Having grown up as a caddie, Paul Lobato has a soft spot in his heart for kids who tote clubs for a little spending money and learn valuable lessons along the way.

In fact, when Lobato wanted to start a small caddie program at Meridian Golf Club in Englewood, where he’s the head professional, he personally kicked in $20 for each caddie loop, with the member utilizing the caddie ponying up another $20.

But when it got right down to it, there was a better way — and why reinvent the wheel?

The Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy at CommonGround Golf Course has been thriving since making its debut in 2012. And Lobato is friends with brothers George and Duffy Solich, for whom the Solich Academy is named, and he’s given lessons to George over the years.

So when the subject came up, George Solich and Lobato figured that establishing a new chapter of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy at Meridian made sense. And after working out the details with CGA executive director Ed Mate and CGA manager of caddie development Emily Olson — the CGA and CWGA own and operate CommonGround Course — Meridian this year will become the third Colorado course to feature the Solich Academy, joining CommonGround and the Spike Baker Chapter at Fort Collins Country Club.

“I think the program is unbelievable,” said Lobato, who played intercollegiate golf at the University of Colorado, where the Solich brothers went to school on Evans Caddie Scholarships. “We had the best day out at CommonGround when I played with George, Duffy and (noted instructor) Bill Harmon (son of 1948 Masters champion Claude Harmon and brother of renowned instructor Butch Harmon). I think every one of the caddies with us have gone on to earn Evans Scholarships. I love caddying and how people learn the game through caddying.

“Afterward, I said to George and Duffy, ‘You guys are changing lives.’ I fell in love” with the program.

The Solich Academy is novel in that base caddie fees are paid by the Academy, with participating golfers having the option of adding a tip. The caddies attend weekly leadership classes and do at least six hours of volunteer community-service work each summer. (Duffy and George Solich are pictured at left.)

Lobato certainly isn’t the only one enamored by the template the Solich Acadeny established. Besides Colorado now having three chapters of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, there are others who have followed — or are following — the same path. There’s the Caddie & Leadership Academy of Southeast Wisconsin, and people in Philadelphia and Oceanside, Calif., have also expressed a significant interest.

“The whole goal is to get more kids introduced to caddying,” said Mate, who plays an integral role in overseeing the Solich Academy at CommonGround. “We can only reach so many kids at CommonGround, so this is all part of the master plan.”

But the key, Mate said, is to have at least one person at each Academy site that will go to the mat for the program.

“We always talk about planting the seed,” Mate said. “You need somebody on the ground that really owns it. That person is John Hanrahan (director of golf) in Fort Collins and Paul Lobato at Meridian. You have to have someone who gets it. It’s better if someone comes to us (to demonstrate that interest and commitment). And if the facility won’t embrace it, it won’t succeed.”

As is the case at Fort Collins Country Club, the Solich Academy at Meridian will be much smaller scale than at CommonGround, where about 30 kids participate each year. Lobato is currently training eight caddies — all currently in seventh through 10th grades — with the fourth and final training scheduled for April 28. Then on May 2 during men’s opening day at Meridian, Lobato plans to lay out the program for members. The eight kids, including one “graduate” of the CommonGround Academy who has about 40 caddie loops to his credit, will caddie through the summer, with the goal of each getting 36 loops by the end of the season.

“When the members understand, they’ll get behind it,” Lobato said.

Melyzjah Smith, who’s completing her sophomore year as an Evans Scholar at CU, will be the caddiemaster at Meridian.

“Meridian is perfect” for a Solich Academy chapter, Mate said. “There are a lot of walkers.”
 

When it comes to starting up outside-the-box caddie programs, Fort Collins Country Club and a group in southeast Wisconsin have come to the conclusion that there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.

That wheel just needs to spin in similar ways in different locales.

With an ideal template having been established at the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora, Fort Collins CC and the Kenosha-based Caddie & Leadership Academy of Southeast Wisconsin are in the midst of doing their best to replicate what the CGA and CWGA have done at CommonGround with the Solich Academy.

