Learning to loop: Desert youngsters take up caddying as part of Evans Scholarship program
Marcelo Ibanez says he had only caddied one time, for a friend in a tournament. But on Saturday mornings Ibanez now sits outside the clubhouse at Ironwood Country Club waiting with a dozen other juniors for a chance to walk the course with golfers.
“I mean, it’s a scholarship to college,” said Ibanez, a sophomore at Xavier College Prep in Palm Desert and one of 13 desert juniors signed up for the inaugural season of an Evans Scholarship youth caddie program in the desert. “It’s a lot of talking to people. It’s like a good opportunity to talk to people and get a scholarship.”
The Evans Scholarship program has provided full tuition and housing scholarships for more than 12,000 youths since the program began in 1930. The Evans program is a fixture of the Midwest, overseen by the Western Golf Association based in the Chicago suburb of Glenview. One member of the WGA board who is also a member at Ironwood has pushed to give the Evans program a western flavor.
“I’m pretty passionate about the program, passionate about what this does for kids that might not have the opportunity to go to college,’ said Greg Trapani. “And also I am super involved across the country. We are trying to promote this and become nationwide.”
Halfway across the country from the WGA and in a state where Trapani says California rules and laws make it difficult to start a youth caddie program, Trapani was intrigued when he heard Los Angeles Country Club, site of the U.S. Open last June, was starting its own junior caddie program, unaffiliated with the Evans program.
“So I went to Josh (Tanner, general manager at Ironwood), and then find out Josh is a buddy of the general manager at LACC,” Trapani said. “He called him up and Josh came back to me and said we can do it if we follow these certain things. I didn’t get involved with all the legal issues on it, but found out that it was a possibility.”
The Evans Scholarship is named for Charles “Chick” Evans, an accomplished amateur golfer who won the 1916 U.S. Open and two U.S. Amateur titles. Evans used royalties from a recording of golf instruction and later a golf book to fund the scholarship programs for caddies. The scholarships are now funded by donations, gifts and endowments.
To earn an Evans scholarship, a caddie must meet four criteria: consistent caddie work, good grades, solid character that includes extracurricular activities in and out of school, and demonstrated financial need. Trapani suggests 160 loops, caddie slang for a round as a caddie, and an average of 3.7 for grades might be expected.
“It’s a game changer,” Trapani said of the program. “We are truly changing these kids’ lives.”
Once Trapani believed a caddie program at Ironwood was possible, the next step was contacting the First Tee Program of the Coachella Valley, based in Palm Desert and where juniors from much of the desert learn the game and its etiquette.
“We kind of handpicked who we wanted to offer this program to, because we want to find kids who are mostly scholarship students,” said Mike McFaul, a long-time pro in the desert and now the competitive activities coordinator for the First Tee of the Coachella Valley. McFaul also serves as caddie master on Saturdays for the youths, and the caddies are driven to the country club in a First Tee van.
Not a culture for caddies
While caddying is a popular summer job in the Midwest, where walking is more common at courses, in the desert golf carts with GPS systems and 110-degree summer days means most youths never learn how to caddie despite so many public and private courses.
“We do have a culture of carts, but our North Course, we allow walking,” said Mike Oberlander, director of golf at Ironwood. “We have over the years. We don’t allow it on the South Course, but the North has always been for walkers. We have quite a few members who push a cart or carry their bags, especially with a change of membership to a younger membership in the last few years. And that kind of made the North Course a natural place for it. It is a lot easier to sell it there.”
The local First Tee gave its kids a chance to learn something about caddying at another desert course, Tahquitz Creek Golf Resort in Palm Springs, the site for First Tee programs in the west valley.
“We caddied for our coaches at Tahquitz and I think that made us all very comfortable doing this now and talking to people, said Mika Myers, 14 and a student at Rancho Mirage High School.
Then came learning the ins and outs of Ironwood's North Course.
“We came out here and walked the golf course before it was open (from overseeding) to make sure of the logistics, where everything was,” McFaul said. “And we stress not necessarily just caddie things, but life things. How do you talk to people? Because that is a big crux of this program.”
On the second Saturday of the program, Myers and Amar’e Mullen caddied for golfers in a foursome on the North Course. The golfers rode in carts, with Myers and Mullen providing shot distances with hand-held range finders, filling in divots and removing and replacing the flagstick on greens while talking to the golfers.
“I have confidence, mostly just talking out there, just having friends,” said Mullen, 14 from Palm Springs High School.
Other caddies actually carried bags for their golfers who walked the golf course. Trapani admits he would like to see a culture change at Ironwood with more golfers walking the course and using a caddie, but that kind of change will only come slowly and with acceptance of the program by the membership.
“I am going to have the bag strapped to the back of a kid and I’m going to be walking 18 holes on the North Course with the kids,” he said.
Oberlander says he senses an acceptance of the program by the membership.
“They say, the caddie can push the cart and I can enjoy my walk,” Oberlander said. “One thing we want to stress is we want to grow the caddie and want to grow the program. Caddies are obviously new and young and the First Tee does a great job with them, but more than that the members understand they are mentoring these kids. They buy into it.”
Oberlander also points out the caddies keep whatever tip money they make from the work.
On the second Saturday of the program, all 13 First Tee caddies were on the course with members. But the program faces challenges, Trapani admitted, not the least of which is that even looping on Saturday and Sunday – the program only uses caddies on Saturday for now -- during the season, caddies might get only 40 or 50 bags for the desert golf season.
Getting to the 160 number will be a challenge with no chance in the hot summer to caddie and with the local youths in school during the winter and spring, the peak golf season in the desert. In the Midwest, on longer summer days when youths aren’t in school, it’s easier to pile up more loops.
Trapani said he hopes to have desert kids participate in the seven-week WGA Caddie Academy next summer in Chicago. That academy provides housing for the youths who in turn get a chance to caddie more than is possible in the desert summer. He would also like to see some caddies get a morning round and an afternoon round at Ironwood on some weekend days. But Trapani adds the first months of the program are simply trying to build a foundation for the Evans Scholarship in the desert.
“We don’t want to run. We want to get this program started slowly, methodically, have the members at Ironwood buy into it,’ Trapani said. “And then we are going to have a really successful program.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Famed Evans Scholarship program brings golf caddying to Palm Springs-area youths
