The Evans Cup of Colorado raises money for the Evans Scholarship for caddies, and Western Golf Association board member and director and state chairman Geoff “Duffy” Solich said he estimates that Monday’s event will net about $165,000 for the cause, a notable increase from last year.

The University of Colorado has been home to an Evans Scholars house since the 1960s, and many of the 59 current CU Evans Scholars (left) attended the festivities at DCC.

A total of 28 foursomes played at Denver Country Club, with 150 people attending the dinner.

Golf resort developer Mike Keiser, the founder and owner of Bandon Golf Resort in southern Oregon and a major supporter of the Evans Scholars, was the keynote speaker on Monday and also participated in a Sunday night dinner fundraising event. Keiser has been inducted into the WGA-administered Caddie Hall of Fame for promoting the use of caddies and their role in golf. He’s been a WGA director since 2007 and has played a key role in developing strategies have have substantially increased fundraising for the Evans Scholarship.

As Keiser said at his Hall of Fame induction in 2014, “Caddying is the best job a teenager can have. You learn about golf but you also learn a lot about life, what it takes to be successful and what it means to work hard.”

All in all, Monday proved another very successful gathering in support of the Evans Scholarship.

“It was a great event and having Mr. Keiser there made it very special,” Solich said in an email.

The Evans Cup of Colorado dates back to the early 1980s, when it was founded as the Par Club Tournament. The full tuition and housing Evans Scholarship is awarded to high-achieving caddies with limited financial means, The WGA, which adminsters the Evans Scholarship, has long partnered with the CGA in supporting the scholarship at CU.

All told nationwide, 985 Evans Scholars are currently enrolled at 18 universities.

The next Evans Cup of Colorado event is scheduled for Oct. 14, 2019 at Castle Pines Golf Club.
 

The Evans Scholarship for caddies is one of golf’s favorite charities, but things didn’t look very good a decade ago for the part of the program based at the University of Colorado.

The house at 1029 Broadway in Boulder (left) has been the home of the CU Evans Scholars since the 1960s. For the great majority of the half-century since, the norm has been 40-50 caddies living at the house any given school year, receiving full tuition and housing scholarships at CU.

But for the three school years beginning in 2005-06, the numbers at the CU Evans Scholars house dipped below 30 for the first time since the building was purchased in November 1968 to house the caddies.

There were just 28 CU Evans Scholars in 2005-06, 27 in 2006-07 and 29 in 2007-08. The long-term health of the Colorado chapter was in question, and it’s not unprecedented for the Illinois-based Western Golf Association, which administers the scholarship nationwide, to close an Evans Scholars house if things aren’t working out.

“I think I was” worried when the numbers of CU Scholars dropped into the 20s, said Geoff “Duffy” Solich, a CU Evans Scholar alum and now the WGA’s state chairman for Colorado. “We thought at first it might have been an abberation, but that was concerning.”

But at that pivotal time, instead of things going south to the point of no return for the CU Evans Scholars, the situation rebounded — and in a major way. And now, due to a variety of reasons, the number of Evans Scholars at CU starting this school year was a record 62, with three-quarters of them having caddied in Colorado.

That means that in the course of a decade, the caddies based at the house have more than doubled.

“I am really excited about the growth of the program in Colorado and especially excited about the quality of young men and women we are seeing as finalists,” George Solich, who played a key role in the turnaround on several fronts, said via email. “The need is greater than ever, so our ability to change more lives through the Evans Scholarship is rewarding beyond words.  From a community-living standpoint, the energy, enthusiasm and quality of experience for the kids is so much greater when the Scholarship house is bursting at the seams.”

The WGA has long partnered with the CGA in supporting the scholarship at CU. The Evans Scholarship, awarded to high-achieving caddies with significant financial need, is a flagship program for the CGA. Through the association’s bag-tag sales and Par Club contributions, Colorado donors fully fund the year-to-year scholarship costs at the CU Evans Scholars house.

With the soaring cost of college, it’s now estimated that the scholarship is worth an average of $100,000 if renewed for four years.

To qualify for an Evans Scholarship, applicants must have excellent caddie records and academic results, show strong character and leadership, and demonstrate financial need.

Last week, more than 100 people — including alums, many representatives of the CGA and WGA, and other supporters of the program — interviewed finalists for the incoming class of Scholars at Denver Country Club. Coincidentally, that’s where scholarship founder Charles “Chick” Evans won one of his Western Amateurs, in 1912, before later capturing titles in the U.S. Amateur (twice) and the U.S. Open. Nationwide, the Evans Scholarship dates back to 1930 and has produced more than 10,600 alums.

Thirty-two Colorado caddies applied for the scholarship this time around.

Among the reasons the number of Evans Scholars at CU (some of whom are pictured at left) has surged in the last decade are:

— The creation of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, starting at the CGA-owned CommonGround Golf Course. The program is named after the aforementioned Solich brothers, George and Duffy, both CU alums and longtime major supporters of the program. The Academy, now with chapters at CommonGround, Meridian Golf Club and in Grand Junction, has produced more than 7,000 caddie loops over the last six years, as well as plenty of Evans Scholars.

