On Amy Fuller’s first loop as a 12-year-old caddie, the golf bag was almost too big to carry.
“I didn’t know anything about golf,” Fuller said. “I could barely finish my first round. On the back nine, the golfer, seeing that I was struggling, asked if he could take the bag from me. That was very humbling.
“I was sweating and felt like I was going to pass out, but I did finish the round.”
Her pluck to see the job through to the 18th green served her well, both that day – she was handed a crisp $20 bill by the kind Ravisloe Country Club member who wanted to rescue her from the toil – and beyond.
Coaxed into the caddie yard of the club in Chicago’s south suburbs by a friend, one loop led to another, and yet another, and to a quickly blooming romance with golf. And, even better to someone who was an excellent student at Homewood-Flossmoor High School, to an Evans Scholarship.
An Evans, the brainchild of caddie-turned-amateur star Chick Evans and backed since 1930 by the Western Golf Association, is awarded to a caddie in the top quarter of his or her class with outstanding character who also is studious about caddie work and who has financial need.
Young Amy Boerema, eager to go into journalism, fit that profile in 1998. Aside from her summer caddie job, she was a supervisor at the National Runaway Switchboard in a nearby suburb, and she created a fund-raiser to support it.
She excelled at the University of Illinois, stayed an extra year to get a master’s in journalism, and quickly found work at the Daily Herald in suburban Arlington Heights, piling up both bylines and plaudits by reporting on the serious, such as an award-winning series on adoptions, and the fun. Some five years later, the WGA, planning to expand its one-man communications department, contacted her.
“I’ve met hundreds of young people whose lives have been changed because of the scholarship. It’s been so rewarding.” — Amy Fuller
“Full circle,” she said of the call that led to her hiring at the WGA, first to assist Gary Holaway and eventually to oversee a department that now totals a half-dozen people. “My job’s never felt like work. I think I was meant to be in PR and communications, and all those skills I gained in caddieing and journalism have really paid off in this role.”
Said John Kaczkowski, the WGA/Evans Scholars president and CEO: “Amy’s work ethic and her ability to communicate effectively with people from all walks of life have served her and our organization well over the past 16 years.
“As an Evans Scholar alum, Amy understands and values the life-changing impact an Evans Scholarship can have on young caddies. She showed her passion for our mission when she joined our staff in 2008, and since then she has worked diligently to help shape and share our message with our constituents and the public.”
Fuller, who recalls pedaling her bike down narrow Dixie Highway at 4:30 a.m. to assure she’d be in the lottery to get an early loop, said she was shy at the start of her six-year caddie career, but you’d never know it. She exemplifies the Evans Scholar persona: a lively, forward-thinking person who wants to improve the world, not just pass through it.
“I learned to converse with people. You learn about people as a caddie,” Fuller said. “You take an interest in them. And some took an interest in me.”
As vice president of communications, Fuller oversees the WGA’s semi-annual Evans Scholars-focused magazine and a host of other duties involved in getting the word of the scholar program spread widely. She sees her past being repeated over and over by incoming caddie-scholars, including those created by the WGA’s caddie outreach programs.
“I really relate to the Caddie Academy girls,” Fuller said. “The first time they set foot on a golf course, they didn’t know anything about golf. I didn’t either. But I came to work one day because I sensed there was an opportunity out there. I thought it might take me places.
“Now, I’ve met hundreds of young people whose lives have been changed because of the scholarship. It’s been so rewarding.”
Young Amy, having survived that first caddie assignment at Ravisloe, was quickly back for the next one, making new friends in the caddie yard, sometimes while playing cards or basketball, and a few dollars as well.
“Those $20 bills I put in an envelope started to add up,” Fuller recalled. “My first big purchase was a golf bag and clubs, even though I wasn’t really golfing. I think I knew this game was going to have a really big impact on me.
“I knew this was going to lead to life-changing opportunities. And it did.”