Caylum Ganshirt was just looking for a summer job the summer after his eighth grade school year, but the decision to be a caddie at Idlewild Country Club turned out to be a life changing one.
Now a senior at Homewood-Flossmoor High School, Ganshirt was recently awarded the prestigious Chick Evans Scholarship. The award, given by the Western Golf Association, pays for all housing and tuition for four years of college, and is potentially valued at over $125,000.
“This is my way to go to college. I don’t really have a college fund put away, ” he said. “This was the main thing that will let me go to a higher caliber school without taking on a huge amount of debt.”
Ganshirt — who also swims, plays water polo, golf and used to play football for H-F — caddied between 16 and 24 hours a week during the summers, usually at Idlewild but also at Flossmoor Country Club. He wasn’t a golfer before the sport but decided to go out for the team as a senior.
He’s also an honors student in the International Baccalaureate program with a weighted GPA of 6.47. He’s in DECA, too. He usually gets home around 6 p.m. from practice, has dinner and spends a little time with his family and then gets to his homework.
That sort of schedule didn’t come by accident.
Ganshirt lost over 80 pounds when he was in seventh grade. He was about 240 pounds and only about 5-foot-6 and said he grew up telling himself he’d lose the weight “when he got older.”
“I realized I can’t just keep pushing it back. I am getting older,” he said. “I would make sure to run every night. I would really be on top of it with the running and then caddying in the summer, that’s just more running and sweating.”
That taught him discipline, Ganshirt said. That’s what he wrote his scholarship application essay about.
“That’s my best trait, how I can stick to something that I put my mind to,” he said. “That weight loss journey, that was one of the main things that helped build that ability.”
After being chosen as finalists, scholarship applicants were interviewed by a team of Evans Foundation representatives in November in Glenview. They look for a strong caddie record, excellent academics, demonstrated financial need and outstanding character.
Ganshirt said the process of standing behind a podium and taking questions was nerve wracking.
“You’re not sure what they’re going to ask or how you’ll sound,” he said. “There was one curveball question but the rest I think I answered pretty well. I got the audience to laugh a couple times and that’s kind of my thing so I felt pretty good about it.”
Ganshirt isn’t sure where he’ll study just yet. Evans Scholars live together in houses at 27 different colleges. Ganshirt submitted five schools to which he was accepted — University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Colorado, Northwestern, University of Illinois Chicago and Marquette. He’ll learn his destination on March 15.
He plans to study mechanical engineering. The foundation will provide tutors and counselors to help him stay on track.
“They really stress community building. You’re living with all the scholars. You’re studying with the scholars,” Ganshirt said. “They’re trying to set you up for success.”
The program was founded by Chicago golfer Charles “Chick” Evans Jr. and the Western Golf Association in 1930. It’s now funded by the Evans Scholars Par Club, with more than 43,500 contributors. Proceeds from the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship also go toward the foundation.
It’s been successful. Evans Scholars have a cumulative GPA of 3.3 and a 98% graduation rate, according to the WGA.
“Each of these 104 students has earned this life-changing opportunity through their hard work, dedication and outstanding character,” Kim Schriver, a WGA Director and Illinois state co-chair, said in a press release. “They represent the very best of the Evans Scholars Program, and we are proud to welcome them as they take the next step toward college and future leadership.”
Those other students, along with the system of past scholarship winners around the country, are the biggest advantage that comes with the award, Ganshirt said. He plans to make the most of it.
“Obviously, full tuition and housing is awesome. That’s incredible. But the thing that I keep thinking about is the alumni base of Evans Scholars. It’s a large group of successful individuals,” he said. “It’s not just the fiscal benefits but it’s that support system.”
