Brinkerhoff served as president of the CGA in 1978 and ’79, and was a governor emeritus for the association. He was also the club president at Cherry Hills Country Club in the mid-1960s. But Brinkerhoff probably made his biggest impact on golf with the Eisenhower-Evans program, which provides full scholarships at CU to qualifying caddies.

Along with Dick Campbell, Brinkerhoff was known as one of the founding fathers of the Eisenhower-Evans program. He played a prominent role in the 1967 purchase of a fraternity house across the street from CU that became — and remains — the home of the E.E. Scholarship house. And for almost a quarter-century, Brinkerhoff oversaw the maintenance and improvement projects at the house on behalf of the Western Golf Association and the CGA and CWGA.

For his many years of volunteer work in golf, Brinkerhoff was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2006.  

Brinkerhoff, a native of Shreveport, La., lived in Colorado since 1954. He was long a prominent figure in the oil and gas business in the Rocky Mountain region and in Texas.

Brinkerhoff and his wife, Jo, had four children, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

A memorial service for Brinkerhoff will be held on Jan. 9 at 1:30 p.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church (1820 Broadway in Denver).

The family requests that memorials be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church or to the Evans Scholarship Foundation, 1 Briad Road, Golf, IL 60029.
 

He caddied in the Chicago area beginning at age 12, and worked in various capacities at Windy City golf clubs for the next decade. He attended Marquette (undergraduate) and Northwestern (law school) — two universities with Evans Scholarship houses. And Bunch “hashed” (working food-service jobs for meals) alongside Evans Scholars during his university days.

And for almost the last 20 years, Bunch has held a variety of volunteer leadership positions for the Western Golf Association, which administers the Evans Scholarship for caddies.

“Caddying is in my DNA,” Bunch said. “I’ve had a close relationship with caddying  and the Evans Scholarship since I was 12 years old.”

And now, Bunch (pictured in USGA photo) is taking his love of the program to another level. The Denver resident and former USGA Executive Committee officer will become chairman of the WGA as of Jan. 1. Bunch, who likely will serve two one-year terms in the volunteer post, believes he’ll be the first WGA chairman from Colorado. He’s lived in the Centennial State since 1970.

“I’m passionate about this (Evans Scholar program) and am glad to help in any way I can,” Bunch said recently while on his way to Chicago for a year-end WGA meeting. “The (Evans Scholar) kids are so amazing. Their stories (about overcoming adversity) break your heart. It feels great to give back to the program. This is an extraordinary honor personally and in all other ways.”

The Evans Scholarship, which has sent deserving caddies to college since 1930,  is a cause near and dear to the heart of many golfers across the nation, including Colorado. The Eisenhower-Evans Scholarship at the University of Colorado is one of the flagship programs of the CGA and CWGA, who partner with the WGA in sponsoring the Scholars at CU. Through CGA and CWGA bag-tag sales, and Par Club contributions, Colorado donors fully fund the year-to-year scholarship cost at the CU Eisenhower-Evans house.

There is more to the WGA than the Evans Scholarship. The association also hosts three prestigious golf championships — the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship, along with the Western Amateur and the Western Junior. But the scholarship is certainly at the heart of the organization.

To show how much the Evans Scholarship and the WGA mean to Bunch, one of the reasons he gave up one of the most powerful positions in golf was to devote more time to the WGA. Bunch, a former practicing lawyer who now works for a private-equity firm, served on the 15-member USGA Executive Committee from 2003 to 2010. At one time or another, he was chairman of the USGA Rules of Golf Committee, Finance Committee, Grants Committee and Bob Jones Award Committee, as well as secretary of the Executive Committee.

“I wasn’t particularly active (with the WGA during the USGA years), and the WGA asked if once I was off the Executive Committee if I’d like to play a larger role,” said the 69-year-old Bunch, who has been vice chairman of the WGA the last two years. “One of the reasons I left the USGA was to support the WGA. The USGA was a great time and a wonderful experience, but this is good for the soul.”

Over the last 81 years, more than 10,000 caddies have been awarded Evans Scholarships, and at any given time more than 800 young men and women are on scholarship. Most attend one of the 14 universities where scholarship houses are located, and a 15th in the Pacific Northwest is planned. The program’s annual operating budget is approximately $12 million.

Scholarships are awarded based on four criteria: excellent caddie record for a minimum of two years, strong academic achievement, financial need, and outstanding character and integrity. Nationwide, 90 percent of incoming Evans Scholars go on to graduate.

The Evans Scholarship is one of the largest privately-funded scholarships in the nation. It was established by Charles “Chick” Evans, a former caddie who won a U.S. Open and two U.S. Amateurs. At CU, the scholarship has its roots in the early 1960s and it’s formally called the Eisenhower-Evans Scholarship because the CGA-founded Eisenhower Scholarship for junior golfers merged with the Evans Scholarship in the late 1960s.

Bunch, WGA president and CEO John Kaczkowski, and the association’s volunteer leadership and staff certainly face some major challenges going forward. Among the most significant ones are raising ever-increasing amounts of charitable contributions as college tuition costs skyrocket, and fostering caddie programs at a time when courses and clubs often rely heavily on revenue from cart rentals.

As for promoting caddying, Bunch simply asks golfers unfamiliar with taking a caddie to give it a try.

