Walled Lake Western senior earns prestigious Chick Evans Scholarship

Walled Lake Western’s Cor’ron Claudin is among 29 Michigan high school seniors that were awarded the prestigious Chick Evans Scholarship by the Western Golf Association.

The Evans Scholarship is a full housing and tuition college grant given to caddies that show a strong caddie record, excellent academics, a financial need and outstanding character.

“It’s truly a blessing,” said Claudin. “I honestly didn’t think that I would be able to get it because a full ride, that’s crazy, but as I got closer to my senior year I thought this may be a possibility where my life can actually change.”

Claudin, who has been caddying for three years at Franklin Hills Country Club, will attend the University of Michigan in the fall where he plans to major in electrical engineering.

“I was looking at a handful of different colleges because of financial aid reasons,” explained Claudin. “I didn’t want to put all that burden on my mom. I wanted to make sure she could enjoy her life and wherever I went to college was going to be my debt and my debt only.”

“It’s just mind blowing,” continued Claudin. “Just imagining going to a Top 5 school in the nation for my major, where many companies line up just to get new interns from the program, it’s just great to imagine all the endless opportunities.”

Claudin isn’t the first caddy in his family. His step-father was an Honor Caddie, which is the highest rank a caddie can achieve.

“I remember hearing stories about his experiences caddying, it being a pretty good paying job and the connections he made, which automatically peaked my interest,” said Claudin.

Those connections and the community are what Claudin enjoys the most about caddying. The job has also helped teach him communication skills that he considers second to none.

“I was born with a very bad speech impediment, and my confidence was really hurt by it,” explained Claudin. “While it was a challenge at first, going into an environment where my talking skills was how I got paid by maintaining conversations for customer service, it helped me gain confidence I never had in myself.”

Claudin looks forward to bringing his new-found confidence to the Chick Evans house in Ann Arbor, where he knows he will excel.

“Having all these well-spoken people all knowing what they want to do (in the house together) will force you to ascend to another level because really, in that house, mediocracy is just not acceptable,” said Claudin. “They have all of these networking opportunities for you to be something in life.”

 “Overall, I think caddying has been the best thing in my life.”