The great college news this spring for recent Riverside Brookfield High School graduate Brandon Elizondo truly became a family affair. As Elizondo opened the large FedEx envelope informing him that he was among this year’s Evans Scholars receiving grants for full college housing and tuition to qualifying golf caddies, he sat in the kitchen with his parents as they prepared for dinner.
“After reading a sentence or two, when I found out I received the Evans, I didn’t know how to react,” Elizondo said. “I was shocked. My mom saw me tearing up not knowing. Once I told her, she and my dad were overwhelmed and it was such a great feeling.”
Elizondo has worked since sophomore year at the Riverside Golf Club in North Riverside, his hometown. He will attend the University of Kansas (Lawrence) and major in business. He will possibly pursue a career involving commercial real estate.
Lyons Township High School graduates Liam Watson and Rachel Chavez also were among the more than 130 Illinois honorees this year in the nation’s largest scholarship program for caddies, founded by Chicago amateur golfer Charles “Chick” Evans Jr. in 1930.
Watson is a caddie at Edgewood Valley Country Club in LaGrange Highlands and also will attend Kansas while 2024 graduate Chavez works at Butterfield Country Club in Oak Brook. She just completed her freshman year at Kansas and was an honor student in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.
Elizondo says he enjoys working at Riverside GC. “Every day I get to work with someone who’s good at their profession or is giving me good life advice,” he said. “Whatever you give to people, you get back even better. Reading greens, giving club advice, it’s making their rounds better and helping them enjoy it. And I’m getting paid to do what I love. A lot of people know me by name and I know all of them by name. It’s definitely a life-changer to be working there.”
Elizondo said he probably would not be attending college without the Evans financial assistance. There currently are a record 1,190 caddies as Evans Scholars at 24 partner universities nationwide. Nearly 12,300 have graduated since the program’s inception.
As soon as he visited Kansas, Elizondo knew it “was one of the best decisions. I’m more than happy and thankful for the opportunity to go to college for free. I’m definitely going to take advantage of it and give it my all.”
Elizondo follows his older brother Jose as an Evans Scholar. Now a rising senior at Marquette University (Milwaukee), Jose encouraged Brandon to consider caddying at Riverside.
“I probably was, at first, nervous about how good a job I was doing. I didn’t even see the Evans as a thing [for me],” Elizondo said. “It was something [later on], thinking what was I going to do after senior year? Thank God I’m able to go to school and finish my education.”
Elizondo is the second of four children in his family. His parents came to the United States from Mexico in the early 2000s. They first slept outdoors in a relative’s van as they got their footing. His father found work in construction and his mother in a bakery, sometimes bringing Jose with her.
He is, he said, “Overwhelmed with joy and thankful for all of my parents’ efforts and hard work and how they told me never give up. It was a hard time [starting for them] but thank God it all worked out. All of those nights with struggle were worth it in the end.”
At RBHS, Elizondo was a four-year soccer player. He earned 2024 All-Upstate Eight Conference honors as a starting attacking center midfielder with two goals and five assists.
As a golfer, Elizondo enjoys casually playing “with my buddies,” and takes great pride in being a caddie. Since mid-June, it’s generally been 10-plus hour days at Riverside GC doing two or three 18-hole loops and cleaning the bag room or carts at the end of the day.
“I will definitely be caddying again [after this summer],” Elizondo said. “I’ve never had excitement to go to work until now when I started caddying.”