Caring for the footsoldiers

The caddie is one of the most enduring traditions of golf. For a golfer, there is no closer soul mate than a caddie. As they say, the caddie is five feet away while the rest of the world is million miles and more.

Off the course, most caddies live a life far removed from the glamorous men they carry the bag for. Sure, there are wealthy caddies like Steve Williams who works for Tiger Woods, but for most of them it is a hard life.

But no one cared more for the caddies than Charles 'Chick' Evans Jr did. Evans, born on 18 July 1890 and whose 124th birth anniversary falls this Sunday, became a caddie at the age of eight.

Playing at the Edgewater Golf Club in Chicago, Evans went on to become a No 1 amateur player. His greatest moment came in 1916 when he won both the US Open and US Amateur. No other golfer had ever claimed both the championships in the same year other than Bobby Jones.

Evans' career was a remarkable one. He won the Western Amateur in 1909 and went on to reach the semi-finals of the US Amateur. The following year, he became the first amateur to win the Western Open, a feat that was unique till 1985 when Scott Verplank, like Evans, beat the pros to take the same title.

Before he turned 21, Evans, accompanied by his mother Lena, went to England for the British Amateur Championships in 1911 where he managed to reach the fifth round.

Evans' dream was to become the first amateur to win the US Open but Francis Ouimet (1913) and Jerry Travers (1915) did that before him. But in 1916, Evans went a step further.

He won both the Open and the US Amateur, the first player ever to accomplish that. His winning score of 286 was the first sub-par winning score and he maintained the Open record for 20 years. He won the US Amateur again in 1920.

It is said that if Evans had putted better, he would have bettered his record of 54 titles. Putting was his bogey and he often carried two putters in his bag, switching between them and hoping that one of them would suddenly do the magic.

Evans was also selected to the Walker Cup team in 1922, 1924, and 1928 and he competed in a record 50 consecutive US Amateurs in his career spanning six decades.

With so much success coming his way as an amateur, there was, understandably, pressure on Evans to turn pro. The sport was also beginning to attract good money but Evans wanted to play for the purity of the game.

Evans' skills and success continued to bring money from his admirers. But even while he wanted to preserve his amateur status, Evans wanted to something worthwhile with the funds; he placed all the money he received from his well-wishers into a escrow account.

Those days, it was possible to do that and the golfer could remain an amateur. Today, a golfer cannot accept anything more than £ 700 or else his amateur status is taken away and is classified as a pro.

But Evans wanted to put the money into something which he could not accomplish; to complete his studies. He had to leave his studies in North Western University for lack of money. He felt the need to fund college education for needy caddies who showed academic promise.

In 1928, Evans persuaded the Western Golf Association to oversee the trust fund. Two years later, in 1930, the first two Evans Scholars were enrolled at Northwestern University.

Thus began the long journey of Chick Evans Caddie Scholarship Programme. Now, a little more than 75 years old, the Evans Scholars' Foundation has the US' largest privately funded college scholarship programme which provides full tuition and housing grants to deserving caddies.

Since the first two Scholars enrolled at the university in 1930, 7,600 young men and women have graduated from the programme. In 2003, 832 Scholars were enrolled and their tuition and housing grants are renewable for up to four years. The total value of each scholarship is between $22,000 and $65,000.

The Foundation today owns and maintains the Evans Scholars' Chapter Houses in 14 universities. Scholars are also enrolled in six other schools. Though the programme is national in scope, its focus is primarily the Midwest.

The Evans Scholars Foundation has more than 100,000 annual contributors. Established in 1950, the Par Club has been the primary funding source. Last year, more than 33,000 golfers donated $150 or more.

Candidates for the Evans' Programme are selected following a nomination by their golf clubs and must have a service record of at least two years.

They must also have good high school record and show evidence of financial need, besides carrying recommendations from club and high school officials. What's most striking is that the graduation rate is nearly 90 per cent as compared to the 50 per cent national average in the US.

Evans, who played with the likes of Bobby Jones, Francis Ouimet, Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen, competed in a record 50 consecutive US Amateur Championships.

But when he died on November 6, 1979, it was not the records and wins that signified his real success. It was the Evans Scholars Foundation that he considered as his biggest achievement.