At the age of eight, Charles E. “Chick” Evans was first exposed to golf as a caddie at a Chicago course, the Edgewater Golf Club. in 1916, when he won both the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open in the same year, Evans was the first person to accomplish this task, and only Bobby Jones has done it since.
Evans won the 1910 Western Open by defeating George Simpson 6 and 5 in the 36-hole final. He was the only amateur to do so until Scott Verplank in 1985. After his 1916 victory at the U.S Amateur, Evans won the event again in 1920, and was runner-up three times. Selected to the Walker Cup team in 1922, 1924, and 1928, he played in a record 50 consecutive U.S. Amateurs in his long career. Evans achieved all of this while amazingly only carrying seven hickory-shafted clubs.
Evans also won the Western Open in 1910 Into the 1960s, Evans was an active participant in senior tournaments, and still competed in U.S. Amateur events. Evans played his last rounds of competitive golf in 1968, winning the Illinois Open that year. His last Western Amateur was in 1967.
After his wins in 1916, Evans was given several thousand dollars in royalties for recording golf instructions for the Brunswick Record Company, and in 1921 he received royalties from a golf book. If he had accepted this money Evans would have lost his amateur status. His mother suggested that he put the money to good use by sponsoring a scholarship fund for caddies.
Evans, who was unable to finish his own studies at Northwestern University, recalled that his mother “wouldn’t think of accepting my money unless we could arrange it to be trusted to furnish educations for deserving qualified caddies.” He said his mother “pointed out that the money came from golf and thus should go back into golf — It was all her dream — her idea.”
Evans went to the Western Golf Association (WGA), an organization that ran the golf championships in the Midwest, to get their support for his scholarship. By 1930, the Evans Scholars Foundation had formed. Evans Scholarship houses exist at the following Universities: University of Colorado, University of Illinois, Northwestern University, Marquette University, University of Wisconsin, Purdue University, Ohio State University, Northern Illinois University, University of Missouri, Indiana University, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Miami University and the University of Minnesota. Its safe to say the legacy of Chick Evans has been felt by hundreds, if not thousands of people fortunate enough to be be impacted by the Evans Scholars Foundation.
In 1960, Evans was voted the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. He is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. (wikipedia)
