This month’s issue of CGA Monthly features one of the most amazing stories in golf—The Chick Evans Caddie Scholarship. As an Evans Scholar alumnus, I acknowledge a strong bias, but setting that aside, let’s put this in perspective.
The Evans Scholarship was founded in 1930 with the first two Evans Scholars attending Northwestern University in Chicago. At that time, the cost of tuition and housing was less than $1,000. Today, the annual costs at Northwestern are over $100,000.
But that is only half of the story. Since 1930, the Evans Scholarship has grown from 2 to 1,260 scholars at 27 universities across the U.S. Here in Colorado, 60 young men and women attend the University of Colorado, Boulder, on full tuition and housing grants funded by the Western Golf Association (WGA). I am proud to be one of 540 caddies to graduate from C.U. thanks to the Evans Scholarship. Nationally, there are now over 12,000 Evans Scholar alumni.
What started as a small gesture for a couple of caddies has become a national scholarship program with an annual operating budget of $37 million! That’s a lot of tip money!
It is easy for me to take all of this for granted. I started caddying at Denver Country Club in the early 1980s when the Evans Scholarship was well established. While the program has nearly doubled in size since, it was well known in golf circles. As the CGA has expanded its recruiting efforts to reach families outside the golf community, word that a full scholarship to the University of Colorado can be earned by caddying sounds too good to be true.
Seeing the Evans Scholarship through the eyes of those unfamiliar with golf has given me a much greater appreciation for the uniqueness of this life-changing program. It is remarkable that a scholarship of this magnitude could exist for such a narrow segment of college-bound students. But when you think about it, if any sport were to spawn such a scholarship, it would be golf.
Golf brings together people of all ages. It truly is a game of a lifetime. When older adults have the opportunity to spend quality time with young people, there is a natural inclination to help. There are few things adults like to see more than a hardworking young person striving to improve their circumstances. What better way to put these skills on display than through caddying?
When you break it down, here are some of the things caddies learn:
The satisfaction of a job well done.
The ability to talk to adults.
Service to others.
Being outdoors and experiencing fresh air and exercise.
Engagement with people rather than a screen.
Seeing what we all have in common rather than what divides us.
Being a part of a team with the support of other young people.
Being surrounded by successful adults who want to help and encourage, but who don’t coddle and reward mediocrity.
And when you add a full scholarship, you’ve got a powerful combination that leads to success. As I like to say, the job of caddying doesn’t solve the world's problems, but it sure makes a dent!
