Caddie Scholarship Program Achieves $10 Million Milestone
Cover photo: Tom McGovern presents recognition plaque to Baltusrol's Rick Wolffe
The NJSGA Caddie Scholarship Foundation’s annual trustees meeting on June 13th marked a significant milestone in the scholarship program’s 67-year history.
Beginning in 1947 with two $600 per-year scholarships at Rutgers University, the program surpassed $10 million in awards with the inclusion of the 2013-14 academic year scholarships. Simultaneously, the 190 new awards established a new record of $812,000 in scholarship monies for an academic year.
Three scholarship recipients, representing the past, present and future, spoke during the meeting and dinner at Essex Fells Country Club. Traver Davis, a former caddie at Rock Spring Golf Club and a graduate of Johns Hopkins, spoke on behalf of past recipients, stressing the benefits of caddieing as they related to his college and career success.
Jack Rupple, a current caddie at Essex Fells and a third-year student at the University of Maryland, shared some of his experiences, including the opportunity to participate in an exchange student program in England. Rupple is the recipient of the $4,800 Col. John McHugh Memorial Scholarship. McHugh was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan. The award was presented by his brother, Jim McHugh, of Forest Hill.
The newest and only second recipient of a NJSGA/Western Golf Association Chick Evans Scholarship at the University of Michigan, Thomas Marcus, a caddie at Knickerbocker Country Club, shared his enthusiasm on being able to not only attend Michigan on a full tuition, room and board scholarship, but also to live in an Evans Chapter House and share the experience with other Evans Scholars.
The three young men are among the more than 2,850 caddie scholars who have received awards since 1947. The 2013-14 recipients boast a freshman GPA of 3.59 and SAT score average of 1,199. New-in-college awardees attained a 3.14 GPA. They have accepted the challenge to surpass the 96 percent graduation rate of their predecessors.
The evening also included presentation of the Top Five Club Contributor golf flags to Spring Lake Golf Club, Manasquan River Country Club, Echo Lake Country Club, Canoe Brook Country Club and the Baltusrol Golf Club. Baltusrol was also presented a plaque in recognition of their repeat performance as the No. 1 contributing club with $49,050 in member contributions.
The Foundation also recognized the late James Morrissey of Essex County Country Club for his three decades of dedicated commitment to the Scholarship Program.
