Honoring and Celebrating Caddies at Annual CSF Banquet
KENILWORTH, N.J. - On Wednesday, June 26, 2024, over 200 Caddie Scholars and their family members joined with members of the NJSGA Board of Trustees and Caddie Scholarship Foundation Board of Trustees for the annual Scholars’ Banquet held in the Grand Ballroom at NJSGA headquarters at Galloping Hill Golf Club. The Banquet is a celebration that recognizes the outstanding academic achievements of the Caddie Scholars and their remarkable contributions to the game of golf.
This year the Caddie Scholarship Foundation will award scholarships to 165 NJSGA and NJSGA/Evans Scholars in excess of $850,000. These young men and women will study at college campuses from Piscataway to San Diego, pursuing a wide array of academic majors from aeronautical engineering to business management to marine biology.
The 2024-2025 Caddie Scholars are truly a remarkable group of young men and women who have committed themselves to excellence in the classroom and on the golf course. The freshman class proudly boasts a 3.69 GPA, with nearly one-third of the 33 freshman scholars earning a perfect 4.0 GPA during their high school careers. Those scholars currently enrolled in college carry an average GPA of 3.44.
The Foundation is proud to continue its partnership with the Evans Scholars Foundation and is excited to announce that there will be 22 NJSGA/Evans Scholars attending such prestigious universities such as Indiana, Ohio State, Miami University of Ohio, Notre Dame, Purdue, and Rutgers during the 2024-2025 academic year.
Sheila Menendez, the Foundation’s Director of Education, extolled the scholars’ academic accomplishments and praised them for their dedicated commitment to their studies, while also contributing to the storied history of the game of golf.
Brian Hunt, Chairman of the Caddie Scholarship Foundation, recognized the generous support received from 54 clubs and nearly 5,500 individuals in addition to foundations and corporations. In a special way, Mr. Hunt recognized the efforts of the NJSGA Board of Trustees and the Caddie Scholarship Foundation’s Trustees, as well as the contributions of the Foundation’s Directors of Education, Sheila and Mike Menendez, and Director of Development, Jeff Knapp.
The Foundation is truly indebted to the long-standing, generous support of the Mary Reinhart Stackhouse Foundation, which has provided nearly $1.7 million dollars in scholarships to over 150 caddies since 2004. Hunt announced that the Mary Reinhart Stackhouse Foundation and Echo Lake Country Club will be inducted into the Foundation’s Diamond Society at the Foundation’s annual Club Awards Dinner this Fall. The Diamond Society recognizes clubs and foundations which have contributed $1 million or more since the Foundation’s 50th anniversary in 1997.
Jeff Knapp, the Foundation’s Director of Development, described the evening as “a celebration of the remarkable academic accomplishments of the 165 NJSGA and NJSGA/Evans Scholars and their dedicated and steadfast commitment to, and in service of, the game of golf, which have made them worthy of the distinction Caddie Scholar.” Knapp went on to commend the Caddie Scholars, saying “Not only do these young men and women make their parents and families proud, but they make the membership at the clubs where they caddie extremely proud as they continue one of the oldest traditions of the game of golf and join an association of scholars that proudly boasts a membership of over 3,500 in its 77-year history. The New Jersey State Golf Association, the Caddie Scholarship Foundation, and the golf community of New Jersey, congratulates, commends, and thanks you.”
Nick Nuzzi, a Caddie Scholar from Spring Lake Golf Club currently attending Auburn University, and recipient of the Norma and Sol Kugler Memorial Scholarship, shared how fortunate he has been to be able to work as a caddie since the age of 14. He shared his gratitude toward the Caddie Scholarship Foundation for giving him the opportunity to study Aviation at Auburn. The scholarship he received has reduced the financial burden tuition has placed upon his family. He graciously acknowledged the benefactors and his family and proclaimed his intent to “pay it forward” and contribute to the Caddie Scholarship Foundation in the future.
NJSGA Executive Director, Kevin Purcell, congratulated the scholars and thanked them for their contributions to the game. Mr. Purcell also thanked and commended the scholars’ parents for sharing their sons and daughters with the game of golf and for allowing them to be a part of golf’s centuries-long tradition.
The scholars received certificates, pins, and hats to commemorate their achievements to distinguish themselves as Caddie Scholars when they are out on the course.
We wish the scholars many great loops this summer and much success when they return to their colleges and universities in the Fall.
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