{"id":2454877,"date":"2020-02-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-22T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=321349"},"modified":"2020-02-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-22T07:00:00","slug":"two-basalt-caddies-earn-four-year-scholarships-to-university-of-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/two-basalt-caddies-earn-four-year-scholarships-to-university-of-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Basalt caddies earn four-year scholarships to University of Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Tristan Johnston (left) and Tucker Bruce earned Chick Evans Scholarships for Caddies for 2020. The two Basalt High School seniors get a full ride to the University of Colorado.<\/strong>
Scott Condon\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Five years of hard work paid off for two Basalt High School seniors who earned Chick Evans Scholarships for Caddies for 2020.<\/p>\n

Tucker Bruce and Tristan Johnston were awarded full-ride scholarships to the University of Colorado, renewable for four years. They started working as caddies at the Roaring Fork Club in Basalt in seventh grade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was stoked. I was so happy, beyond thankful,\u201d Bruce said last week. \u201cCollege is so crazy expensive, so it\u2019s pretty great to get it all paid for. I would have always found a way to go to college but it would have entailed taking out a ton of loans and just putting myself in a ton of debt, so having this is just so relieving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnston said getting the scholarship was a goal he worked toward for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve had it in mind the whole time I\u2019ve been caddying,\u201d he said. \u201cFor me it was pretty surreal and amazing (to find out I won) and my parents were super happy and grateful for all the work I put in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a huge opportunity to go to college without racking up a ton of debt,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Both men are considering trying to go to the Leeds School of Business at CU.<\/p>\n

Since starting as a caddie at the club, Johnston estimated he put in 100 loops, caddie jargon for a round that a golfer makes, while Bruce said he did about 90.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve liked that I\u2019ve got to meet new people and learned new things from the people who I\u2019ve caddied for over the years,\u201d Johnston said.<\/p>\n

Both said it was a bit daunting to start caddying at such a young age. First, there is the physical labor of lugging 30-pound golf bags for 7\u00bd miles around an 18-hole course that crosses over the Roaring Fork River and under Highway 82 in the middle of the valley. Then, there\u2019s the awkwardness of young teens trying to communicate with older grown-ups. That challenged them to interact with the club members and ended up being an awarding part of their experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s definitely the communication skills that I\u2019ve developed from it, being able to talk to such successful people,\u201d Bruce said.<\/p>\n

Caddies at the Roaring Fork Club have had phenomenal success<\/a> earning the Evans Scholarships over the years. This year\u2019s winners make it 17 in 16 years. There were no winners from Basalt last year.<\/p>\n

To qualify, caddies must have a good caddie history, excellent academics, financial need and \u201cexceptional character.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scholarship was started in 1930 by the Western Golf Association and amateur golfer Charles \u201cChick\u201d Evans. Since then, about 10,830 young men and women have graduated as Evans Scholars.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely hard work,\u201d Bruce said of the work and application process. \u201cThe only nerve-wracking part was the interview.\u201d<\/p>\n

Applicants had to speak in front of an audience of about 150 people in a news conference-style setting, Johnston said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir main goal is to get to know us better beyond just our application. So they asked us a bunch of questions about our interests and hobbies and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruce added, \u201cThey were there to help you succeed. They weren\u2019t trying to stump you. The questions were pretty much like, \u2018What would the scholarship mean to you?\u2019 and \u2018What\u2019s your favorite thing to do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It was about one week between the interview and the notification they had been selected for scholarships. They said they stayed busy with school to keep the uncertainty off their minds. Johnston played football and basketball this school year and he volunteers in the Big Buddy Program. Bruce runs cross country and track, is a member of Key Club, National Honor Society and the Big Buddy Program.<\/p>\n

Johnston and Bruce have attended the Basalt public schools their whole lives. They intend to caddie again this summer at the Roaring Fork Club, where they have met a lot of mentors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot of communication skills,\u201d Johnston said, \u201cand they gave me a lot of advice about working hard and persevering through hard times so you get places in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding his time at Roaring Fork Club, Bruce added, \u201cAs long as you\u2019re willing to take criticism and be open with people, that\u2019s the biggest thing. The members have taught me to be a good caddie and whatnot.\u201d<\/p>\n

scondon@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tristan Johnston (left) and Tucker Bruce earned Chick Evans Scholarships for Caddies for 2020. The two Basalt High School seniors get a full ride to the University of Colorado.Scott Condon\/The Aspen Times Five years of hard work paid off for two Basalt High School seniors who earned Chick Evans Scholarships for Caddies for 2020. Tucker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2454877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 14:08:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2454877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2454877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2454877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2454877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}