Friday, May 09, 2008 |
Seven high school seniors from Oregon — including Brian Haueter and Craig Minkler from Bandon High School — have been awarded the Chick Evans Caddie Scholarship, a full-tuition college scholarship renewable for up to four years, for the 2008-09 academic year.
Six of the students will attend Oregon State University, and one will attend the University of Oregon.
A press release explained that Evans Scholars are golf caddies who were selected for the awards based on four criteria: a strong caddie record, excellent academics, demonstrated financial need and outstanding character.
The Western Golf Association, headquartered in Golf, Ill., has sponsored the Chick Evans Scholarship Program through the Evans Scholars Foundation since its inception in 1930. It is the nation’s largest privately funded scholarship program.
Recipients were chosen after individual interviews with candidates at a March selection meeting hosted by the WGA, along with the Pacific Northwest Golf Association and the Oregon Golf Association.
“These young men and women have excelled in academics and in service to their schools and communities,” said Don Johnson, president and CEO of the Western Golf Association/Evans Scholars Foundation. “We welcome them to the Evans Scholars family and look forward to their continued success as college students.”
Haueter and Minkler, along with Marshfield High School winners Thomas Nixon and Cameron Winfrey, caddied at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. All four plan to enroll at Oregon State.
Currently, 835 caddies are enrolled nationwide in college as Evans Scholars, including 24 at Oregon and 17 at Oregon State. The program was founded by Charles “Chick” Evans Jr., famed Chicago amateur golfer and winner of the 1916 U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur.
The program has a college graduation rate of more than 90 percent, and an overall grade-point average for all Evans Scholars in college above a 3.2 on a 4.0 scale.
Scholarship funds come mostly from contributions by more than 500 member clubs, 36,000 WGA Par Club members and 100,000 golfers in the WGA Bag Tag Program. Evans Scholar alumni donate more than $3 million annually to the program.
The scholarship program also is supported by 23 affiliated golf associations and with proceeds from the BMW Championship, the third of four PGA Tour playoff events in its 2008 FedExCup competition. The BMW Championship will be held Sept. 1-7 at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis.
For more information on the Evans Scholars Program, call (847) 724-4600, e-mail
evansscholars@wgaesf.com, write to the Evans Scholars Foundation at 1 Briar Road, Golf, Ill., 60029, or visit the Web site at
http://www.evansscholarsfoundation.com.
Eight other Bandon Dunes caddies, including Jana Rogers from BHS, are currently enrolled or have graduated as Evans Scholars. They include: Kayla Lawrence, Coos Bay (graduated in 2006); Nick Gerritsen, Coos Bay (2006); Brady Hampton, Coos Bay (will graduate in 2008); Jana Rogers, Bandon (2009); Sterling Lentz, from Coos Bay (2010); Tav Scott, Coos Bay (2010); Matthew Crocker, North Bend (2011); Kyle Crawford, Coos Bay (2011).
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