Chick Evans
Evans (right) andRobert A. Gardner, the finalists at the 1916 U.S. Amateur
Personal information
Full name	Charles E. Evans Jr.
Nickname	Chick
Born	(1890-07-18)July 18, 1890 Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.
Died	November 6, 1979(1979-11-06) (aged 89) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Height	5 ft 10.5 in (1.79 m)
Weight	158 lb (72 kg; 11.3 st)
Sporting nationality	United States
Spouse	Esther Evans ​ ​ (m. 1927; died 1967)​ [1]
Career
Status	Amateur
Professional wins	3
Best results in major championships (wins: 3)
Masters Tournament	51st: 1940
PGA Championship	DNP
U.S. Open	Won:1916
The Open Championship	T49: 1911
U.S. Amateur	Won: 1916, 1920
British Amateur	T9: 1911
Achievements and awards
World Golf Hall of Fame 1975(member page) Bob Jones Award 1960

Charles E. "Chick"Evans Jr. (July 18, 1890 – November 6, 1979) was a prominent American amateurgolfer of the 1910s and 1920s. Evans, who won the 1910Western Open, became the first amateur to win both theU.S. Open andU.S. Amateur in one year, a feat he achieved in 1916. Evans won the U.S. Amateur again in 1920, and was runner-up three times. Selected to theWalker Cup team in 1922, 1924, and 1928, he competed in a record 50 consecutive U.S. Amateurs in his long career. Evans achieved all of this while carrying only seven hickory-shafted clubs.

In addition to his golf career, Evans is known for founding theEvans Scholars Foundation, which provides a collegescholarship for qualifiedcaddies.

In 1960, Evans was voted theBob Jones Award, the highest honor given by theUnited States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. He is a member of theWorld Golf Hall of Fame.

Born inIndianapolis, Indiana, Evans' family moved toChicago when he was eight years old, and he grew up on the north side of the city. His father,Charles Evans, was one of the most influential librarians of the 20th century. At the age of eight, he was first exposed to golf as acaddie at a Chicago course, the Edgewater Golf Club. He attended secondary school at the Evanston Academy, and won the 1907 and 1908 Western Interscholastic tournaments. He led in the founding of the Western Interscholastic Golf Association (WIGA), and led Evanston Academy to the 1908 WIGA team championship.^[2]

From these beginnings, Evans became one of the most acclaimed American amateur golfers of his time. The accomplishment that gave him the most contemporary publicity came in 1916, when he won both theU.S. Amateur andU.S. Open in the same year. Evans was the first person to accomplish this task, and onlyBobby Jones has done it since.

Evans also won theWestern Open in 1910 by defeatingGeorge Simpson 6 and 5 in the 36-hole final. He was the only amateur to do so untilScott Verplank in1985.^[3] Simpson graciously praised Evans on his victory, saying “I’ve learned the greatest golf lesson of my life today. I consider it a greater honor to be beaten by the kind of golf you have played than to have remained out of the tournament because I did not fancy match play.”^[4]

Into the 1960s, Evans was an active participant in senior tournaments, and still competed in U.S. Amateur events, eventually setting a record of completing 50 of these championships. Evans played his last rounds of competitive golf in 1968, winning theIllinois Open that year. His last Western Amateur was in 1967.^[1]

After his retirement, Evans continued to attend events as a spectator and converse with the fans and players.

After his wins in 1916, Evans was given several thousand dollars in royalties for recording golf instructions for theBrunswick Record Company, and in 1921 he received royalties from a golf book.^[5] 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 matriculation atNorthwestern 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 theWestern 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^[3] and two caddies, Harold Fink and Jim McGinnis, were named the first two Evans Scholars.

Chick Evans' long friendship with Chicago tax attorney, Carleton Blunt, had proved to be the catalyst for launching theEvans Scholars Foundation. Blunt, an avid golfer and philanthropist, supported Evans' vision for helping caddies attend colleges and universities across the country by raising the necessary funds for decades.

The criteria used to choose the recipients were scholarship, fellowship and leadership. Since that time, over 10,600 caddies have become Evans Scholars and attained college educations. The Evans scholarship program continues today as the largest scholarship organization in sports and the largest privately funded scholarship program in the United States.

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 theUniversity of Minnesota.

On February 19, 2014, theEvans Scholars Foundation announced their plans to build a new chapter house at theUniversity of Oregon. It is the first new Scholarship House in 27 years.^[6] In addition to those universities at which houses exist, scholarship recipients attend several other universities around the country. More than 800 caddies currently attend college on an Evans Scholarship.

Evans died on November 6, 1979, at age 89, and was buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie, Illinois. His wife, Esther, had died in 1967 after 40 years of marriage. They had no children.^[1] The Chick Evans Golf Course inMorton Grove, a north suburb of Chicago, is named in his honor.

• 1907 Chicago Amateur, Western Junior, Western Interscholastic
• 1908 Chicago Amateur, Western Interscholastic
• 1909Western Amateur^[7]
• 1910Western Open^[4]
• 1911French Open Amateur Championship,North and South Amateur, Chicago Amateur
• 1912Western Amateur^[7]
• 1914Western Amateur, Chicago District Amateur^[7]
• 1915Western Amateur^[7]
• 1916U.S. Open,U.S. Amateur
• 1920U.S. Amateur,Western Amateur
• 1921Western Amateur
• 1922Western Amateur
• 1923Western Amateur
• 1925 Kansas City Open

Year	Championship	54 Holes	Winning score	Margin	Runner-up
1916	U.S. Open	3 shot lead	−2 (70-69-74-73=286)	2 strokes	Jock Hutchison

Note: As an amateur, Evans was ineligible to play in thePGA Championship.

LA = Low amateur
NYF = Tournament not yet founded
NT = No tournament
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Year	Championship	Winning score	Runner-up
1916	U.S. Amateur	4 & 3	Robert A. Gardner
1920	U.S. Amateur	7 & 6	Francis Ouimet

M = Medalist
DNQ = Did not qualify for match play portion
R256, R128, R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in match play

Sources: Amateur Championship: 1911,^[8] 1914,^[9] 1921,^[10] 1926,^[11] 1946,^[12] 1949,^[13] 1950,^[14] 1952,^[15] 1953,^[16] 1955^[17]

Amateur

• Walker Cup:1922 (winners), 1924 (winners),1928 (winners)

Wikimedia Commons has media related toChick Evans.

• Works by or about Chick Evans at theInternet Archive
• USGA – Looking Back: 1916 U.S. Amateur at Merion
• Chick Evans at theWorld Golf Hall of Fame
• Official Site of the Western Golf Association/Evans Scholars Foundation
• Evans Scholarship Chapters

• American male golfers
• Amateur golfers
• Winners of men's major golf championships
• World Golf Hall of Fame inductees
• Golfers from Chicago
• Northwestern University alumni
• Golfers from Indianapolis
• 1890 births
• 1979 deaths
• 20th-century American sportsmen

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