In a world in which there is a college scholarship for nearly everything – lefties, descendants of Confederate soldiers, people of small stature – a four-year, full-ride scholarship for golf caddies at the University of Colorado may not seem so unusual.
As caddies go the way of the typewriter in favor of comfortable computer-toting carts, the Eisenhower-Evans Scholarship attempts to keep the tradition alive.
Caddies are dwindling in Colorado and across the nation, according to the Western Golf Association, a major sponsor of the scholarship.
While caddies – those trusted sidekicks and advisers – thrive at a handful of private courses in the state, caddie programs have died at many others.
“The number of caddies has … shrunk as far as it’s going to shrink,” said Ed Mate, Colorado Golf Association director and an alumnus of the scholarship.
There are more caddie scholarships available than qualified applicants, Mate said.
To qualify, students spend at least two years caddying at a course affiliated with the Western Golf Association and caddie the summer before their freshman year. They also are judged on academic record, financial need, community service, character and leadership.
This year’s incoming class of eight caddies at CU-Boulder includes five women – believed to be the biggest female class in the 42-year history of the scholarship at CU. They will live and study in a former fraternity house turned real-life caddie shack. The women, required to live in dormitories their first year, will move into the house, across from campus, as sophomores.
One of the women, Katie County, who had a 3.9 grade-point average at Denver East High School, turned down other scholarship offers in favor of the more lucrative caddie scholarship.
“It’s an amazing recognition. When you go into the business world, people know what the Eisenhower-Evans Scholarship is,” County said.
Scholars must maintain a 2.4 GPA in college and are also graded by their housemates.
“They are evaluated by each other and graded on leadership and group living,” said adviser John Krueger.
CU, one of 14 caddie chapters nationwide and the only one in Colorado, has 38 caddie scholars and 345 caddie alumni.
The scholarship is named for former President Eisenhower and golfer Chick Evans, a top U.S. amateur in the early 20th century who never went to college but created the scholarship for caddies in 1930.
The program has put more than 8,000 caddies nationwide through college, including Denver U.S. District Judge Phillip Figa, who received a full ride at Northwestern University.
“It’s a remarkable scholarship – full tuition to a private university which I could not have afforded otherwise,” Figa said. “And spending time on the golf course is a wonderful way to get a scholarship.”
Staff writer Dave Curtin can be reached at 303-820-1276 or dcurtin@denverpost.com.
