BMW Wednesday: It’s all about the caddies

Pro-Am day focused on stars and the caddies who make it possible

By Jim Bebbington

The BMW Championship is a PGA Tour stop, but the actual event is organized by the Western Golf Association.

And the WGA uses the tournament every year to bring visibility to its signature cause – the Evans Scholarship Foundation. The BMW Championship has helped the Western Golf Association raise $50 million for the Evans Scholar Foundation since 2007.

Evans Scholars are the student caddies who receive college scholarships to attend schools around the country. The University of Colorado chapter is one of the organization’s largest, housed prominently in a large residential building across the street from the university’s front gate.

During Wednesday’s Pro-Am round of the BMW Championship, as foursomes and fivesomes of celebrities, pros, and well-heeled donors roamed the course, a place of honor was reserved in each group for a current Evans Scholar caddie.

Wyndham Clark had Logan Byler on his bag Wednesday. Byler is a recent CU graduate and like Clark a graduate of Valor Christian High School. On the first hole, as Peyton Manning and his group’s other amateurs stayed mainly in the fairway, Clark sprayed his drive wide right.

Byler found it first.

“Is that a foot wedge candidate?” Clark called over.

“You want a caddie bump?” Byler responded.

(Clark declined; instead he hit a fairway wood out of thick rough around 250 yards to a greenside bunker.)

Throughout the day, the college-age caddies all carried for the pros.

Isabella Iacovetta, a rising senior studying psychology at CU who caddied for six years at Lakewood Country Club.

“I absolutely love it,” she said. “It’s a great job, a great way to network. I just love meeting new people.”

Throughout the day Thursday the Evans Scholars carried clubs, gave advice, and listened in as their pros often talked strategy with their full-time caddies in preparation for the competition rounds beginning tomorrow.

“It was fun to just catch up and hang out with (Wyndham),” said Logan Byler, who has known Clark and his family for several years. “To see him and (Clark’s caddie John Ellis) process because I’ve always wondered about the inside the ropes process for the caddies so it was really cool to see then talk.”

Evans Scholar Hannah Abbey, a CU junior and caddie from Meridian Golf Club in Englewood, works with PGA Tour pro Aaron Rai during Wednesday’s practice sessions at the BMW Championship. Photo by Jim Bebbington