Pattie Delgado is getting into golf at ground zero.
“Everything’s new,” says the sophomore-to-be at Queen of Peace High School in Burbank, who is learning to be a caddy this summer. “I went for training. It was really fun. . . . They showed us the different clubs, how to carry the bag, how to clean the clubs.”
Delgado is standing in a hallway of a dormitory at Dominican University in River Forest, having just lugged her belongings to the room that will be her home for the next nine weeks. On this sunny Saturday, 19 girls and 33 boys are checking in–the girls at Dominican, the boys at Lake Forest College–and getting settled, participants in the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Foundation’s summer caddy program.
“I was a caddy,” said Jim Murphy, who co-founded the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Foundation with his brother Bob in 1989 in memory of their father. “A couple of our other board members were caddies. We knew what a caddying program can do. . . . The benefits are big time.”
“The idea [for the golf program] was several fold,” said Tom Kearney, immediate past president of the foundation, which provides private high school educational opportunities for disadvantaged Chicago youth. “One was just to get the kids out of the city for the summer. Show them another part of the world out here. And the Murphy scholarships don’t cover everything–we expect the families to contribute up to $1,500 [the average income for families of Murphy scholars is $25,000, and a hustling caddy can earn $5,000 a summer]. This gives the boys and girls the opportunity to earn money over the summer.”
But fresh air and cash are just a part of the 11-year-old program.
“You can make a lot of money,” said Dionte Durham, a 2003 Providence-St. Mel graduate who’ll enter the University of Illinois in the fall as a pre-law student. “But the best thing is that you meet interesting people. I’ve already met a couple of attorneys. They’ve given me their cards and said I should contact them in a couple of years.”
Six mornings a week since early June, the young caddies have been shuttled to a dozen private golf clubs, where they spend the day caddying. They can earn $25 to $40 for a round (“loop” in caddy lingo). More experienced caddies can carry two bags a round and double that. And if they caddy two loops, money can really add up.
But as Kearney said, it’s not a free ride. In addition to what their families are expected to contribute toward their education, the caddies pay back a portion of their earnings into the program, helping defray the approximately $2,000 it costs for each caddy during the nine weeks. Additional money for the program comes from corporate and private donations.
The kids’ lessons go beyond what they learn lugging bags on a golf course.
“We’re getting ready for college,” Durham, who is in his third summer in the program, said at one of the Lake Forest dorms. “A lot of kids go to college blind, not knowing about dorm life. But this is like being college freshmen.”
Loren Pullum, who’ll be a junior at De La Salle, says that last year, her first in the program, taught her self-sufficiency.
“I had to take care of myself and learn to be responsible–with my money, with my laundry,” she says, waiting for friends to sign in at Dominican.
All the caddies’ needs are taken care of: They’re fed, there are gyms, pools, computer rooms and other diversions on the campuses, and counselors provide transportation to and from their jobs and outside activities.
“Bowling,” said Allison Gonsowski, head counselor for the girls, herself a former Murphy scholar who will be a senior at Marquette. “A lot of bowling. We have paintball, or a scavenger hunt. We’ll go up to the boys dorm in Lake Forest. If a girl wants to go to a mall, I’ll take them.”
If kids have problems or questions–about anything–there’s also someone there for them.
“They ask me more about college, actually, than anything else,” said Ariel Valles, the boys head counselor. “But they come to me with problems too. You know, a problem at home, or even a problem with a girlfriend, whatever. I like to think of the kids as my 35 little cousins,” Valles said.
There are additional resources for the young caddies. The program also offers guest speakers on everything from sports to career planning; mentors and tutors; and participation in the LEAP (Language Empowering All People) program, which enhances communication skills.
At separate meetings during the first week, the boys and girls were given tips on how to represent the foundation in general and the caddy program in particular. Gathered in a conference room at Lake Forest, the boys politely listened to a foundation spokeswoman’s words of wisdom. Turn off your cell phones when you have a guest speaker. If someone you’re caddying for asks what school you go to, tell them, “I’m a Daniel Murphy scholar and I attend. . . .” If a golfer asks how he or she can get involved in the foundation, tell them where to get more information.
But for all the talk and networking, the bottom line is still golf. And kids who once had little or no contact with the game are getting into it.
“At first I’d watch golf on television,” Durham said. “I thought it was kind of slow. But it’s actually pretty interesting. What I like about it is you don’t have to be a great athlete. You can be Michael Jordan and be terrible. It’s about skill and finesse.”
