on where I’m going, I have my favorite hotels, restaurants, running routes, and the like; all of these make the prospect of being away from home that much more bearable. But in looking forward to those things it’s all too easy to overlook the reason for the trip in the first place: The assignment itself. I’m not sure that’s entirely avoidable in the sports photography business. Eventually one football game starts to blend in with another, golf courses all start to look the same, the baseball game you shot yesterday feels eerily like the one you shot last weekend.

And that’s what was so great about this assignment. Sure, it was a golf tournament–but it was like no golf tournament I’ve ever covered. It was all kids, all the time, ages five through twelve, in a setting more suited to the myriad professional events I’m used to covering. There was a real disconnect–the cynic might call it a reality check–in watching a bunch of kids and their parents hugging, laughing, and running around the same putting green and warming up on the same driving range where, the last time I was here, for the 2005 U.S. Open, dozens of the worlds wealthiest and most stand-offish athletes stoically went about the business of big-time professional golf.

Now, that’s not to say it was all giggles and fun–this is still serious business, this golf thing. Everybody wants to win. And yes, there are some kids–and parents–who take it a wee bit too seriously. Emotions ran high, at both ends of the spectrum. But it was a pleasure to see kids learning the game, and the sportsmanship that is so integral to it, at such a young age, and doing it all without the arrogance and attitude that I’ve come to expect when I’m out on a golf course on a typical assignment.