While golf fans have been paying as much as $500 for tickets to the U.S. Open, a group of 117 youngsters from the Sandhills got to watch the pros take on Pinehurst No. 2, courtesy of the Minority Golf Association of America and Kids Golf.

The young people –– the Boys and Girls Clubs of Sanford and Moore, Cumberland and Lee Counties, the Southern Pines Recreation and Parks Department and the Little Brothers and Little Sisters –– have been attending the MGAA’s eight-week Junior Golf Program, said John David, president of MGAA.

"We’re going to watch the pros doing what you have been doing for the past eight weeks — practicing for the competition," David said, addressing the kids before they invaded Pinehurst. "We’re going to make champions out of you today."

While many of the kids in the program had never golfed before, they took the MGAA’s eight-week clinic. Some, like Hasheem Chalmers of Southern Pines, have invented ways to experience golf while avoiding prohibitive greens fees.

"I lived in the projects, and we would hit golf balls behind our house, near the Armory," he said. "We would hit the tanks."

He said he took a cue from his aunt, who turned her family’s back yard into a golf course when she was young.

"My aunt used to put holes in her back yard, and they (her and her brothers) played out there all the time," he said. "She would always beat her brothers."

Established in 1991, the MGAA has established over 100 programs in 25 states and has reached more than 25,000 kids around the country through a series of ongoing clinics aimed at introducing golf to kids from multicultural backgrounds, said David, president of MGAA. Drawing on the positive image of minority golfers like Tiger Woods and Micheal Jordan, the MGAA’s programs make golf more accessible to young people, he said.

James Jackson of Southern Pines, had never golfed before the eight-week program, but said he planned to continue with the sport.

"I’ll try to keep playing golf," he said. "I don’t want to embarrass myself, though."

While an eight-week clinic may not be able to turn a novice golfer into Tiger Woods, it can spark a lifetime of interest in the sport, he said. With enough practice and a certain amount of raw talent, these young players might develop into the next crop of young pros.