— The WGA’s long-stated goal of reaching 1,000 Evans Scholars in school nationwide by 2020. The figure for this school year is 965, who are attending 19 universities around the country, with scholarship costs reaching $20 million annually. Nationwide, Evans Scholars are a high-achieving bunch, averaging a 3.3 grade-point average and a 95 percent graduation rate.

— The creation of a staff position at the CGA dedicated to caddie devolopment and recruitment, initially funded by George Solich. Erin Gangloff and Emily Olson have both played key roles at the CGA in that regard over the last decade.

— The $6 million expansion and renovation of the CU Evans Scholars house, which was completed early in 2016 under the guidance of project manager Rick Polmear, a University of Michigan Evans Scholars alum. The project added about 2,000 square feet of finished space, making room for roughly 10 additional Scholars to live there. “We call it a house that’s better than new,” said Jeff Harrison, the WGA’s senior vice president of education.

— Concerted effort by WGA directors in Colorado, including former state chairman Bob Webster and his successor, Duffy Solich, to identify and bring forward qualified candidates for the Scholarship, and to build support for the program financially and otherwise.

— And, of course, as a practical matter, the rebound in the economy following the Great Recession that hit almost 10 years ago. That’s helped money flow much more readily into the program, not only in Colorado but nationwide.

“In my view, the growth (of the number of CU Evans Scholars) is due to several factors,” George Solich noted. “First, our focus at the CGA on developing and promoting strong caddie programs throughout the state is starting to pay off. Second, it is undeniable the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy is reaching high-performing inter-city kids that are proving to be very deserving of an Evans Scholarship. These young men and women in many cases would have never stepped foot on a golf course without this program at CommonGround Golf Course and now Meridian Golf Club. Now we have (many) kids from this program earning a full tuition and housing scholarship to CU.

“And finally, with our partnership with CU Boulder, the CU Evans Scholarship house has become a truly national house with approximately 20 percent of those Scholars coming from out of state. This makes for such a rich and diverse mix of Scholars, making the Colorado Chapter more like the university demographic as a whole — kids from all over the country.”

CGA co-president Joe McCleary has been a longtime supporter of the Evans Scholarship and of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy. He was among those in attendance at the selection meeting last week at Denver Country Club.

“The relationship the Colorado Golf Association has with the Evans Scholars and the creation of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy made a real difference,” he said. “That was one of the goals of the Academy: to generate candidates who could fill those scholarship spots at the house. Just like anything, it takes a group of people to get things done, and that’s what’s happened. It is an incredible milestone, and it makes the difference in a lot of lives.”

Janene Guzowski serves on the Executive Committee of the CGA Board of Directors, chairs the CGA Caddie Development Committee and has been a WGA director for roughly eight years.

“There’s so much more awareness about the scholarship now through all of the work of (Olson and Gangloff),” Guzowski said. “Regarding kids at the house, they can have that many more with the remodel. I’ve been a (WGA) director eight years and it’s tended to grow and grow and grow. They started bringing in kids from other states and that helped fill the house and diversify it.”

After going sub-30 in the number of CU Evans Scholars, the total returned to the 40-plus mark in 2010-11, then reached 51 in 2015-16. Since then, it’s jumped to 57 last school year and to 62 this one.

Kevin Laura, the current CEO of The First Tee of Green Valley Ranch and of the Colorado Open Golf Foundation, served as president of the CGA in 2006-07. Given that, and also being a CU Evans Scholar alum, he finds the doubling in the number of CU Evans Scholars over the last decade to be a job well done in many respects.

“What I like the most is when we hit that bottom number (of less than 30 CU Evans Scholars), we didn’t sit there and sulk about it,” he said. “We almost kind of absorbed it. We not only doubled our efforts but quadrupled them by increasing the number of (WGA) directors that are supportive (and encouraged) more golf clubs and caddie programs to be more supportive. George (Solich) and Bob (Webster) went back to the university saying we’ve got to bring back that out-of-state (Scholar) element and figuring out how to do that affordably (tuition-wise). And obviously the house being (expanded).”

The CU Evans Scholars program now has more than 460 alums dating back to the 1960s, and it looks like that number will be reaching the 500 mark in the near future.

“I think the longevity of the house in Colorado is more secure based on having 62 kids up there rather than 30,” Duffy Solich said. “And it’s better for the kids to have more people there.”
 

The Evans Cup of Colorado raises money for the Evans Scholarship for caddies, and Western Golf Association director and state chairman Geoff “Duffy” Solich said it’s hoped that Monday’s event will net about $140,000 for the cause.

The University of Colorado has been home to an Evans Scholars house since the 1960s, and many of the roughly 60 current CU Evans Scholars (left) attended the festivities at Cherry Hills.

About 112 golfers played in the tournament despite temperatures in the 40s, and 200 attended the dinner.

