Despite the attention generated this week by 13-year-old phenom Austin Cody, the galleries at the Herald-Sun Golf Classic aren't as large they used to be. 

But count Pete Hayes, the golf coach at N.C. Central, as a person who will show up every day, every year. 

Hayes is a fan, but something else brings him out to Hillandale Golf Course on a regular basis. 

"I'm looking for golfers," he said, pulling out a sheet of paper with the names and ages of several of the tournament's players on it. "Most of these younger guys, I'm just going around evaluating them. Guys who will be coming to school, guys who I might be lucky enough to get one or two of them. That's what I'm out here for." 

Hayes knows well the lay of the land at Hillandale. He was born in Durham in 1933 and began caddying at Hillandale and Hope Valley Country Club when he was 10 years old. He toted a bag around the course for 80 cents a day, and on Mondays, he and his fellow caddies were allowed to play. 

As a caddie, Hayes benefited from lessons other players received from club pros. 

"All of those lessons that the pros were teaching, I'm standing around listening and picking up on it," Hayes said. "Indirectly, we got lessons. I just remembered what they said, and I've been playing golf a long time." 

Now, Hayes spends his time searching for other people to play golf. He ambles around Hillandale using a putter as a walking stick, proudly displaying the NCCU logo on his golf shirt. 

He shakes hands with longtime friends and strangers alike. "How you doing?" he says, greeting people as he encounters them. 

Hayes sees no other coaches looking for talent at the tournament, and that's fine with him. He knows he can't offer much in terms of financial support, but he has developed a recruiting strategy that has helped the Eagles rise from the bottom of the CIAA to second place this year. 

"We don't have a whole lot of money, so a lot of times I try to find guys with academic backgrounds so they can get academic scholarships. All of my boys now have 3.5 [GPAs] or better," Hayes said proudly. 

Hayes calls them boys, but many of his players are full-grown men. Steve Wright, who played in the Championship Flight at the Classic this week, is a 42-year-old with a wife and children. 

Where did Hayes, the CIAA coach of the year, discover Wright? Hillandale, of course. The work ethic that Hayes displays while looking for players is one of many qualities that helped him get the job as NCCU golf coach when the school reinstituted the program in the late 1990s. 

Hayes runs a clean program despite having few rules. He prohibits his players from using profanity, and he requires them to go to class. Outside of that, he lets them be individuals. 

"I don't have bed check on the road," Hayes said. "I go to bed and go to my room, and they'll knock on my door and say, 'Coach, everybody's in.' Steve and them, they take care of that for me. 

"The photographers and the sports writers ask me everywhere we go how I handle these older guys. I say, 'The same way you handle the younger ones.' You set your rules and your regulations, and they go by them. It doesn't make a difference between young and old." 

Hayes can identify with all of his players because he has walked in their shoes. He is a 1960 graduate of NCCU, and he earned a spot in the school's football hall of fame as a halfback, wide receiver and kicker. Before he attended NCCU, Hayes served in the Air Force after he graduated from Hillside High. 

He was an all-conference boxer and golfer in the Air Force, and he also played baseball. Hayes later played second base in the Baltimore Orioles organization -- "I played with Boog Powell and those guys in the rookie league," he said -- and he tried out for the American Football League's Boston Patriots. 

Hayes returned to Durham after his foray into pro sports, and he settled down with his wife, Dorcas. They grew up on the same street two houses away from each other and got together when Hayes arrived at NCCU after his Air Force stint. They married in 1960, and Hayes soon began a career as a teacher. 

Hayes taught at what now is Webb High School before taking a job with the Durham Parks and Recreation Department. There, he was in charge of facilities and ran summer camps. 

Along the way, he also became a highly respected game official. Hayes was a longtime referee for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, and he also officiated college games for the CIAA and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. 

On a personal note, he helped raise four children -- three girls and one boy. Hayes' wife died in 1991. 

"So I just live by myself now," he said. "I've got kids, but they're gone. 

"I'm the lone ranger now," he added, smiling. 

With all of his friends and the athletes he coaches, Hayes is hardly alone. But he walks around Hillandale looking to add to his collection of friends and acquaintances. He sees plenty of golf balls miss the fairway, but what keeps him going is the pursuit of a diamond in the rough. 

"See, a lot of these guys, like Cody and those guys, we can't get," Hayes said of the 13-year-old from North Charleston, S.C., who reached the semifinals of the Championship Flight. "I know I can't get them because they're going to Division I schools. But I just put my word in in case they go away to school and they don't like it. When they come back home, they'll remember that I'm still here." 

And come time for the Herald-Sun Golf Classic, they'll know exactly where to find him.