Evans, Chick

▪ American golfer

byname of  Charles Evans, Jr.  

born July 18, 1890, Indianapolis, Ind., U.S.

died Nov. 6, 1979, Chicago, Ill.

      American amateur golfer known for his longevity in competition and for his Evans Scholars Foundation, which offers college scholarships to caddies. Evans himself began his golf career as a caddie and began to attract attention as a player about 1906. He qualified for every U.S. amateur championship tournament from 1907 to 1962.

      In 1909 Evans won the Western Amateur, a tournament he would win seven more times in his career, four consecutively. He won the Western Open in 1910 and the French Amateur in 1911 after he had switched from the baseball to the Vardon grip. He finished second in the U.S. Amateur in 1912 and in the U.S. Open of 1914. In 1916 he became the first player to win both of those tournaments in the same year; his Open score of 286 stood as a record for 20 years. In 1917–18 he was the partner of Bobby Jones in a series of exhibition matches for the benefit of the Red Cross. At the age of 80 he was still a popular visitor at major tournaments.

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