Caddies Honored at Annual Caddie Scholarship Foundation Banquet
KENILWORTH, N.J. –– On Wednesday, June 24, 2026, over 200 Caddie Scholars and their family members joined with members of NJ Golf’s Board of Trustees and Caddie Scholarship Foundation Board of Trustees for the annual Scholars’ Banquet held in the Grand Ballroom at NJ Golf headquarters at Galloping Hill Golf Course. The Banquet is an annual 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 190 NJ Golf and NJ Golf-Evans Scholars worth more than $1 million. These young men and women will study at college campuses across the country, pursuing a wide array of academic majors.
The 2026-2027 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 3.63 GPA, with nearly one-third of the 23 freshman scholars earning a perfect 4.0 GPA during their high school careers. Those scholars currently enrolled in college carry an average GPA of 3.5.
The Foundation is proud to continue its partnership with the Evans Scholars Foundation and is excited to announce that there will be 26 NJ Golf-Evans Scholars attending such prestigious universities as Delaware, Howard University, Maryland, Miami University of Ohio, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Rutgers, and South Carolina during the 2026-2027 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.
New Jersey Golf President, David Cronheim, began the evening welcoming the guests to the annual gathering and quickly quipped a word of thanks to all the caddies in the room for their patience and understanding while on the golf course with their golfers for their sometimes less than accurate shots and wayward putts.
Brian Hunt, Chairman of the Caddie Scholarship Foundation, recognized the generous support received from 73 clubs and nearly 6,000 individuals in addition to foundations and corporations. In a special way, Mr. Hunt recognized the efforts of NJ Golf’s Board of Trustees, the Caddie Scholarship Foundation’s Trustees, and the Foundation’s club representatives, as well as the contributions of the Foundation’s Directors of Education, Sheila and Mike Menendez, and Director of Development, Jeff Knapp.
Additionally, Mr. Hunt thanks the scholars’ families for their care, love, and nurturing, which have enabled them to achieve this milestone. He offered a final piece of wisdom and told the room, “a nation’s youth are the trustees of its prosperity, and these scholarships are your passports to future success.”
Evoking the words of Winston Churchill, Hunt reminded the scholars, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that matters most.”
Jeff Knapp, the Foundation’s Director of Development, described the evening as “a celebration of the remarkable academic accomplishments of the 190 NJ Golf and NJ Golf-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 3,900 in its 79-year history. New Jersey Golf, the Caddie Scholarship Foundation, and the golf community of New Jersey, congratulates, commends, and thanks you.”
Theresa “Tess” Dionisio, Caddie Scholar from Glen Ridge Country Club currently attending Montclair State University, and recipient of an Academic Achievement Award, shared how caddying is a “family affair,” with her father also caddying at Glen Ridge and her grandmother being a long-time employee at the club. When not caddying, Tess works in the club’s Business Office and assists the professional staff with youth clinics. Tess expressed her gratitude to the Caddie Scholarship Foundation for giving her the opportunity to study business at Montclair State, grow her passion for the game of golf, interact with the amazing members at Glen Ridge, and learn unique aspects of the golf business all without the concerns the financial burdens a college education would place upon her and her family.
NJ Golf’s Director of Handicapping and Member Services, Rich Kennedy, congratulated the scholars and thanked them for their contributions to the game. Mr. Kennedy also shared some stories from his days looping at Glen Ridge Country Club and Essex County Country Club and commended the scholars for being champions of “reverse etiquette” by always exemplifying what is expected of golfers during a round and upholding one of golf’s centuries-long traditions.
In recognition of their dedicated service to the game of golf and their remarkable academic accomplishments, the scholars received commemorative certificates extolling their status as Caddie Scholars.
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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