CommonGround wants even more golfers to take caddies, and it’s putting more money behind the push.
“By having the golfer pay, it just limits your pool of people who want to access caddies more often,” said Tim Wimsatt, the director of the caddie program for the Colorado Golf Association, which owns and operates CommonGround.
This year is the first in which the CGA is covering 100% of a young caddie’s $60 base rate and $30 tip on an 18-hole round, called a loop. Those kids are part of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, a donation-funded training ground for students to grow within the game.
“Anybody can go out there one time and pay a $50 fee or whatever it is for a cart, but you won’t get that repeat customer,” Wimsatt said. “You’re pricing people out of the game.”
So far, it’s been working. In the 2024 season, Wimsatt’s first with the CGA after a career in education, caddies completed 700 loops between Memorial Day and Labor Day. In 2025, that number jumped slightly to 900.
But through early June this year, Wimsatt said CommonGround caddies are on pace to “blow past” 1,500 loops for the summer.
“We’re trying to create some demand for golfers to take kids, and the CGA feels like we can alleviate that tip for the golfer and make it more enjoyable,” he said. “We could have 100 caddies, but if no golfers take caddies it doesn’t really matter.”
(Courtesy CGA)
A group of caddies during a CGA fundraising event called Find CommonGround. (Courtesy CGA)
The program starts with the basics, like pace, positioning and managing bags, clubs and covers before newbie caddies play a round. Their entire first season is spent on par 3s and back nines, Wimsatt said, before they can move up to a full 18 holes in their second season and beyond.
At CommonGround, caddies get two years to train before “moving up” to local private clubs like Denver Country Club, Lakewood Country Club, Cherry Hills Country Club or Columbine Country Club.
The CGA also runs caddie programs at several other private courses around the state – The Broadmoor, Fort Collins Country Club, Meridian Golf Club and at two courses in Grand Junction. Those ones, though, run four years, and only the $60 base rate is covered by the association. Tips at those clubs are at the discretion of members.
“The reason why we baked in the tip is because we really see it as a training program,” he said of CommonGround. “These other programs are, for lack of better terms, graduate programs where kids are going to go when they’re more advanced, more equipped, and they’re going to be there longer to develop.”
This year, the 166 caddies are the most in the program’s 14-year history. A third of those, 58, are at CommonGround, and The Broadmoor comes in second with 47 kids. Fort Collins has 27 and both Meridian and the Grand Junction courses hover around 10. Most start the summer after their eighth-grade year and caddie as a full-time job during vacation.
The program is financed through donations to the Colorado Golf Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the CGA. Wimsatt called it the foundation’s “flagship program” and said it raises between $600,000 and $700,000 annually. Program namesake and brothers George and Duffy Solich gave the seed money in 2012 to get it off the ground, and now the donor list sits at over 100.
The program also provides weekly leadership classes and field trips.
“It’s effectively $1,800 per kid, per summer. About 30 loops a kid times 60 bucks – we know what that is going to cost,” Wimsatt said. “So if we want to add more students or we want to do more loops, we can easily do the math problem.”
CommonGround caddie manager Jaxon Grunewald with a young caddie after a training loop. (Courtesy Jaxon Grunewald)
The CGA started the program, in part, to build up its pipeline of Evans Scholars to the University of Colorado Boulder. Both Soliches were recipients of that award, which is a full-tuition and housing scholarship for high-achieving caddies. Years ago, most of CU’s house was filled with out-of-staters, Wimsatt said.
Of the 840 kids that have gone through the academy in the past 14 years, 71 have received Evans Scholarships, Wimsatt said.
One of those is Jaxon Grunewald, who just wrapped up his first year in Boulder and returned to CommonGround as a caddie manager for the summer.
“It’s the best decision I’ve made in my life,” the Colorado native said of joining the Solich Academy.
He spent four years at the Aurora golf course before getting the prestigious scholarship. Back then, he was able to get gratuities from the myriad golfers he met over his 120 rounds going from green to green.
“I kind of feel bad for some of the other caddies missing out on potential tips,” he said. “But $90 per 18 holes is more than I was making, so I’m pretty jealous.”
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