Most of the caddie programs in Colorado are located at private courses, but it’s a public golf facility that will be home to a novel initiative aimed at strengthening the institution of caddying in the state.
This year, the CGA is establishing the Eisenhower Caddie Academy at CommonGround Golf Course, which is owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA. CommonGround is located on the Aurora-Denver city line, at 1st Ave., and Havana.
CommonGround has had a caddie program since opening in May 2009, but the Academy will encourage the use of caddies through a unique incentive — by paying all of their base fee. The only out-of-pocket cost for the golfer is an optional tip.
On Wednesday, the initiative received a major boost when the USGA threw its support behind the program by providing a $10,000 grant to the Academy. (Pictured is USGA regional affairs director Mark Passey, right, presenting a check to CGA president Tom Lawrence.)
“I’m more excited about this than anything we’ve done at the CGA,” said executive director Ed Mate, himself a former caddie. “This is an opportunity to completely change the landscape of caddying in Colorado. And we wouldn’t be able to do it without CommonGround. It’s the perfect marriage” with all the community-outreach and junior-golf initiatives at the course.
“And it’s nice to have a partnership with the USGA because it makes it a lot stronger. The USGA sets the standard for the traditions of the game, and caddying is the best way to teach kids the traditions and values of the game.”
Indeed, the program is designed to provide young men and women the opportunity to learn life lessons through exposure to the game of golf — and the value of a strong work ethic, social interaction and perseverance. In addition, the Academy will help the CGA and CWGA identify potential candidates for the Evans Caddie Scholarship at the University of Colorado.
The Evans Scholarship is one of the flagship programs of the CGA and CWGA, who partner with the Western Golf Association in sponsoring the Evans Scholars’ Eisenhower chapter house at CU. Through CGA and CWGA bag-tag sales, and Par Club contributions, Colorado donors fully fund the year-to-year scholarship costs at the CU Evans house.
Appropriately, Wednesday’s USGA grant announcement was made at an Evans Scholars Selection Committee meeting, at Colorado Golf Club in Parker.
All the parties involved hope the number of caddie rounds skyrockets at CommonGround this year.
“When you take away the price factor, it will encourage the use of caddies,” CWGA executive director Robin Jervey said. “And it all benefits kids and the future of caddying.”
WGA director George Solich, who like Mate is a CU Evans Scholar graduate, provided the inspiration for the Academy’s creation, and he will be a major financial backer for the program, which will have a $50,000 annual budget. Solich read an article about a caddie camp in Nantucket, Mass., and thought a similar program would be ideal for CommonGround, so he talked it over with Mate.
“The whole idea is promoting caddie programs, the lifeblood of what this (Evans) Scholarship offers,” Solich said Wednesday. “The location of CommonGround, which draws from the inner city and pulls kids out of extracurricular activities that aren’t so rewarding, this is perfect for them.”
“There’s nothing that taught me more than caddying. I look at the path (it can put kids on) — that’s the key. You put a kid in caddying and it gives them the opportunity to be a successful student, gives them that work ethic, teaches them how to be self-sufficient and gives them the drive to get better.”
The goal for the Eisenhower Caddie Academy in 2012 is to attract 30 caddies age 14-18 this spring, with the program actually starting about Memorial Day and continuing into August. The existing Golf in Schools initiative and the CGA’s partnership with the ACE Foundation will be tapped to attract applications for the Academy.
Participants will commit to caddying at least three days per week for the 10-week session, meaning the program could lead to 1,000 loops or more for the Academy caddies. Kids will be selected in part on the basis of their summer-long commitment to the program.
Initially, priority will be placed on younger and less-experienced caddies, age 14-16, who will work exclusively at CommonGround during a two-year training period. In future years, the hope is that caddies who have “graduated” from the Academy will be made available as independent contractors for caddie opportunities at other courses.
The base fee of $25 for less-experienced caddies will be paid through Academy funds, supplemented by optional tips from golfers. Golfers will be asked to fill out an evaluation to help the caddie improve.
Besides caddying, program participants will be expected to help out in other ways at CommonGround, including assisting with junior development programs and with course maintenance. In their free time, they’ll have access to CommonGround instruction and will have opportunities to play the course.
Inexperienced caddies will be required to go through four nine-hole training sessions before officially starting in the Academy program. The nine-hole Kids Course at CommonGround often will be used for those training sessions, which will be conducted by a caddie master hired by the CGA.
The Eisenhower Caddie Academy took the Eisenhower name from a scholarship program established by the CGA in 1961. That scholarship merged with the Chicago-based Evans Scholars in the late 1960s.
Denver resident Jim Bunch, the new chairman of the WGA, is obviously a big proponent of programs that encourage the use of caddies.
“Golfers who have never used a caddie, then do it, they find it’s the best way to play the game,” Bunch said recently. “When they have a caddie, they get it. And they’re helping kids in the process.”