Highlighting that dinner was World Golf Hall of Famer and three-time U.S. Open champion Hale Irwin, who grew up in Boulder and played golf and football at CU. Irwin participated in a Q&A with TV sports personality/emcee Vic Lombardi, and he provided advice and encouragement to the current Evans Scholars.

Dale Douglass, like Irwin a former CU golfer who’s a member of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, was also in attendance as an honored guest.

“It was a great event,” Solich, himself a former CU Evans Scholar, said via email. “We had great sponsors; BMW continues to support our event, (and) we had a very lively auction. All the Scholars joined us for dinner and took the stage at the same time. Hale was fabulous (and) Cherry Hills did an amazing job hosting the event.”

The Evans Cup of Colorado dates back to the early 1980s, when it was founded as the Par Club Tournament. The full tuition and housing Evans Scholarship is awarded to high-achieving caddies with limited financial means, The WGA, which adminsters the Evans Scholarship, has long partnered with the CGA and CWGA in supporting the scholarship at CU.
 

Not surprisingly, more than 95 percent of those loops came from either private clubs or resorts, with caddie-friendly Cherry Hills alone accounting for almost 30 percent of the state’s total.

On the other hand, a notable number of public courses in the state feature some sort of organized caddie program, though almost all of them are very modest in size.

And this year, that number will increase as the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy starts a small pilot program in Grand Junction at Lincoln Park and Tiara Rado (READ MORE), both municipal courses.

Among the other Colorado public courses that have caddies available through a formal program are CGA-owned CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora, Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in northeast Denver, and five City of Denver courses: City Park, Willis Case, Wellshire, Kennedy and Overland.

In the case of CommonGround and the Grand Junction courses, the caddie programs are part of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, which also has a chapter at the private Meridian Golf Club. As for the City of Denver facilities and GVR, they’re linked with The First Tee chapters of Denver and GVR.

Suffice it to say caddie programs in Colorado are by no means limited to private and resort courses.

“You’ve got to build the demand for (caddies) at a public course,” said Kevin Laura, the president of GVR who attended the University of Colorado on an Evans Scholarship for caddies. “Public golfers don’t expect to take a caddie, but we (at GVR) have 40 percent walkers.”

Laura said GVR caddies accumulated a total of about 125 loops in 2016, with roughly half of them coming through the three CoBank Colorado Open championships held at the club — the Open, Women’s Open and Senior Open.

Of course, CommonGround Golf Course has proven to be the gold standard for caddie programs at Colorado public courses. Thanks to being the original home of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy — which promotes the use of caddies by paying the base caddie fees through an educational grant, with participating golfers having the option of adding a tip — CommonGround was the site of 1,108 caddie loops in 2016. To put that number into perspective, less than 10 private clubs produced more caddie loops.

“Admittedly it’s a subsidized program so we’re trying to create a culture or an awareness that wouldn’t otherwise exist,” said CGA executive director Ed Mate, who’s also a CU Evans Scholar alum. “We know the economics of a caddie program at a public facility just don’t mesh. That’s the most important underpinning of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy: it is subsidized. I think we need to be very sensitive to any unintended consequences of making subsidized caddie programs the norm. I don’t think that should be. Ultimately, we want these independent contractors working for the players. But if we can use the subsidies smartly to kind of fill that pipeline …

“Our intention with that (Solich) program is to generate applicants for the Evans Scholarship. That’s a separate and distinct goal from having healthy caddie programs. Most people in that (Caddie Summit) room recognize the value that our society can benefit from by having kids that are hard-working and that have the ability to communicate — and not (just) on a phone or an app or whatever.”

The Solich Academy, named for philanthropists and ES alums George and Duffy Solich (the latter being the Western Golf Association’s state chairman), isn’t just a caddie program. A major component of the Academy is that all of the caddies are required to attend weekly leadership classes and do volunteer community-service work each summer. And, as Mate noted, the hope is that some of the participants will become good candidates for the Evans Scholarship at CU.

Laura, a former CGA president, certainly has seen how successful the Solich program has been. And he hopes GVR can offer something similar.

“We’ve applied for a grant through the Colorado Golf Foundation about doing what they do at CommonGround — saying ‘Take a caddie, we’ll pay for it,'” Laura said. “The kids really want to loop more. They just don’t have the demand and it’s really frustrating. But if we had all six or eight of our kids waiting to get out and our golf shop was actively trying to push it, they would come four to five days a week if the players are going to take the kid because the base rate is covered.

“Those kind of ways to create demand by eliminating the cost factors, that can work at a public, private, resort — any of those courses. We’re hoping to be able to do that with some financial support. We can double and triple our number of loops if we just have that hurdle (eliminated). That’s why CommonGround is so great because you know you can get a caddie and just pay a tip. A $20 or $30 tip is well worth it, but if someone is looking at a $50 or $60 fee on top of their $50 or $60 public green fee, that’s where a decision is made and most of the time it’s against taking a caddie.”

The Colorado Golf Foundation, by the way, was founded with a $2 million gift from George and Carol Solich.

