Rob Antonelli knows all about the benefits of receiving a Ouimet scholarship, and he plans to increase the number of Ouimet scholarship opportunities at Green Hill Municipal Golf Course.
Antonelli is the assistant commissioner for Worcester’s department of public works and parks, and his daughter, Abby, has been a Ouimet Scholar for the past three years while working at Tatnuck Country Club.
Antonelli sees the Ouimet Fund Scholarship program as a win-win proposition. The students get paid to work a summer job at a golf course, including caddying and working in the pro shop, and they can earn the opportunity to receive a college scholarship.
“It’s extremely beneficial, particularly with some of those kids we have working in our programs,” Antonelli said. “These are kids who really need the help to be able to go to college.”
The golf course also benefits from the extra help.
Antonelli was among the 1,700 people who attended the annual Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund Banquet April 21 at the Encore Boston Harbor in Everett. Green Hill head pro Matt Moison, Green Hill operations manager Arthur Flagg and Tatnuck CC head pro P.J. Breton were among the many attendees from Worcester. Worcester CC and Holy Cross each had tables as well.
Antonelli said Boston is the model that Worcester would like to copy, but on a smaller scale. Boston has two municipal golf courses, and Worcester has one.
Scott Allen, head pro at George Wright GC and director of golf for the city of Boston, said 40 students worked last summer at George Wright and another 40 worked at William J. Devine GC at Franklin Park, Boston’s other municipal golf course. The students raked bunkers, filled divots, cut down brush, repaired ball marks on greens, pulled weeds and assisted in golf clinics. Their efforts freed up the regular maintenance staff to work on other projects.
“For six weeks, it looks like a country club,” Allen said. “It’s a huge asset, absolutely.”
About 30 percent of those students earned Ouimet scholarships.
Within three or four years, Antonelli would like to see eight to 10 students become eligible to apply for Ouimet scholarships by working at Green Hill.
Since 1949, the Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund has awarded more than 6,600 need-based college scholarships worth just under $50 million to young men and women from Massachusetts. The scholarships average more than $30,000 over four years and range up to $80,000 over that span. For the 2024-25 school year, Ouimet awarded 312 need-based scholarships, averaging $10,436.
Francis Ouimet was a relatively unknown 20-year-old amateur and former caddie who grew up across the street from the 17th hole at The Country Club in Brookline. His upset victory over British golfers Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in a playoff at TCC to win the 1913 U.S. Amateur is credited with popularizing golf in the U.S.
Green Hill received funding for caddies for about four or five years, but hasn’t had them in the past decade. Moison estimated that a dozen students who worked at Green Hill as caddies or in the pro shop became Ouimet scholars. One of them, Holy Cross student Julia McCarthy, gave a memorable speech as the student speaker at the 2013 Ouimet banquet.
Two students from Green Hill currently receive Ouimet scholarships, UMass-Lowell freshman Taurean Jimenez, who has worked at the range and in the pro shop, and North Carolina State senior Matt Ober, who worked in the pro shop.
“As a municipal golf course,” Moison said, “we are vested in the community, we are vested in children, and the pathway forward for a lot of kids is the college pathway, and if we can make that affordable or more affordable for them, it’s a wonderful thing.”
Antonelli was pleased to see that Ouimet has expanded its scholarship program beyond caddies and pro shop workers. Students who work on the grounds crew, at practice facilities, in the bag room and in on-course food and beverage are also eligible. He plans to hire students to work at Green Hill alongside BrightView, which has a contract with the city to maintain the golf course.
The city already has a Parks Stewards program that provides summer jobs to about 30 students to maintain parks throughout the city. This summer, some of those students also will work at the golf course.
Students need to work at golf courses for two years to become eligible to receive Ouimet scholarships. Antonelli would especially like the younger students to begin to work at Green Hill so they could receive a scholarship for all four years of college. The older students could supervise the younger ones.
“We’re going to start small,” Antonelli said, “but I think in the end this is going to be a major thing for Worcester, for our youth and for Green Hill Golf Course.”
Worcester CC and Tatnuck CC have had successful caddie programs for many years, and several of the caddies have earned Ouimet scholarships.
Abby Antonelli, a Doherty High graduate, has been a Ouimet scholar for all three of her years at Endicott College in Beverly, and she’s reapplying for a Ouimet scholarship for her senior year. Her scholarship has increased from $10,000 to $12,000 over the years.
This will be Abby’s sixth year working at Tatnuck CC and her fifth as a caddie. She also has worked in the pro shop, and she serves as the head lifeguard and certified pool operator.
“I’m so proud because I can say I have a golf scholarship through the Ouimet Fund,” she said. “People are like, ‘What’s that?’ And then I get to…
