Golf: Crystal Lake Country Club caddie Patricia Lohman Meza of Jacobs earns Evans Scholarship

Patricia Lohman Meza’s golf knowledge was extremely limited when she started caddying three years ago.

Lohman Meza had no idea about the finer points of caddying, but she is smart and a fast learner.

She also probably knew little about the Chick Evans Scholarship, which is awarded each year to college-bound caddies from the Western Golf Association. Fortunately, her stepfather, Tom Rodman, knew plenty about the opportunities for Evans scholars.

Lohman Meza, now a senior at Jacobs, landed a caddying job at Crystal Lake Country Club, worked hard to hone her craft and learned last month that she had earned an Evans Scholarship.

“I was ecstatic,” she said. “My parents handed me a very big envelope. It was like a very big dream come true opening it. I had an earlier interview. I was thinking it was starting to go in my direction. Actually getting the letter was amazing.”

Lohman Meza is the 15th caddie from CLCC to earn an Evans Scholarship in the past 14 years. Evans recipients are selected for their academics and activities in school, as well as their caddying performances. They receive a full tuition and live in dormitories with other Evans’ winners. Lohman Meza has a 3.98 GPA and scored 29 on the ACT.

In 2014, after finishing her freshman year, Rodman suggested that Lohman Meza try caddying at CLCC.

“I didn’t think that much about it because I didn’t know anything about golf or caddying,” she said. “My first year, I caddied as much as I could. I wasn’t the best, but over the next two years after that I really pushed myself to get involved as much as I could, get as many loops as I could and that’s when it really became a possibility for me to obtain the Evans Scholarship. I’ve been working really hard to get as many hours and loops as I could.”

CLCC president Cliff Jackson has trained caddies for the club for almost 18 years. He saw something with Lohman Meza right away.

“I always make it a challenge to see if I can pick, not only a caddie who gets the job, but a caddie that’s going to be great,” Jackson said. “The very first day, you could tell she was really smart. We throw a lot at them to see who’s eyes glaze over. She just got it from Day 1. I always tell them, ‘I’ll teach you how to caddie. What I can’t teach you is hustle.’ If you’ve got that, you can become a great caddie, she had it in spades from the get-go. It took her one day of training to get the basics, by Day 3 it was like she’d been doing it forever.”

Lohman Meza runs cross country and track for Jacobs and plans on majoring in chemical engineering. She takes advanced placement classes in chemistry and calculus, is in two honor societies and is captain of Jacobs' debate team.

She has been accepted at Illinois, Purdue and Wisconsin, all Evans’ schools. She is waiting to hear from Northwestern. At the moment, she is leaning toward Wisconsin.

“Going to any of them would be wonderful,” she said.

Lohman Meza will work at CLCC again this spring and summer and thanks the members for helping her, especially Jackson, who often sought her out for weekend rounds.

“Basically, all the loops I did with him were practice,” she said. “I got better and better, and that put me up there as caddie. I really enjoyed caddying with him, and it was a wonderful opportunity.”

Jackson was pleased he could help Lohman Meza further her caddying career.

“We have our caddies rated as B’s, A’s and Honors,” Jackson said. “You have to get 20 excellent reviews per player before you can move up a class and get more pay per round. If I see somebody who’s going to be really good, I try to take them as often as I can to get them those 20 rounds. I always made sure I’d get her for rounds because I knew she was going to be a star.”