Students receive prestigious caddie scholarship

Buffalo Grove High School senior Emily Smith played a lead role in the caddy orientation and training held earlier this month at Rolling Green Country Club in Arlington Heights.

Not only did she teach new eighth-grade caddies about raking traps and greens etiquette, she served as a role model. Smith was one of 87 teens from the Chicago area, and third from Rolling Green this year, to earn the Chick Evans Scholarship.

Smith describes the scholarship as "life changing," and something she decided to shoot for when she started caddying after eighth grade.

"The first year was pretty hard," says Smith, of Arlington Heights, who will attend Indiana University. "But once you get promoted, and you're committed to it, it can be very rewarding."

Others who received the award are Phillip Bogusz of Des Plaines, a Notre Dame High School senior who caddies at Park Ridge Country Club, and Michael Hess of Elk Grove Village, a Conant High School senior who caddies at Medinah Country Club.

The Evans Scholarship provides full tuition and housing for its scholars, who live in a Scholarship House at one of 14 universities across the country. In order to be considered, caddies have to have a strong caddie record, excellent academics, outstanding character and demonstrate financial need.

Contributions from 500 Western Golf Association clubs and its 37,000 members help fund the scholarship, as well as some 100,000 golfers in the Bag Tag program.

Bogusz follows in the footsteps of his brother, Matt, now attending Northwestern University as an Evans Scholar. He also joins 12 scholars now in college who caddied at Park Ridge Country Club.

"We have a huge program here," says Caddy Master Kenny Goodwin. "At our orientation night, I'd say 90 percent of the parents on hand want to find out more about the Evans Scholarship."

At Medinah, typically two to three caddies a year earn the scholarship, officials there say. This year's crop also includes Bartlett High School senior Danielle Iannarelli and Schaumburg High School senior Christopher Pomagier.

"It's a big, big part of our caddie program," says Terry O'Neill, operations manager, "to make them aware of the Evans Scholarship."