The situation couldn’t be more satisfying for those associated with the Solich Academy, which is set to begin its third season at CommonGround. It was established in 2012 as the brainchild of George Solich, an oilman, philanthropist and a graduate of the Evans Caddie Scholarship program at the University of Colorado.

The Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy is named for George Solich and his older brother Geoff (Duffy) Solich, another prominent figure in the oil and gas business who likewise is a product of the Evans Caddie Scholarship program at CU.

“It’s exciting,” CGA executive director Ed Mate said of Fort Collins CC and Kenosha, Wis., deciding to follow the Solich Academy template. “We’ve always hoped (the idea) would be successful and expand. These are two examples, with the one (in Fort Collins) being a satellite of the Solich program, and the one in Wisconsin being modeled after ours.”

Several things set the Solich Academy apart from a traditional caddie program. Most notably, all of the base caddie fees are paid by the Academy, with participating golfers providing an optional tip. And after a year or two at the Academy, caddies can “graduate” to jobs with other caddie programs in the area.

In addition, there are requirements for participating teenagers to do some community service and participate in leadership training. And it’s hoped that some of the caddies will eventually become candidates for the Evans Scholarship, which provides full tuition and housing at various universities, renewable for four years.

At Fort Collins Country Club, the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy Spike Baker Chapter will be launched this year. The chapter is named for Robert “Spike” Baker, a Colorado Golf Hall of Famer who passed away four years ago. Baker, who caddied at Park Hill Golf Club in Denver during his youth, went on to be a founding member of Fort Collins Country Club, one of the state’s top amateurs, and a governor for the CGA.

While CommonGround’s program includes more than 30 kids and produces roughly 1,000 loops per year, the Spike Baker Chapter will feature four or five teenagers, with the possibility of expanding in the future.

“I’m 110 percent behind this,” said John Hanrahan, the club’s director of golf for the last 20 years. “We tried to do a caddie program about 15 years ago (at Fort Collins CC). At that time, we had 95 percent (of the club’s play) riding in a cart. So it got going, then fizzled out after a couple of years.

“Nowadays, we’re 40 percent walking at the club. Over the last 15 years, our membership has gotten younger and a lot of them want to walk. There’s a health-conscious environment in Fort Collins. With a strong push for people walking, this was a good time to take a shot at (having a caddie program again). Of course, anything you do at a club, if you don’t have internal support, it won’t go far. But we have all the right elements now.”

More than a year ago, Hanrahan contacted Mate about re-establishing at caddie program at Fort Collins CC. Hanrahan, who caddied as a youngster at Omaha Country Club, didn’t know about the Solich Caddie Academy at CommonGround at that time, but when Mate brought it up, Hanrahan liked the idea. He then approached the Baker family, which remains part of the Fort Collins CC membership, about using the Spike Baker name on a Solich Academy chapter, and he received an enthusiastic response.

After sending out a press release that was published locally and getting some help from the Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce, Hanrahan and other leaders at the club are in the midst of selecting the four or five caddies out of the applications they’ve received.

From there, the plan is to have a meeting with the kids and their parents, conduct four training sessions in April, have a couple of members take the caddies out for on-course training in May, then formally kick off the program in the second half of that month.

“We’ve been talking for over a year,” Mate said. “It’s important to start off on the right foot, with the right kids and the right number of kids.”

Fort Collins-based donors have long since earmarked donations to the Colorado Golf Foundation specifically for use at the Solich Academy Spike Baker Chapter. The CGA provided consultation regarding recruiting caddies, and the Spike Baker Chapter has adopted the methodology developed for the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy at CommonGround. Basically, the procedures manual includes expectations for the kids regarding loops, keeping a work log, doing community service and leadership training. It’s then the responsibility of the folks at Fort Collins CC to operate the Academy.

Hanrahan said the plan for the Spike Baker Chapter is to have the kids each complete 12 loops per month and be paid $400 for that work.

While Fort Collins Country Club is the first new Colorado chapter for the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, it isn’t alone in having expressed an interest in replicating what’s been done at CommonGround. Mate said a couple of other courses on the Western Slope have also inquired about the possibilities, though nothing has been solidified — yet.