I was not on an expedition to find another reminder that I am not as young as I once was, but I stumbled upon one on Monday, doing so in hostile territory.

I was doing volunteer work in Durham, and as much as I would like to say I was feeding the homeless, donating blood or picking up litter, I actually was a scorer at the Rod Myers Invitational at Duke University Golf Course, a tournament that honors the former and legendary coach of the Blue Devils’ golf team. But I did volunteer.

There were carrots: For my effort, I was promised a box lunch, which was consumed as that day’s first bite about 2:30 p.m., a golf shirt that I feared would have a Duke logo, which I did not get because they ran out of my size, and a certificate that has yet to be redeemed to play the Robert Trent Jones Sr. layout. You just figured out the real reason for my act of charity.

I went around my elbow to get to Durham, strategically dodging Interstates 95 and 40, and arrived on time at 9:15 a.m. I was immediately given instructions by Mike Sobb, associate athletic director for Duke University, who blew up my pre-conceived notion and could not have been nicer.

My job was to drive a golf cart with a cooler stocked with bottled water, Gatorade, but no Bud Light, prompting a suggestion for next time, birddog my group of three players, and record the scores of each player to be immediately uploaded to golfstat.com for real-time scoring.

Sounds easy enough except the process involved an app and a 67-year-old, me. It turned out that any idiot could do it, and I am Exhibit A.

I met my group on No. 10, two UNC-Wilmington golfers, Cooper Burris from Kannapolis and Mauricio Tello from Lima, Peru, and N.C. State’s Hunter Stetson, from Philadelphia. All were freshmen and as I would realize over the next five hours, nice young men and exceptional golfers.

I would soon suspend if only temporarily a self-imposed edict when I cheered for an athlete with a Wolfpack logo on his shirt.

They all clobbered their tee shots on No. 10, a long and difficult par 4 that was playing longer because the 7,154-yard course was saturated, leaving short irons for second shots, and would play the hole collectively in 1 under par. That sentence explains my opening paragraph.

Things were rolling along nicely until No. 11, the day’s second hole. I realized I could not find my Droid, prompting a two-minute panic during which I kept silently scolding myself with the admonition, “Donnie, you only had one job.”

Turns out the cell phone had been jettisoned when I made a sharp turn while hunting for Cooper’s tee shot, which I found. He reciprocated by finding my Droid, so we called it even. I then developed a system on where to place my clipboard and cell phone after recording each hole’s scores and it served me well for the remainder of the round.

N.C. State won the 11-team tournament, finishing an incredible 22-under-par, clear of host Duke by 10 shots. All my guys were playing as individuals, and Hunter recorded a 1-under-par 71, Mauricio a 2-over-par 74 and Cooper a 9-over-par 81.

Afterward, I approached the diminutive Mauricio – the No. 2 amateur in the South American country — and was curious about his size and weight, which he gave me in broken English in centimeters and kilograms. With the help of a calculator, I have him at 5 feet, 8 inches, and about 137 pounds. Yet he can carry it 280.

It was a fun day, and before I left, I told Sobb I would love to be considered for any future tournaments. Given my perfect score on keeping score, I am optimistic.

I encourage you to do some volunteer work in your community. It might not come with a free round of golf at Duke University Golf Course, a sandwich, and a failed promise of a golf shirt, but you will feel better for having done it.