The Caddie Scholarship Foundation At The 93rd State Open Championship
By Mike Moretti
Hackensack caddie Keith Gasser will be forever thankful for the award he receives annually from the New Jersey State Golf Association Caddie Scholarship Foundation.
Gasser, in his fourth summer as a caddie at Hackensack, is majoring in industrial engineering. He receives a stipend of $3,500 each year from the Caddie Scholarship Foundation.
Beginning in 1947 with two $600 per-year scholarships at Rutgers University, the NJSGA Caddie Scholarship Foundation 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 $812,00 in scholarship monies for an academic year.
The newest and only second receipt of a NJSGA/Western Golf Association Chick Evans Scholarship at the University of Michigan, Thomas Marcus, as caddie at Knickerbocker Country Club, is able to not only attend Michigan on a full tuition, room and board scholarship, but also live in an Evans Chapter House and share the experience with other Evans Scholars.
More than 2,850 caddie scholars, young men and women, have received awards since 1947. The 2013-14 recipients boast a freshman GPA of 3.59 and SAT score average of 1199. New-in-college awardees attained a 3.14 GPA. They have accepted the challenge to surpass the 96 percent graduation rate of their predecessors.
“I’ve always been a good student in math and science and always like engineering,” Gasser said. “This has a business side to it. Industrial engineering is about the supply chain—how to make things more cost effective and less time consuming,” he said.
Gasser was in National Honor Society at Ramsey High School. He attained a nearly perfect grade point average of 3.96 and achieved an impressive 2012 on his SATs.
At Ramsey High, he competed in freshman and sophomore baseball, wrestling and football. His extracurricular activities included four years of architectural drawing and three years of participating in the Relay for Life Marathon which raises money for the American Cancer Society.
He started caddieing at Hackensack after his junior year in high school. His brother, Drew, older by three years, has preceded him to Hackensack and was a four-year recipient of an NJSGA Caddie Scholarship Foundation grant. A recent graduate of the University of Colorado, Drew works in San Francisco marketing software for video conferencing.
One member, Dan Mills, a chief financial officer at Lebhar-Friedman, Inc., a New York City publishing company, asks for Keith each weekend to carry his bag.
“I prefer having Keith caddie for me,” Mills stated. “He’s a good caddie, a smart kid and very personable. He’s also very good at reading greens and very attentive.
“Caddies play an important role here at Hackensack. They are mainly high school and college students and it’s a good learning experience for them. They meet new people and learn how to deal with people.
“Keith is a respectful and bright and a good student. I’ve very comfortable having him out there with me.”
While Gasser only picked up the sport of golf after he became a caddie, he enjoys playing the course on Mondays. Penn State offers two on-campus courses that he takes advantage of.
“We have a bunch of guys in my fraternity who go out and play on the weekends,” he said. “My best score was a 43 on the back nine at Hackensack. I’ve learned to appreciate the game by being a caddie.”
Gasser is vice president of his fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha. The fraternity, along with the sorority, Kappa Alpha Beta, took part in the annual Penn State Dance Marathon and together raised $126,000 as part of the overall $13.6 million raised entirely by Penn State students. The event, known as “Thon,” benefits pediatric cancer.
Keith even organized one weekend in his hometown of Ramsey where he and fraternity brothers informed residents of the dance marathon and solicited donations.
“Keith is one of the better caddies here at Hackensack,” said Denis Sweeny, in his 28thyear as caddie master. “He’s always here when I need him. He’s a great kid.
“I’m a big proponent of the NJSGA Caddie Scholarship Foundation. Caddies who receive the scholarships are very appreciative of it and make the most out of it. I started caddieing here in 1980. I have two little boys of my own who I hope someday will become caddies.
“Many of them give back to Hackensack and some have become members.”
Among the former caddies who are now members of Hackensack Golf Club, according to Sweeny, are Gerald Griffin (ABC Sports Entertainment), Tom Rooney (Price Waterhouse) and Jim Sok (internet storage sales).
*Article originally printed in the 2013 NJSGA Open Program
