Merion Golf Club Caddy Abigail Schmucker receives scholarship

Haverford High School graduate Abigail Schmucker has earned a full scholarship to Penn State thanks to her work as a caddy at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore.

Haverford High School graduate Abigail Schmucker is one of the first of four women hired as junior caddies in the 128-year history of Merion Golf Club in Ardmore.

Now she is the recipient of the Platt Evans Scholarship, a scholarship for caddies at Penn State, writes Kerith Gabriel for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

She is one of three junior caddies from Delaware County to receive the scholarship. The others are Ronan Donaghy of Penncrest High School and Wyatt McCafferty of Ridley High School.

Schmucker didn’t know much about golf at the beginning. She wasn’t a player and had only recently received her first set of clubs.

But the 18-year-old has developed a keen interest in the speed of Merion Golf Club’s greens, the slope of a fairway and what lies in the rough.

Now she’s going to Penn State to study biobehavioral health and wants to become a physician assistant.

“You know, I’m very grateful,” Schmucker said. “I don’t think I realized when I started the job three years ago the experiences and opportunities it would lead me to. To be in this position is just incredible and I’m so lucky.”

Read more about how Abigal Schmucker found her way to the Caddy in The Philadelphia Inquirer.