Billy Andrade hugs Nicole Castrale after her round yesterday. Castrale and partner Laura Diaz finished with an 8-under 63.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

BARRINGTON –– Billy Andrade remembers the day the light bulb went on for him. It came after he got the opportunity to caddie for Fuzzy Zoeller the year he won The Masters in 1979.

“The way he handled people and how great he was, for me it was like, ‘I want to be like that guy,’ ” said Andrade, as he was preparing to tee off at yesterday’s CVS Caremark Charity Classic at Rhode Island Country Club.

Brad Faxon, cohost of the tournament with Andrade, remembers being 12 and watching Dana Quigley come back to Rhode Island Country Club while he was on the PGA Tour and thinking, ‘If Dana can do it, maybe somebody else can do it, too.’ ”

“I don’t know what it is, at what age it is,” Andrade said. “Somebody just sparks something in you and that’s what you want to do.”

Creating similar “light bulb” moments is exactly the mission of the Button Hole Short Course & Teaching Center, one of the hundreds of organizations throughout New England that have benefited from the more than $10 million raised over the last 10 years through the CVS Caremark Charity Classic.

Nearly 2,000 children participated last year in the various in-school, afterschool and summer programs offered by Button Hole, a nonprofit initiative described by executive director David Hanna as a 26-acre “green oasis in the urban center.”

“It’s become a great resource to inner-city kids,” he said of the 9-hole, par-3 golf course on the Providence-Johnston line. “All kids are welcome, but we focus on the inner-city kids and give them a chance. We eliminate the financial barriers to the game. It’s been a great mission. I’ve never been so passionate about anything in my life.”

The first step, says Hanna, is showing children there is a place for them in the sport.

“They think it’s for rich people, and they know their family isn’t rich,” he said. “So we’re going into the schools and introducing it and teaching the game, and we’re telling them, ‘You’re invited.’ We introduce them to the game, teach them the fundamentals, how to grip the golf club, how to swing it. And if they like the sensation of hitting the ball with a club at a target and want to continue, then he or she knows that Button Hole is there and the game is there for him or her to learn and play.”

And it’s there at an extremely affordable price at that.

“Once they successfully complete our ‘beginner one’ program, which is nine hours of instruction, they can play the golf course or hit balls in the range for $1 as often as they want until they reach their 18th birthday,” Hanna said. “And if they don’t have a dollar, we’ll give them a little job to do so they get the sense of earning it, and then they can go play.”

And those who decide that golf isn’t for them, Hanna points out, still walk away having learned some important lessons about character, discipline and etiquette that will benefit the kids in whatever else they pursue.

“The golf is secondary,” said Andrade, Button Hole’s honorary co-chair with Faxon. “It’s about having a great place to build their space in a great environment. It’s just a fantastic model.”

For information about Button Hole, log on to http://www.buttonhole.org

cthorn@projo.com