“We’re trying to get our sea legs around the foundation, but we’re very much open to (Laura’s idea regarding GVR),” Mate said. “I love the (idea of a potential) partnership with The First Tee because they already have kids who know golf. They’re looking for programming for kids who get to be 13-14 years old; that’s when they kind of fizzle out with The First Tee. And I think they lose them because they have to start earning money. So what a great segue — from knowing the game and having the base knowledge (to caddying regularly). I’d love to have a lot of First Tee kids in our program. That would be awesome.

“That’s one other thing that’s being discussed: How can we scale the Solich program nationwide? We’re not saying that; the World Golf Foundation has started a discussion around this. Is there some place for a nationally-supported caddie initiative? The fact that that conversation is going on is encouraging for sure.”

Strong Showing for Caddie Summit: More than 50 people attended last week’s Caddie Summit, presented by the CGA. That included representatives of 18 courses/clubs in Colorado that feature a caddie program.

The Summit is held annually to discuss various issues regarding caddies, including best practices; to release results of the survey of caddie clubs; and give updates on caddie-related programs in the state. That includes the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy and the full-tuition and housing Evans Scholarship.

This time around, there was also a caddie club profile, with head professional Bryan Heim discussing the situation at Columbine Country Club, where a once-thriving program largely went away for a while but has been brought back, to the point that now it features 40-50 caddies accumulating about 1,300 total loops annually.

Also, there was a talk by Boulder-based Evans Scholar alum Jeremy Stroiman, the CEO of a company he and his twin brother Jason run that was named after the scholarship: Evans Senior Investments, which deals with senior housing and skilled nursing solutions.

Heim, for one, always gets a few useful tidbits out of the Caddie Summit.

“If nothing else it gives you a check and balance — some new ideas to say, ‘Hey listen, have we thought about that or that’s maybe a better way of doing something’,” Heim said. “It gets your wheels turning a little bit just to make sure we’ve got that down or we’re doing this.”

Each clubs which sends multiple participants to the Summit receives a $500 grant for its caddie program from the Colorado Golf Foundation.

“I thought it was our best one yet,” Mate said of the 2017 Caddie Summit. “The attendance was great. We didn’t stretch the agenda. Like they say about a vacation, it’s always better when you wanted to stay a little longer. I felt like that best practices discussion could have gone on longer. But I filled up my notepad of notes and I hope everybody else did too.

“There was some inspiration in this one that we haven’t had in the past, with Jeremy (Stroiman). Janene Guzowski (a new CGA board member who chairs the caddie committee) has brought some great new energy. It’s great to have more voices and not just have a few of us drone on. I thought it was very successful.”
 

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy should be in full blush as it embarks on its sixth season.

These days, the Academy is not only thriving at the course at which it started — the CGA-owned and operated CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora — but its ideas are taking root both statewide and in a few locations elsewhere.

Currently, the seeds are being planted on the Western Slope, at Lincoln Park and Tiara Rado Golf Courses, where the city of Grand Junction recently agreed to host a Solich pilot program, starting this year.

CGA executive director Ed Mate said the plan is for four youngsters to caddie at the two Grand Junction municipal courses this golf season, and to participate in the accompanying Cowboy Ethics leadership program and to do volunteer work.

“We got great response from the city,” Mate said. “They’re totally on board. They want to support it. They feel it will be a real opportunity for a few kids. It’s exciting to be able to take our flagship program to that part of the state.”

Founded in 2012, the Academy — named for former caddies and current oilmen and philanthropists George and Duffy Solich (pictured below) — creates opportunities for boys and girls to build leadership skills and develop character through caddying and Academy programming. George Solich originally suggested the idea after reading a magazine article about a caddie camp in Nantucket, Mass.

The Solich Academy promotes the use of caddies by paying the base caddie fees through an educational grant, with participating golfers having the option of adding a tip. In addition to the caddying, a major component of the Academy is that all of the caddies are required to attend weekly leadership classes and do volunteer community-service work each summer. Ideally, some of the participants will become good candidates for the Evans Scholarship for caddies at the University of Colorado.

Frank Wilkinson, a longtime Grand Junction resident and a member of the volunteer CGA Board of Governors since 2009, has spearheaded the effort to bring a Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy chapter to western Colorado. He’s seen how the Solich Academy has thrived at CommonGround and, over the last couple of years, at Meridian Golf Club in Englewood, and believes a scaled-down version will be ideal for his hometown.

Between the two existing Solich Academy sites, CommonGround (almost 1,100) and Meridian (about 330) produced more than 1,400 caddie loops for participating youngsters in 2016. Over the past five years, CommonGround and Meridian have generated almost 5,400 loops, with CommonGround on its own racking up almost 4,800. And 13 Solich caddies have gone on to earn full-tuition and housing Evans Scholarships at CU.

Based on the program’s goal of getting each caddie 30 loops or more each summer, the hope is to produce 120 loops or so in 2017 at the Solich Academy pilot program in Grand Junction.

