Playing golf during their free time always has been fun for local co-workers Rich Hite, Craig Hassinger, Pete Seminaroti and Parker Berry.

So when the rare opportunity came up offering them a chance to pair up with Cleveland branch manager Stephen Oh to golf and land thousands of dollars for their favorite charity, the group jumped on it.

The independent Seibert-Keck insurance agents' journey to a $50,000 grand prize that promptly was donated to Akron Children's Hospital began when they placed second at the local Chubb Charity Golf Challenge. The tournament was held June 1 at the Country Club of Cleveland and sponsored by the Chubb Insurance Co.

Because the team that took first place had gone to the national championship the past two years, rules were in place to send the second-place team instead. Thus, the Seibert-Keck agents and Oh advanced to the national competition in Beaver Creek, Colo., Sept. 21-23.

''Although we backed into the national tournament, we knew that no matter what, we'd come back with something for Children's,'' said Hite. ''And that was inspiring, knowing that we could give back to a hospital that had touched all our lives either directly or indirectly through the many people we all know.''

The national stage consisted of playing two beautiful courses near Vail, Colo., where Hite (Silver Lake), Hassinger (Wadsworth), Seminaroti (Fairlawn), Berry (Bath) and Oh (Richfield) finished tied for first place at 14 under par after the first day of competition.

''After the first day finishing tied for first, we started to really feel the pressure,'' Hite said. ''It's funny, because we're not even getting the money for ourselves, but we were getting pretty nervous.''

Teams were kept from knowing other groups' scores. They were left to gauge where each other stood via snippets of conversation they could pick up on the course.

''We knew we'd done well because the second day we finished 12 under,'' Hite said. ''But we still didn't know for sure how well everyone else did, and we'd heard that one team went 17 under for the day.''

Winners were announced in descending order at the event's dinner.

''We kept looking at each other nervously as they announced the fifth-, fourth- and third-place finishers,'' Hite said. ''Finally, when we heard the Atlanta team won third, we knew we had won it because the only other team left was from Cincinnati, and they'd gone 12 under each day.''

Hite said the group never talked about whether they wanted their winnings to go to a specific department at Children's, trusting the hospital to designate the money where it's most needed.

''Seibert-Keck has supported Akron Children's Hospital for many years, and we really appreciate and value our partnership,'' said Bill Considine, CEO and president of Akron Children's Hospital. ''This time they really scored a hole-in-one for us.''

Hite, Hassinger, Seminaroti, Berry and Oh hope to do it again next year.

''We want to be the next team that can't go three years in a row,'' Hite said.