Jim Bunch was never an Evans Scholar, but you wouldn’t know that based on the way he grew up.
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.”