“I’ve heard awesome, awesome stories about the kids who have participated in the program at CommonGround” from fellow CGA Governors and the association staff, Wilkinson said this week. “We anticipate we’re going to be successful. (If so), it can become a template for what can be done in other places around the state” — particularly at public courses that might be interested in small-scale programs.

Among Grand Junction residents, besides Wilkinson, who have helped the Solich Academy become a reality at Lincoln Park and Tiara Rado are a variety of amateurs, PGA professionals and city employees: Rob Schoeber, director of Grand Junction Parks & Rec; Mike Mendelson, the head professional overseeing the two courses; Doug Jones, golf superintendent of GJ Parks & Rec; Rick Ott, men’s club president at Lincoln Park; and Dan Sommers, instructor at Lincoln Park.

“We’re going to need all these guys to continue to provide input to make this a success,” Wilkinson said.

Mate and Wilkinson made a recent presentation to Grand Junction officials that cemented the deal to bring the Solich Academy to the Western Slope.

“As the meeting developed it was interesting to see how they became engaged in the idea and starting seeing the benefits,” Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson, who calls Lincoln Park his home course, is a member of the men’s club at both Tiara Rado and Lincoln Park.

“Frank Wilkinson couldn’t be more passionate about kids and caddying,” Mate said. “He’s been lobbying for this for several years.”

Men’s club and women’s club events on weekdays at the two courses figure to create caddie loops, along with weekend events. Solich Academy advocates plan to engage such groups — via email blasts and the like — to make it known that caddies are available, and those advocates will also be the ones to coordinate arragements for specific loops.

“There’s going to be a learning curve for the players,” Wilkinson said. “Like myself, I haven’t taken a caddie very often. But both of these golf courses, the terrain is very amenable for this. They’re not very hilly.”

While Grand Junction will be the third active Solich Academy chapter in Colorado — Fort Collins Country Club at one point also featured Solich caddies — there are also several programs in other states that saw what was being done in Colorado and tried to create something similar, according to Mate.

That includes the Caddie & Leadership Academy of Southeast Wisconsin, launched by Phil Poletti, a Western Golf Association director who Mate calls “kind of the pied piper of caddie and leadership academies”; Goat Hill Park golf course in Oceanwide, Calif., started by John Ashworth of golf clothing fame; and the Golf Association of Philadelphia. Of those, the Wisconsin program most closely mirrors the Solich Academy model, down to the Cowboy Ethics leadership training. The Northern California Golf Association Youth on Course Caddie Academy also includes subsidized used of caddies, but no leadership training element.

“It’s a really good model,” George Solich said of the Solich Academy in September. “The goal is to have it at a lot of different places across the country that can benefit kids and give them an opportunity.

“We have some good momentum. It would be great to see it thrive (further). The Evans Scholars Foundation is moving this way too. They have a (WGA Caddie Academy) for girls in Chicago. John (Kaczkowski, president and CEO of the WGA) and I have talked (about) how does all this kind of fit together. I think the idea is, finding more kids you can give the opportunity to.”

Added Mate: “There are some organic things happening out there, which is great. We’re not saying our model has to be used.”

Whatever the case, the caddie academy idea is certainly gaining traction. And the Grand Junction pilot program is but the latest example, albeit a small one.

“This program is all about quality vs. quantity and about having the supply and the demand meet,” Mate said. “We don’t want to have 40 kids when there’s demand for four. But if there’s demand for 10 kids, we want to meet that demand. We’ll play that by ear. Knowing it’s a special person who takes a caddie, are there enough of those people out there to generate 120 loops for these four kids? If we achieve (that number), we’ve done well.”
 

On Sunday at CommonGround Golf Course, as the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy unofficially celebrated its fifth “birthday” with its annual post-season buffet and awards ceremony, Duffy Solich heard a comment from a caddie’s parent that was music to his ears.

“One of the parents told me tonight, ‘Whether my son gets an Evans Scholarship (a full tuition and housing scholarship awarded to selected caddies at the University of Colorado) or not, (the Solich Academy) has made him who he is,'” Solich recounted Sunday evening. “I’m like, ‘Wow. That’s the nicest thing you could say.’ Those are hidden benefits you don’t realize when we started this. Things mature and happen and grow.”

Indeed, the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy to which brothers George and Duffy Solich (pictured above, with Duffy at left) lent their name was a unique idea when it was launched at CGA-owned CommonGround Golf Course in 2012. The Academy promotes the use of caddies in a major way by paying the base caddie fees, with participating golfers having the option of adding a tip. But in addition to the caddying, per se, a major component of the Academy is that all of the caddies are required to attend weekly leadership classes and do volunteer community-service work each summer. And after two summers in the Academy, the youngsters who are successful graduate to other caddie programs in the area. And, ideally, some will become good candidates for the Evans Scholarship at CU.

So, having just completed season No. 5, how successful has the Solich Academy been?

With more than 1,400 caddie loops in 2016 (1,095 at CommonGround and 330 at Meridian Golf Club, which came into the fold starting last year), the two Colorado sites have generated almost 5,400 loops over the five years. CommonGround on its own has racked up almost 4,800. And nine Solich Academy caddies have gone on to earn Evans Scholarships.

