PERQUIMANS COUNTY, NC (WTKR)- It's that time of year again at Albemarle Plantation, when the sites and sounds of professional golf fill the air.
The GPro Tour's Albemarle Championship will tee of Thursday, which is music to the ears of the golfers competing for the top prize.
"They embrace it," golfer Hunter Fry said of the community putting on the tournament. "They're out there taking care of us, following us, watching us, cheering us on. It's not like any other event we play in all year."
But for as much as the players themselves look forward to the experience at the course, those who are dishing out the five-star service share in that excitement.
"How much do we look forward to it?," said volunteer Karen Warlitner. "We talk about it pretty much throughout the entire year."
"Its fabulous," DuWayne Wirta, another volunteer, added. "We get a lot of new people in here, a lot of the community gets out and gets involved. It just shows the character of the place."
Warlitner, who is one of the photographers for the event, and Wirta, who is running a Alzheimer's Awareness tent, are two of more than 200 volunteers who come out to help put on the tournament, almost all of whom hail from the Albemarle Plantation community. Their goal is to make the event a top-of-the-line affair.
"Managing the driving range, making sure all the balls are out there for them, making sure they're hydrated with fluids," Warlitner said of some of the volunteers' responsibilities.
"They have spotters on each of the holes so when the ball is hit, they can say whether it's inbounds, out-of-bounds," added Wirta.
That hospitality stretches far beyond the hours of tournament play. Each professional has a host family which houses him throughout the week in an effort to roll out the red carpet, while helping to keep the course in top shape as well.
"They treat us like we're their own kids," Fry remarked. "They put us up, everyone's got host housing, they feed us, they take care of us."
"The most fun you'll ever have out here is in the evening when you get with the divot team," smiled Warlitner. "We're all out there in golf carts with our little hands fixing all the divots from the entire day."
No question the Albemarle Plantation community embraces its status as host, cheering the golfers on as they try to climb the leaderboard and past the GPro Tour into the PGA ranks. But their biggest hope is that, no matter what the scorecard says, the golfers consider their experience this week a hole-in-one.
"It's fabulous because it always comes out better than what you thought it was going," Wirta said.
"We're exhausted by Saturday evening," Warlitner added. "We're done, but we are happy and that kind of soothes the sore muscles."
The Albemarle Championship tees of Thursday morning and runs through Saturday.
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