“Golfers who have never used a caddie, then do it, they find it’s the best way to play the game,” Bunch said. “When they have a caddie, they get it. And they’re helping kids in the process.”

As for meeting increasing scholarship costs, Bunch said the WGA has done a good job of finding new sources of charitable revenue. And Bunch may be able to help take that up another notch.

“I know a lot of people all over the golf world (in large part because of his days on the USGA Executive Committee),” he said. “I hope to bring those contacts to bear.”

In fact, Bunch not only is aiming to provide Evans Scholarships to roughly the number of kids the program does now, but he hopes to gradually increase that total.

Though Bunch thought at the time that his parents made too much money for him to qualify for the Evans Scholarship five decades ago, he now wonders if he might have been mistaken as he had a blue-collar upbringing in inner-city Chicago and the surrounding area. In any case, he certainly filled most of the qualifications asked of Scholar applicants.

Bunch began caddying at age 12 at the Glen View Club — “when the Labor Department showed up, the (underage) 12- and 13-year-olds would go hide in the woods,” he said with a laugh — then he took up occupational residence at Evanston Golf Club beginning at age 14. Over the next eight years there, besides caddying, he worked in the golf shop, fixed club, tended bar — you name it — to help put himself through college.

It’s a time Bunch looks back upon fondly — especially his days as a caddie.

“It’s a wonderful job, caddying,” he said. “You learn a lot about human nature in those 4-4 1/2 hours you’re out on the course. And it’s good for the community to have caddie programs.”
 

When Solich graduated in 1983, almost a third of the Scholars at CU came from out of state. Most of those were from Illinois — where the Evans Scholarship program is based — but also represented were California and Nebraska. Among other things, that made for some good-natured verbal exchanges about whether the Broncos or the Bears were better, and it wasn’t unheard-of for a Nebraska joke or two to be thrown out the week of the CU-NU football game.

These days, there’s less out-of-state flavor at the CU Evans Scholar house. Just four of the 41 current Eisenhower-Evans Scholars graduated from a high school outside of Colorado, and the freshman and sophomore classes are made up entirely of Coloradans.

Solich’s first preference is to see as many qualified Colorado caddies as possible earn the Evans Scholarship. In fact, he personally funds an Eisenhower-Evans Scholarship Recruiter position at the CGA to do just that. But he also realizes that in years such as this one — when just five Coloradans received the scholarship — filling in the gaps with out-of-state kids can be a net plus for the CU house.

That’s what’s happening this year at CU, in fact. Indeed, as it turns out, the incoming class of Eisenhower-Evans Scholars in the fall will feature more out-of-state recipients than Coloradans. The WGA, which co-sponsors the Eisenhower-Evans Scholarship along with the CGA and CWGA, recently added six to the incoming class of Scholars at CU, bringing the total to 11.

“When we were there (in the CU house three decades ago), the culture was great with those guys from Chicago,” said Solich, a Coloradan who currently serves as a WGA director. “That gave us a broader perspective.

“You don’t want to go to college and only meet guys from Denver, so the ability to be with a group of guys (and women) from all over the country — and now Canada — is really cool. I think it creates a unique social culture. It did with us and all the characters we had. It made it very interesting, and I really hope we can continue to have that.”

The new Scholars coming to CU from other states include four from Illinois, one from California and one from British Columbia, Canada.

Those newcomers are identical twins Nick and Mike Pett of LaGrange Highlands, Ill.; Luke Kingsbury of Frankfort, Ill.; Joseph Greco of Hawthorn Woods, Ill.; Tom Pierce of Twain Harte, Calif.; and Canadian Alexander Adams. Pierce is the brother of Terrence Pierce, who recently graduated after being an Evans Scholar at CU.

All will receive a full tuition and housing scholarship at CU beginning in the fall.

The five caddies from Colorado who previously were announced as new Evans Scholars were Daniel Bettinger (Regis Jesuit High School, caddied at Cherry Hills Country Club); Kyle Jerome (Lakewood High School and Montana State University, caddied at Lakewood Country Club); Burke Larsen (Brush High School, caddied at Ballyneal); Zach McCain (Denver East High School, caddied at Denver Country Club and with the First Tee of Denver); and Garrett Schumacher (Sterling High School, caddied at Ballyneal).

Most of the incoming Scholars recently visited the CU house as part of an orientation.

The Eisenhower-Evans Scholarship is one of the flagship programs of the CGA and CWGA. Through CGA and CWGA bag-tag sales and Par Club contributions, Colorado donors fully fund the year-to-year scholarship costs at the CU Evans Scholars house.

All the recipients earn the scholarship based on four criteria: excellent caddie record for a minimum of two years, strong academic achievement, financial need, and outstanding character and integrity. Nationwide, 90 percent of incoming Evans Scholars go on to graduate.

The Evans Scholarship is one of the largest privately-funded scholarships in the country. It was established in 1930 by Charles “Chick” Evans, a former caddie who won a U.S. Open and two U.S. Amateurs. Over the years, the program has produced about 9,200 alumni, with 390 graduating from CU.

The CU Evans Scholars house is one of 14 nationwide, with most being in the Midwest. At CU, the program is formally called the Eisenhower-Evans Scholarship because the CGA-founded Eisenhower Scholarship for junior golfers merged with the Evans Caddie Scholarship in the 1960s.