Four area students awarded Chick Evans scholarships

Ten high school seniors from the metro area have been awarded the Chick Evans Caddie Scholarship, a full tuition and housing college scholarship (renewable for up to four years), for the 2008-09 academic year.

Of the 10, four are area students, and all caddied at Hazeltine National Golf Club, including Scott Cummings, Daniel Marquart and Daniel Palmer, all of Chanhassen, and Philip Dietel, of Chaska.

All attend Chaska High School, except Marquart, who is a Minnetonka High School student.

Evans Scholars are golf caddies who were selected based on four criteria: a strong caddie record, excellent academics, demonstrated financial need and outstanding character.

Selected students live in an Evans Scholarship House at one of the 14 chapters in the program, including the University of Minnesota. All of the area students plan to attend the University of Minnesota.

Currently, 835 caddies are enrolled in college as Evans Scholars, including 45 at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. More than 8,600 caddies have graduated as Evans Scholars, including 553 from the University of Minnesota, since the program was founded in 1930 by Charles "Chick" Evans Jr., famed Chicago amateur golfer and winner of the 1916 U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur.

The program has a college graduation rate of over 90 percent and an overall GPA for Evans Scholars in college above a 3.2 on a 4.0 scale. Scholarship funds come mostly from contributions by more than 500 member clubs, 23 affiliated golf associations, 36,000 WGA Par Club members and 100,000 golfers in the WGA Bag Tag Program.

For more information visit: www.evansscholarsfoundation.com.