WILLIAMSBURG -- Karen Stupples knows a thing or two about multi-tasking.

Stupples is a professional golfer. She is also a mother -- one of 29 with LPGA playing privileges for 2008. She is passionate about both careers. Golf? She is a two-time winner in nine seasons on the LPGA tour. Motherhood? She would rather three-putt from 10 feet on Sunday than endure extended separation from her year-old son, Logan.

"I can't imagine not being with him" at the beginning and end of every day, Stupples said. "If I had to, I'd move heaven and Earth to make sure we were together."

Who can blame her? Stupples, like most new mothers, is as dependent on her child as he is on her.

"Even at the end of a dreadful day on the course, it's wonderful to think about what's going to happen when I walk through that door," Stupples said. "He's going to stop whatever he's doing and rush over to see me. No matter how cruddy I feel, one look at him, smiling ear-to-ear and reaching up to hug me, and I melt. Believe me: I just melt."

The LPGA's infant development center, the first of its kind in professional sports, enables Stupples and husband/caddie Bobby Inman to transform their respective careers into, literally, a family affair. In essence, the center, sponsored by Smuckers, provides a daycare and preschool environment for players' children. Youngsters are accepted as young as 10 weeks and typically remain until they are 9 or 10.

"The players love it," said Mindy Moore, the LPGA's senior vice president of professional development. "For a lot of them, it's a lifesaver. We don't want them to have to make a choice: Do I continue my career? Or do I stop playing and raise my kids?"

The center most often inhabits churches or schools -- both of which are likely to offer playgrounds -- near the tournament site. A staff of four child-development specialists travels with the tour. And while the venue is different each week, its accessories are not. Rugs, tables, chairs, books and toys are loaded into a panel truck at tournament's end and rushed to the next location. Thus, youngsters encounter the comfort that accompanies familiarity whether mom is playing in Broken Arrow, Okla., or Williamsburg.

Not everyone chooses to introduce their young children to this migratory lifestyle. Former U.S. Open champion Hilary Lunke has played only once since her daughter, Greta, was born last fall. And Hee-won Han is playing in the U.S. while her infant son, Dale, remains in Korea with relatives.

Han said she and her husband felt that "Dale is too young to travel and we wanted to have him to stay in one place so he can adjust." She said she uses technology to ease the pain of separation.

"Of course we talk a lot over the phone. I talk so Dale can hear my voice and I can hear Dale's response back to me. And we send a lot of photos through Internet. And we do a lot of chatting through webcam."

None of which is acceptable to Stupples.

"I don't want to miss a thing," she said. "I hate the thought of missing even a minute. Every stage [of Logan's development] is so special. I keep thinking, 'Oh, well -- the next stage can't possibly be any better or any cuter than this one.' And then it is."