“What’s really great is the kids are getting a lot out of it whether they get the Evans Scholarship or not,” said George Solich, who provided the inspiration for the Academy after reading a magazine article about a caddie camp in Nantucket, Mass. “We’ve touched a lot of kids. It’s been an awesome start.

“It’s really in a great spot. And thanks to the CGA for all its work in managing it and running it. Thanks to the Colorado Golf Foundation for supporting it. We love what it does.”

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that many of the driving forces behind the Solich Academy were caddies themselves as youngsters, and quite a few received the Evans Scholarship at CU. That includes both George and Duffy Solich, CGA executive director Ed Mate, who was responsible for the execution of George’s original inspiration, and of major supporters such as Frank Nessinger. And even though he wasn’t an Evans Scholar, Paul Lobato, the PGA head professional who championed the idea of adding a Solich Academy chapter at Meridian Golf Club, caddied at Denver Country Club as a teenager.

Meridian’s program is much smaller than CommonGround’s, but likewise has gained grassroots support.

“It gets better every year,” said Lobato (below). “It started as a 9, now it’s a 10. Probably the most fun part of my job is seeing how (the caddies) grow, seeing how they get confidence talking to adults and getting better at their job. Some of the young kids come in really meek and quiet, then they start to gain confidence and get better and better and better. It’s really fun to see. It’s a great, great program.”

This year, between the two Colorado courses, there were 46 Solich Academy caddies — 36 at CommonGround at 10 at Meridian. In their leadership classes, they learn about “Cowboy Ethics” and the 10-point “Code of the West”: 1) Live each day with courage; 2) Take pride in your work; 3) Always finish what you start; 4) Do what has to be done; 5) Be tough, but fair; 6) When you make a promise, keep it; 7) Ride for the brand; 8) Talk less and say more; 9) Remember that some things aren’t for sale; 10) Know where to draw the line.

“We love what caddying does,” said George Solich, like Duffy a success in the oil and gas business and a philanthropist. “Not only can you make money, but you can be around successful people. You can learn about leadership, you can learn principles (of success) and you can learn hard work. And regardless of where you go in life, those qualities and characteristics will benefit you for years and years. They did us, for sure.”

The formula for success adopted by the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy hasn’t gone unnoticed. Besides what has germinated in Colorado, courses in southeast Wisconsin and in Oceanside, Calif., have taken the Solich Academy template and run with it.

“It’s a really good model,” said George Solich. “The goal is to have it at a lot of different places across the country that can benefit kids and give them an opportunity.

“We have some good momentum. It would be great to see it thrive (further). The Evans Scholars Foundation is moving this way too. They have a (WGA Caddie Academy) for girls in Chicago. John (Kaczkowski, president and CEO of the WGA) and I have talked (about) how does all this kind of fit together. I think the idea is, finding more kids you can give the opportunity to.”

Suffice it to say that in five years the Solich Academy has succeeded beyond what anyone foresaw.

“I would have guaranteed you none of us had this kind of expectations (five years ago),” said Duffy Solich. “It’s far exceeded anything we expected. There was nothing like it in the country that I’m aware of. And some of the byproducts that come from it are not something you could have ever planned on.”

This year, when BMW became a presenting partner of the CGA, it also became the exclusive partner for the Solich Academy at CommonGround. The PGA Tour’s BMW Championship, which just concluded in Indiana, has raised, from the tournament’s inception in 2007 through 2015, more than $21 million for the Evans Scholars Foundation.

Also new this year, a Solich Academy Invitational was held at CommonGround with the intention of giving supporters and potential supporters a first-hand experience with Academy caddies and the program overall.

While the Soliches, Mate, Lobato and others have provided big-picture guidance to the Solich Academy, the day-to-day operations have mainly been in the hands of Emily Olson, the CGA’s manager of caddie development; Erin Gangloff, the CGA’s managing director of programs; and the caddiemasters at the respective courses, Matt Tedeschi (CommonGround) and Melyzjah Smith (Meridian). Smith is one of 53 Evans Scholars currently living at the newly renovated scholarship house at CU.

“This program would not work without the four of them,” George Solich said. “It’s really neat to see that they actually own it. They’re accountable, they’re responsible. They’re thinking about new ways to make it better.”

Added Duffy Solich: “My first round out here (at CommonGround), Melyzjah was my caddie. I was totally taken by her and I thought we have to get this girl an Evans Scholarship. She was light on loops so she had to go to school on her own (at CU) for a year. She came back and got the Evans Scholarship and now she’s a leader at the Meridian Chapter. That’s a pretty good story.”

The fruits of the labor of Olson, Gangloff, Tedeschi, Smith and others are being seen at other major clubs in the Denver metro area that utilize Solich Academy graduates in their own caddie programs.

“Personally, I’d tell you the kids that come to Cherry Hills (Country Club) from the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy are always the best kids — because they’re trained, they know the deal,” George Solich said. “That’s one of the hard parts about clubs is training caddies. I think this model really works if we can send 15 kids a year to five or six other clubs.”