The youngsters are encouraged to talk to the golfers they’re caddying for.
“One [golfer], for the whole loop we talked about comic books and movies,” says Brandon Brinner, a junior at Marist High School in his second year in the program. “Others, they don’t want to talk and you just leave them alone.”
Most of the caddies have set their sights on the next step in their lives, college. The Murphy Foundation has an annual college fair for its scholars–last year 45 schools participated–and offers students help with the college selection process. A big part of that, of course, is financial aid, and a key source of that aid for the Murphy caddies is a Chick Evans Scholarship.
Worth up to $100,000 over four years of college, an Evans Scholarship has much the same requirements as a Murphy Scholarship. But Evans scholars also have to have two years of caddying under their belts and need recommendations from a golf club, which is one reason the foundation started the caddying program. It has paid off. Ten Murphy scholars were chosen Evans scholars this year, about 20 percent of the total of Illinois’ Evans scholars, Kearney said.
Eddy Herrera, who’ll be a junior at De La Salle, is aiming at an Evans Scholarship.
“That’s my chief goal,” he said. “But you get to know people. You might meet them in the future and you can tell them, `I caddied for you.'”
A shy guy blossoms into a real player
Hundreds of success stories have come out of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Foundation’s caddy program.
Founder Jim Murphy has his favorites, but the one he really likes to talk about is O’Donavan Johnson.
Johnson attended Peirce Elementary School on the North Side, where he learned about the Daniel Murphy scholarships.
“In 8th grade, I remember my homeroom teacher told us about it,” Johnson said. “I was the only one to apply, so I made it.”
He said he probably would have attended Lane Tech, but instead was able to go to his No. 1 choice, Loyola Academy.
Murphy recalls meeting Johnson at the annual reception held for incoming freshmen.
“There he was, standing off to the side, by himself,” Murphy said. “He was wearing very urban clothes, and he had an Afro way out, and I thought he looked a little out of place, like he was struggling a little bit.
“So I went over and introduced myself, and I realized he was kind of introverted, kind of shy.
“He told me he was going to go to Loyola Academy, my alma mater, and I sort of wondered how he was going to do there.”
About three weeks after school started, Murphy got a call from the foundation’s education director, who told him the foundation was having trouble contacting Johnson. He hadn’t been in touch with his mentor, mail was being returned, and there was some uncertainty if he was even attending classes.
“I said, `Let me check; I’ve got a daughter in that same class and I’ll ask her,'” Murphy said.
He asked his daughter that evening if she knew O’Donavan Johnson.
“And she said, `Oh, Dad, you mean O’D.’ Well, yeah, that’s his name, I guess.
“And she said, `Oh yeah, everybody knows O’Donavan, Dad. He’s already president of the freshman class.’
“He went on to be president of his class all four years at Loyola,” Murphy said. “That’s the first time that’s ever been done in the history of the school.
“Then he went on to Holy Cross, and this year he’s going to be a senior.”
Johnson is studying philosophy, political science and women’s studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and hopes to apply to graduate school at Brown or Columbia. He points to the Murphy foundation as one reason for his success.
“Just the opportunity to go to Loyola–it’s a very expensive school,” he says.
And the caddying program got him involved in golf, something he still dabbles in as a caddy at Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park and as a participant.
“I wouldn’t consider what I do `golf,'” he said, laughing. “It’s an attempt at the game.
“I enjoy it, but I have limited time. I’m caddying six days a week. So on Mondays, my day off, I don’t want to see a golf course.”
— W.H.
As a career choice, you could do worse
The Murphy program wants to prepare kids for the future as leaders, not as caddies. But if any Murphy scholars found that caddying was their true calling, they could make a nice living.
Tiger Woods’ nine PGA Tour victories in 2000 earned caddie Steve Williams nearly $700,000, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Williams also won an undisclosed amount from Woods’ other 11 tour appearances that year.
On the PGA Tour, caddies get a salary, usually from $500 to $1,000 a week, that covers living expenses. If their golfer wins a tournament, they get a 10 percent cut (and with million-dollar paydays for a tourney winner, that can be considerable). Other finishes can be worth 5 to 8 percent. Of course if a golfer fails to make the cut, his caddy is left with only living expenses.
Still, by and large it’s a good living. As Doug Ford, who won 19 PGA Tour events between 1951-63, including the ’55 PGA Championship and ’57 Masters, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel recently, “The caddies today make more money in a month than we did in a year.”
— W.H.
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For more information on the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Foundation, call 312-455-7800, or go to www.dmsf.org.
