TOLEDO, Ohio — Morgan Szozda and Kiera Lang have been caddying since their early teens.
“I’ve never really been into golf, it was definitely new ... I didn’t even know that you weren’t supposed to put the bag on the green the first day," Lang said. "I danced a lot in the summers so I didn’t have too much time to caddy so it wasn’t my main priority."
It initially started as a search to make some extra money, but the two found their match at Inverness Club.
“When you’re 13 years old, caddying’s about the only job you can get," Szozda said. "Other places don’t really hire 13-year-olds, so I was like, ‘Well, I want a job, I need money.' Caddying was all it was."
Their shoulders have carried heavier than a golf bag, though.
“I definitely had to grow up fast just because of bad decisions my parents made when I was a child," Szozda said.
Szozda's parents had her at a young age and split up when she was one year old. She lived solely with her mother since her father was incarcerated.
"Things got pretty bad with my mom up until I was 11 and I knew I had my grandparents' support," she said. "I finally opened up to them about what was going on and how I needed help and I moved in with them when I was 12 years old."
Lang's parents were teachers at a dance studio for the majority of her life. Until one day, when they no longer were.
"My parents lost their jobs together at the same time, wasn’t fair at all to them," Lang said. "I had been there since I was three years old so I kind of grew up in that dance studio. We weren’t prepared for it at all."
"Right when it happened, I was like, 'I need to do something,'" she added.
That something was caddying, which has served a crucial role in both girls' lives.
"When I found out about the Evans scholarship, it became the scholarship and I’m going go to college and I’m going to do something special in my life," Szozda said.
The Evans Scholarship is a full housing and tuition scholarship awarded to caddies in need who have met the required rounds, grade point average and, ultimately, have great character.
"I knew I wanted to get the scholarship and once I was set on this I really pushed myself to the extreme," Lang said. "Going from dancing in the morning to doing doubles and then doing the same thing waking up at 6 a.m. the next day and all over again.”
The two made the trek to Dayton, having to interview in front of a panel of over 70 judges.
"There was definitely pressure because here I was, five years I’ve had family and people at Inverness and other caddies and managers cheering me on like they’re helping me along the way," Szozda said. “I’ve been out here every day 'cause that’s what I wanted. I wanted to make myself proud, I wanted to make my family at home proud, but a big part of me wanted to make my family at Inverness proud too.”
Lang recalled the stress she felt the entire month before the interview.
"You don’t have the questions before so you kind of have to go in blind, but I would have my parents ask me random questions that could maybe be in the interview just to practice," she said. "Definitely the most stressful thing in my life to do."
It did not take long for both to get an answer.
“A week later I got a letter in the mail that told me I was awarded the scholarship," Szozda said. "I was ecstatic obviously, so was my family, so was everyone here.”
“My mom got it in the mail that day," Lang said. "She came and drove to my school at St. Ursula and I went in the car with her and we opened it together. She started crying when she saw it and obviously I was very teary-eyed and emotional. It was an awesome day.”
Szozda and Lang were two of 17 Ohio students selected this year to tee off on a new chapter.
“It just felt like all the hard work that I’ve put into this and the year of caddying and everything was worth it. And all my hard work paid off," Lang said. “And of course with Morgan (Szozda) also working really hard for it, we kind of were in it together.”
"I think over the years it meant more and more," Szozda added. "I was at a point in my life where I felt very alone and I started caddying here and I felt like I had 300 family members. I have such a great support system here that I’m able to kind of enforce that with my relationships with my own family.”
Dick Ressner is the director of the Western Golf Association, which manages the Chick Evans scholarship for caddies, and served as a mentor for Szozda and Lang throughout the process.
He believes caddying is the best job in America for kids, especially because of the friends, mentorship and life skills one acquires.
“I think every day we meet kids that have challenges in their lives and through caddying you can help them deal with those challenges and really to a certain extent overcome them," Ressner said. "For me personally, to watch a membership kind of galvanize itself around two kids to know what they’ve overcome in their lives, it’s extremely rewarding.”
“At first it was just carrying a bag, but it became a lot more than that,” Szozda said. "And I was already grateful for that and to have the support that meant so much to me that the scholarship didn’t matter as much. It was everything that it took to get there and my journey."
As of this fall, Szozda is enrolled as a freshman at the Miami University and Lang is a freshman at Ohio State University.