Besides the benefits of kids earning money through caddying — and possibly qualifying for an Evans Scholarship — the Academy’s leadership training and volunteerism remain equally important aspects of this whole initiative.

“I really, really love the Code of the West,” George Solich said. “It’s the perfect age to talk to these kids about character, which is what Code of the West really is. When you look at programs that are very successful, it’s all about character traits and moving that into a kid’s thought process. It really adds to the experience they get at a golf course.

“When we launched, I’m so glad we decided to do that along with the caddie program. It’s as meaningful as the hard work on the golf course and as the money these kids take home.”

As part of Sunday’s festivities, awards were given out to some of the oustanding Solich Academy caddies at CommonGround and Meridian:

Caddie Leader of the Year (CommonGround)
David Acevedo
 
Caddie Leader of the Year (Meridian)
Ricardo Angel-Lucero

Congeniality Award (CommonGround)
Sydney McCleary
 
Congeniality Award (Meridian)
Courtney Lopez

Rookie of the Year (CommonGround)
Kyle Arbuckle
 
Rookie of the Year (Meridian)
Davis Helmerich

Most Improved Caddie (CommonGround)
Dillon Zastrocky
 
Most Improved Caddie (Meridian)
Oliver King

3D Award: Determination, Dedication, Desire (CommonGround)
Eliannah Angel-Lucero

3D Award: Determination, Dedication, Desire (Meridian)
Fenton Dowling
 

The Colorado Golf Association (CGA) is proud to announce BMW as the organization’s exclusive automotive partner. Starting this year, BMW of North America and the Colorado BMW Centers become the newest presenting partner for the CGA and the exclusive partner for the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy at CommonGround Golf Course.

The BMW Championship made a major impact on the Colorado golf scene two years ago at Cherry Hills Country Club. The penultimate event of the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup Playoffs was named the PGA TOUR’s 2014 Tournament of the Year while raising a record $3.5 million for the Evans Scholars Foundation.

BMW will support many of the CGA’s initiatives, including the Hale Irwin Elite Player Program, Community Outreach and Wellness Programs, and the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy — all based at CommonGround, a course owned and operated by the golf association. The CGA’s mission is to represent, promote and serve the best interest of golf in Colorado.

“We’re obviously very excited,” said Ed Mate, Executive Director of the CGA. “The alignment of the BMW brand and golf is well known. This really came out of the 2014 BMW Championship, their desire to continue to be active in the Colorado golf community and our desire to line that up with our brand.”

The BMW Championship, formerly The Western Open, has raised more than $21 million for the Evans Scholars Foundation since the tournament’s inception in 2007. The foundation provides full tuition and housing college scholarships to high-achieving caddies with significant financial need.

“Building off of a successful 2014 BMW Championship at Cherry Hills, we are thrilled to expand our relationship with the Colorado golf community through this partnership with the Colorado Golf Association and the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy,” said Tim Rittenhouse, Experiential Marketing Manager at BMW of North America. “Colorado has a rich history in golf and we are excited to work alongside the CGA in such a prominent and passionate golf community.”

The partnership allows BMW and the CGA to create unique programming and experiences for CGA members while enabling BMW to expand its involvement and support of caddie programs across the country.

“Not only has BMW demonstrated a strong commitment to the Evans Scholars Foundation, it’s clear they are committed to helping raise the awareness of the important role caddies play in the game of golf,” Mate noted. “It’s great to have a partner that recognizes the opportunity caddie programs can give to hard-working kids and we’re excited to be a part of BMW’s growing commitment to the game of golf.”

George and Geoff “Duffy” Solich, for whom the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy is named, are Evans Scholars alumni from the University of Colorado, as is Mate. George Solich served as General Chairman of the 2014 BMW Championship at Cherry Hills. (He’s pictured at left applauding tournament winner Billy Horschel.) And Duffy Solich is the State Chairman for the Western Golf Association, the host organization of the BMW Championship that administers the Evans Scholars Foundation.

For more information about BMW, visit www.bmwusa.com or contact BMW Corporate Communications Manager Phil DiIanni at Phil.DiIanni@bmwna.com or at 201-571-5660.

For information on partnership and other sponsorship opportunities with the CGA, contact Director of Development Ryan Smith at rsmith@coloradogolf.org or at 303-974-2108.
 

Caddying may no longer be in its heyday, and Colorado isn’t one of its hotbeds, but that doesn’t mean it’s a relic of a bygone era in golf. It simply means that it needs consistent nurturing to maintain a significance presence in Colorado golf.

That’s part of the idea behind Colorado’s Caddie Summit, which was held for the fifth consecutive year on Thursday, this time at Colorado Golf Club in Parker.

About 50 people, many of them officials from golf courses and clubs in Colorado that feature caddie programs, attended Thursday’s Summit, sharing data, best practices and, of course, a love for caddying.

The Summit helps keep caddying a priority, so it doesn’t wither on the vine.

