A unique caddie initiative the CGA and CWGA will formally launch later this month at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora has been named the “Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy”, the associations announced on Friday.
The academy will promote the use of caddies through a powerful incentive — by paying all of their base fees — and will train teenagers who eventually will be available to caddie at courses throughout the Denver metro area. The academy’s mission is to use caddying and the game of golf to teach kids how to succeed in life.
The Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy was named in honor of two former caddies who have long been major supporters of caddie programs and of the Evans Caddie Scholarship at the University of Colorado. Brothers George and Geoff (Duffy) Solich caddied at the Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs and graduated from the Evans Scholars program at CU in the early 1980s. Both are prominent figures in the oil and gas business in Colorado and the surrounding region.
Pictured above are (from left) George Solich; John Kaczkowski, president and CEO of the Western Golf Association; Geoff Solich; and Denver resident Jim Bunch, chairman of the WGA. The WGA administers the Evans Scholarship on a nationwide basis.
The Soliches have been major financial supporters in helping the CGA and CWGA launch the Caddie & Leadership Academy at CommonGround, which is owned and operated by the golf associations.
“With all the Evans Scholarship has done for us and many others — it changes the course of lives — to have our names associated with this program is pretty cool,” said Geoff Solich, who encouraged younger brother George to first start caddying at the Broadmoor in the 1970s.
Through much of the spring, the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy has been training the applicants at CommonGround, which has had a small caddie program since opening in 2009. Starting on Memorial Day weekend, and continuing for about 10 weeks, the caddies will work an average of at least four rounds per week. The academy will fund the $1,200-per-caddie grant that will be given to those who complete the program.
In addition, the program is designed to teach the participating young men and women the value of a strong work ethic, social interaction and perseverance. Besides caddying, the teenagers will be required to participate in community service by working with one of the junior outreach programs with which CommonGround partners. Those organizations include Special Olympics, Big Brothers-Big Sisters, the Challenge Foundation and Goodwill Industries.
The Solich brothers “have the same view about what caddying can do for you,” George Solich noted. “It introduces you to neat people and teaches you how to handle work. It also helps you communicate with older, successful people.
“This isn’t 100 percent about caddying. It’s about a person growing and gaining leadership skills. Doing it through the game of golf makes it even more fun. And that’s what CommonGround (through its community-outreach and junior-golf initiatives) is designed to do.”
Beyond earning money through the summer — and learning some valuable life lessons — some of the participating youngsters ideally will meet the requirements to be eligible for the Evans Scholarship, which provides full tuition and housing at CU and other universities to qualified caddies who demonstrate financial need. The Evans Scholarship at CU is a flagship program for both the CGA and CWGA.
The goal is to have 30 youngsters “graduate” from the academy this year.
“Part of the appeal to me is this is very much a grassroots effort to marry what caddying can mean to kids with the potential to earn an Evans Scholarship,” said Geoff Solich, who recently helped with some of the academy’s training of caddies. “We’re always trying to get kids into the (Evans Scholars) pipeline. So to marry those two objectives, that’s critical.”
Among those who have supported the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy financially is the USGA, which contributed a $10,000 grant to the cause earlier this year.
The inspiration for the academy came from George Solich reading a magazine article about a caddie camp in Nantucket, Mass.
“I thought, ‘Why don’t we do a caddie camp?'” Solich said. “So I sent it to Ed (Mate, executive director of the CGA) and said, ‘This isn’t exactly what I was thinking, but why don’t we do something like this for CommonGround?’ It gets kids interested in golf and gives them a summer job, and they get good enough to caddie at other clubs. Ed added the community service and leadership aspect, which was a natural fit.
“The execution was Ed’s and his passion for CommonGround. I’m really excited about the CGA leadership and CommonGround and what it can do for junior golf and caddying and keeping the traditions of the game alive. It’s a great place to nurture the process step by step. So this (academy) is another part of that.”
