The 20th annual Price Cutter Charity Championship is underway out at Highland Springs.

The event is part of the Nationwide Tour, where more than 150 golfers from the U.S., Mexico, and Canada vie for the chance to move up to the PGA Tour.

It is a high-pressure, nomadic lifestyle of suitcases and hotels, but here in Springfield may of the pro golfers get a little taste of Ozarks hospitality from caring and sharing families.

Chris Ball has opened his house..and his grill..to total strangers this week. And they couldn't be more appreciative.

"This is great," said Tatum Gardiner, the 9 year-old daughter of pro golfer Scott Gardiner, who along with one-year-old Kai and wife Kristin make-up the much-traveled Nationwide Tour family.

Each year Price Cutter tournament officials enlist area residents to keep pro golfers at their homes. Chris and his wife, Susan, plus daughters Elle, 10, and Lindsey, 5, are more than happy to share their home with folks they've never met before.

"You'd think it would be awkward, but it's not," said Chris. "We had a guy here from Utah who I took to a Springfield Cardinals game and then he came back to the house and played Tiger Woods Wii video game until two in the morning."

Maybe it's Tatum's entertaining sprinkler dance or Kai trying on pottery hats that breaks the ice. Or maybe it's the Ball's lovely country setting that includes a playhouse for the children as well as horses and dogs. That's something the Gardiner's can't even experience back at their own home.

"It would be very neglected if it were an animal at our house," explains Kristin. "We'd never be home to feed it."

And that's why for a family that's constantly on a roadtrip, a quite night in the Ozarks countryside beats a hotel any day.

"This is my dream," Tatum said. "To live in this kind of house."

And it's a win-win situation for both families. The visitors get valuable insights-"They know all about the local attractions," Kristin said.

And the hosts get those insights as well. "I always him 'em up for a few golf tips," Chris adds with a smile.

And it certainly makes the gypsy lifestyle a lot easier.

"It's pretty hectic pushing strollers through airports and getting them back and finding out they've been damaged," Scott said. "But on the other hand you get to meet great people like Chris and Susan."