Amount raised for Evans Scholarship for caddies by BMW Championship at Castle Pines expected to set a record — by a lot; more than 125,000 people attended event over the course of the week
By Gary Baines – 8/25/2024
CASTLE ROCK — The record amount of net proceeds the BMW Championship has ever donated to the Evans Scholarship Foundation for caddies in a single year is $5.6 million, from 2021 when the tournament was held near Baltimore.
But the championship that concluded on Sunday at Castle Pines Golf Club will change all that — and considerably — based on what organizers are saying.
“It’ll be the highest ever is all I can tell you,” George Solich, chairman and president of Castle Pines Golf Club said after Sunday’s awards ceremony. “There’s no doubt: we’re not even close. It will be a very high number.”
Solich’s brother, Duffy, the tournament chairman for the 2024 BMW Championship, went a step further.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and tell you I think it’s close to $8 million,” said Duffy Solich, like George a University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum. “And I am going out on a limb; that’s an approximate number. But we discussed that number and I think it could approach that. If I’m wrong, don’t hold it against me.”
That’s certainly good news for the teenage caddies from across the country who are fortunate enough to receive Evans Scholarship — including those in Colorado. After all, the scholarship is estimated to be worth an average of $125,000 over four years. The Evans Scholarship provides full tuition and housing grants to teenage caddies who achieve at a high level at caddying, in school and in extracurriculars, plus demonstrate significant financial need.
Duffy (left) and George Solich congratulate one another Sunday on a successful BMW Championship.
All the proceeds from the BMW Championship go to the Evans Scholarship, and roughly $50 million has been raised for the cause since BMW became the title sponsor of the event in 2007.
Over the years, more than 12,000 caddies nationwide have graduated from the E.S. program, with 1,130 more currently enrolled at 24 universities around the country. This coming school year, a record 340 caddies will begin their journey as new Evans Scholars. There are now 540 CU Evans Scholar alums, with about 55 caddies currently in the house in Boulder. And it all began with Chick Evans — an amateur who won a U.S. Open and two U.S. Amateurs — starting the caddie scholarship in 1930 with the help of the Western Golf Association, which also oversees the BMW Championship.
The 2024 BMW Championship was also a winner in other respects. Despite ticket sales being limited to enhance the fan experience at Castle Pines, the number of attendees for the week exceeded 125,000, said the Soliches, who both were inducted into the WGA’s Caddie Hall of Fame earlier in the week. And about 2,300 volunteers worked the event. (Note: a couple of weeks after the tournament concluded, officials indicated that attendance reached about 135,000 for the week.)
As for the how the BMW Championship at Castle Pines went in general, Duffy Solich said, “Incredible — from the fans’ standpoint, the players’ standpoint, the caddies’ standpoint, incredible volunteer turnout. The course held up incredibly at 12 under par (for the winner after four rounds). We didn’t know. It had been 18 years and never medal play (for a PGA Tour event at Castle Pines).
“Our entire club turned out some incredible service. The Western Golf Association is always super professional in everything they do. I can’t say enough about their team.”
Castle Pines Golf Club hosted The International on the PGA Tour from 1986 through 2006 — using a Modified Stableford format — but underwent significant upgrades over the last decade leading up to this BMW Championship.
“I’m really really proud of the club,” George Solich said. “This was a long time coming. You think about the work we’ve done on the golf course, the clubhouse, every stitch of the property, it’s really 10 years in the making. I know Jack Vickers (the late founder of Castle Pines Golf Club and The International) is smiling down on us today. I’m very proud of that too.”
George Solich congratulated his older brother on his work bringing the whole event together, apparently seamlessly
“The work Duffy did leading a collaboration of BMW, the PGA Tour, the WGA, our Castle Pines Executive Committee, all of our members — he did a fabulous job,” George said. “And in the community as well. The community came out and really supported this. It really felt like something very different. I think you could feel it every day you were here. Every player, every caddie, all the players’ families, all the fans, all the members, all the guests, the media, I heard nothing but effusive comments this week. It’s kind of like the icing on the cake when you put a lot of work into this and you want it to be great. That’s what we’re about is being great. It really was a great success. Everybody felt good. It was very cool to see and feel.”
The 2024 BMW Championship marked the 35th PGA Tour event ever held in Colorado, a total that breaks down like this: 21 Internationals, 6 Denver Opens, 3 U.S. Opens, 3 PGA Championships and now 2 BMW Championship. The first of the bunch was the 1938 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills Country Club.
But this was just the second of the bunch since The International was last held in 2006. The question now is, how soon will the next PGA Tour event come to the Centennial State?
“Everybody’s leaving here — BMW, the Tour, WGA, fans, players, caddies — with this great smile on their face and great feeling about Castle Pines,” George Solich said. “Jack Vickers built Castle Pines for championship golf. (Course designer) Jack Nicklaus helped me remake it for the modern game. And it’s ready, as we proved. So I think it would be a shame not to have the PGA Tour back.
“When, in what form, and what tournament, I think remains to be seen. I know we’ll have those discussions soon. They don’t really want to wait. I don’t really want to wait. But we’ll figure out what is best for Castle Pines and what’s best for Colorado, how it fits with the Tour’s plans and schedule. There’s a lot of things that go into that. You have to have some thoughtful discussion on what’s the art of the possible.”
Castle Pines membership would prefer not to host an annual event, George Solich said. And BMW Championship venues are booked out through 2027, when BMW’s title sponsorship agreement currently ends. The 2014 BMW Championship was held at Cherry Hills Country Club, and the ’24 version at Castle Pines. So it’s a good bet that a future BMW Championship might be Colorado’s best chance for its next PGA Tour event. But a contract extension would need to be agreed upon by BMW to make that work.
“It’s a bit of a simultaneous equation,” George Solich said of that situation. “As they look to extend the contract, they’re going to be looking preemptively where would we go if we add five years to the contract or seven years. We’re open for those discussions, we’re open for other discussions.”
From the perspective of PGA Tour players, perhaps the one obstacle to returning to Colorado may be the altitude situation, given that Castle Pines is located at more than 6,000 feet, and almost all of PGA Tour golf is played at something much lower.
While Denver native Wyndham Clark certainly hopes the Tour returns to Colorado in the not-too-distant future, he realizes that could be an issue.
“It’s hard to play at altitude,” he said. “That’s going to be the common theme that everyone says outside of whoever wins this tournament. But even then, they’ll probably say the same thing. We control our ball to the yard 90 percent of the time, and then you come here and it’s like 40 percent of the time. It’s just a guessing game. There’s a lot of luck involved at altitude golf.
“But with that said, Denver is a great sports town. This is a great golf course. The love and the support we feel from the fans here is amazing. I would love for us to come back at least every few years or every other year or every year. It would be great to be able to come back here. I hope we do, and hopefully that happens.”
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com