I play on a team with the Orange County Special Olympics. Our coordinator is Colleen Lanigan.

I was selected to go to the national invitational tournament in Lincoln, Neb., July 31-Aug. 3. It was a good time.

There was also a softball tournament that was going on. 35 athletes came from all over North Carolina to play.

We went from RDU to Chicago, then from Chicago to Omaha, Neb. Then we took a bus to the dorm at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

It was fun in the airplane. We rode with the softball teams and the other golfers and other caddies.

They treated us well at our dorms. There were very big rooms. Me and my dad stayed together. It was very nice and we saw the campus and football fields from the room.

We were all dressed up at the opening banquet and the dance. We had a great time. The food was good and we ate a lot.

I played golf on Saturday Sunday and Monday. I played 9 holes each day and I was a little tired. I played independently and my dad was the caddy. The Mahoney golf course was good. It had a lot of sand and trees. It was hard golf course. The weather was very hot.

The people in Lincoln were good to us. They had a lot of volunteers and lots of golf coaches and caddies. They have lots of emergency people, which was good for us. I was at the emergency tent and they gave me some band-aids for my thumb. There were 165 golfers playing each day. They came from across the United States. I met lots of nice people.

I played in a group with Erica Walderman from Wayne County, North Carolina. She is a very good golfer and won a gold medal.

They gave us some lunch at the golf course.

I was playing with guys from the Wisconsin Special Olympics, and we had lots of fun at the competition sites.

I was the only golfer from Orange county Special Olympics. My dad was carrying my golf clubs. I had good scores and won the silver medal for my division.

After golf, we saw our North Carolina softball team play. They had a very exciting game that went into extra innings. They did their best and won a medal too.

At the closing banquet they showed us a video of our competition. I liked it so much. There were pictures of me playing golf.

I was proud to be a member of Orange County Special Olympics golf team. It was very fun. Our regular season began in September.

Big thanks to the staff that put the event together.

It was very hard to come home from the trip