Caddies Honored at Annual CSF Banquet
KENILWORTH, N.J. - On Wednesday, June 25, 2025, over 250 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 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 194 NJ Golf and NJ Golf/Evans Scholars in excess of $1 million. These young men and women will study at college campuses across the country, pursuing a wide array of academic majors.
The 2025-2026 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 3.54 GPA, with nearly one-quarter of the 28 freshman scholars earning a perfect 4.0 GPA during their high school careers. Those scholars currently enrolled in college carry an average GPA of 3.55.
The Foundation is proud to continue its partnership with the Evans Scholars Foundation and is excited to announce that there will be 23 NJ Golf/Evans Scholars attending such prestigious universities such as Miami University of Ohio, Notre Dame, and Rutgers, and South Carolina during the 2025-2026 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, Rod McRae, began the evening welcoming the guests to the largest gathering of scholars and parents in the Foundation’s nearly 80-year history 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 56 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 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.
Jeff Knapp, the Foundation’s Director of Development, described the evening as “a celebration of the remarkable academic accomplishments of the 194 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 3,700 in its 78-year history. New Jersey Golf, the Caddie Scholarship Foundation, and the golf community of New Jersey, congratulates, commends, and thanks you.”
Ricardo Rodriguez, a Caddie Scholar from Upper Montclair Country Club currently attending Rutgers University, and recipient of a Mary Reinhart Stackhouse Scholarship, shared how caddying is in his blood, with his grandfather, father, uncles, and brothers all having worked or currently working as caddies at Upper Montclair. He expressed his gratitude toward the Caddie Scholarship Foundation for giving him the opportunity to study engineering at Rutgers, participate in professional associations on campus, and have a summer internship without the concerns of the financial burdens a college education would place upon him and his family.
Olivia-Alexis Lake, a Caddie Scholar from Essex County Country Club, who will be attending Spelman College as a freshman in the Fall, spoke about the transformative impact caddying has had upon her development from child to young adult and the many wonderful people she has met through caddying. Inspired by the members for who she has caddied, she has charted a course for herself that will take her from political science major to law school and ultimately to the Supreme Court. She expressed her gratitude to St. Benedict’s Prep for introducing her to caddying and to the outside operations staff and membership at Essex County Country Club for encouraging her to stick with caddying and to keep striving for perfection, both in the classroom and on the golf course.
NJ Golf 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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