“To me, you’ve got to continue to put the effort in,” said Ed Mate, executive director of the CGA, which organizes the Caddie Summit. “Caddying is not the path of least resistance. It’s not like the things at a club that you don’t need to push, that you don’t need to promote; they’ll just be fine. You don’t need to promote golf carts. People are going to take them. And if you’re not careful, they’ll take them too much. So just to maintain (the amount of caddie activity there is in Colorado) is success because it’s not the path of least resistance.”

Mate points to the example of John Ogden, the head golf professional at Cherry Hills Country Club, which has the largest caddie program in the state, with about 180 “core caddies” racking up a joint total of roughly 12,500 rounds per year.

“John works every day pushing and promoting,” noted Mate, a former caddie who earned the Evans Scholarship for caddies at the University of Colorado.

Cherry Hills sets the standard for caddie programs in Colorado, but they come in all sizes. A total of 24 programs exist in Colorado, meaning about 10 percent of the courses in the state have one. They range from producing 50 caddie loops per year at The First Tee of Denver at City Park Golf Course to the 12,500 annual loops at Cherry Hills. Eight clubs had at least 1,000 caddie loops in 2015: Cherry Hills (12,500), Ballyneal (6,300), Colorado Golf Club (3,219), Castle Pines Golf Club (2,600), Maroon Creek Club (2,199), Denver Country Club (1,700) Columbine Country Club (1,500) and Eagle Springs Golf Club (1,400).

Most of the caddie programs are at private clubs, but some are at resorts, and a few are at public courses, including CommonGround (the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy), and The First Tee of Green Valley Ranch and The First Tee of Denver. The Solich Academy, which incentivizes taking caddies by paying for all of the caddies’ base fees, produced 970 caddie loops last year in its fourth season of existence. Spinoffs of the Solich Academy currently exist at Meridian Golf Club and at Fort Collins Country Club.

In all, the 24 caddie clubs in Colorado produced 37,913 loops in 2015, which was down about 1.4 percent compared to 2014. The average number of “core caddies” at the participating Colorado clubs and courses is 26. A dozen clubs have some “professional” caddies, but the majority of caddies at the state’s courses and clubs are teenagers.

As for the Summit, Mate believes it’s a very worthwhile annual event.

“It’s just sort of settled into a really good rhythm,” he said. “You’ve got to do this every year. My hope is that everyone comes away with a few notes that they’ll be able to try. But the main objective is just to keep it on the radar, to keep them accountable a little bit. ‘Oh yeah, we have a caddie program. Oh, I’ve attended this Summit, so I better do something about it.'”

To keep the Caddie Summit going strong, each caddie club or course that brings at least three attendees receives $500 from the Colorado Golf Foundation for its caddie program. Several years ago, the lead gift for the Foundation was provided by CU Evans Scholar alum George Solich.

Evans Scholarship a Big Incentive for Some: For some Colorado teenagers, besides caddying providing extra cash in the summer, it also brings with it the possibility of a full tuition and housing scholarship to the University of Colorado. The Evans Scholarship for caddies, potentially worth about $80,000 if renewed for four years, is awarded to selected high-achieving caddies with significant financial need.

The scholarship has produced 10,184 alums over the last 86 years, including 441 at CU. Approximately 910 Evans Scholars are currently enrolled across the country — including about 50 at CU — and roughly 260 scholarships are expected to be awarded for the incoming class of 2016-17, including 11 to Coloradans. The average grade-point average for Evans Scholars is 3.2, and the program graduates 95 percent of its caddies.

Nationwide, the Evans Scholarship spends about $16 million each year on scholarship and housing costs. And since the scholarship’s inception, the total cost has been about $330 million.

The CU Evans Scholars house recently underwent a $6 million renovation and expansion. A formal dedication for the house in Boulder is planned for April 16.

One of the CU Evans Scholar alums is Geoff “Duffy” Solich (left), who recently became the Western Golf Association’s state chairman for Colorado, succeeding Bob Webster. The WGA, which has long partnered with the CGA and CWGA in supporting and sponsoring the Evans Scholars at CU, adminsters the scholarship nationwide. The Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy at CommonGround is named for George and Duffy Solich.

Six Coloradans recently became new directors for the WGA, helping the association support the Evans Scholars Foundation and conduct its four championships, including the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship. The six incoming directors from Colorado are Don Law (Cherry Hills Country Club), Bob Lazzeri (Columbine Country Club), Eric Miller (Colorado Golf Club), Tim Morris (Denver Country Club), Frank Nessinger of Denver and Jeremy Stroiman (Boulder Country Club). Several of the newcomers are former Evans Scholars.

In all, the WGA has more than 500 directors.

Caddie Central: Colorado Golf Club is a hot spot on the caddie agenda in 2016. In January, it hosted the Evans Scholars selection meeting for Colorado. On Tuesday, the Caddie Summit took place at the Parker Club. And on Oct. 3, the Evans Cup of Colorado fundraising tournament for the Evans Scholars will take place at the club that hosted the 2013 Solheim Cup and the 2010 Senior PGA Championship.