Baltimore caddie wants to ‘pave the way for other young Black girls in golf'

BALTIMORE - In one of her first forays as a caddie for a member at Baltimore Country Club in Timonium, Rachael Carter learned a valuable lesson when she realized she no longer had the driver's headcover.

"I was self-conscious about not having her headcover," she recalled. "So I told her I'd be right back, and I ran all the way back to the other hole to grab it and ran back to catch up with her. And ever since then, I've just learned to ask questions like, ‘Is it OK if I leave the headcover in the bag until the end of the round?' "

Three years later, Carter has developed into one of the top caddies in the country. The Baltimore resident and City graduate was named in February a winner of the Western Golf Association's Chick Evans Scholarship for high-achieving caddies.

Carter plans to major in psychology on a pre-medicine track at the University of Maryland, where the scholarship will cover the cost of tuition and housing for four years. She is one of four Maryland caddies to earn the scholarship, joining Edgewood graduate Matther Black-Bernal (Baltimore Country Club), Bowie's Deborah Achebe (University of Maryland) and Clinton's Atenf Arega (University of Maryland). Carter and Black-Bernal are the ninth and 10th caddies from Baltimore Country Club to receive the scholarship.

Carter was one of 380 caddies nationally to win the scholarship from a pool of more than 1,000 applicants, which is the most in the WGA, according to Steve Colnitis, who chairs the organization's board of trustees.

Three years ago, Rachael's brother, Antonio, won an Evans Scholarship and also enrolled in College Park. Colnitis said the siblings have distinct personalities.

"AJ was a pretty quiet guy, but a very diligent worker. Rachael was just delightful up at the podium during her interview," Colnitis said. "She's extremely outgoing, extremely confident and just a very terrific young lady. So just from a personality standpoint, not that one is better than the other, but very different, and she's very engaging."

Since she was 1, Carter has been raised by her grandparents, Fred and Joy Carter. On Nov. 30, 2008, Dawn Williams-Stewart was shot in the stomach, and her husband, Antonio Girard Stewart, was found unconscious on a neighbor's back porch with a gun in his hand and hanging from his neck by a belt. In July 2010, Stewart, who had worked as a security guard and was licensed to carry a concealed handgun, was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Carter's grandfather introduced Rachael to golf when she was 4. As a freshman at Catholic, she made the school's varsity team, but had not considered caddying until a member at Baltimore Country Club suggested she try it.

"It just looked hard," she said of her reticence. "It's hot outside, you're carrying a member's bag, you don't know the members sometimes. It's very intimidating at first. And I played golf before. So I knew what caddying entailed. But after I tried it the first time, I definitely realized it wasn't as big of a challenge as I thought."

Carter's initial hesitation is common among first-time caddies. But Colnitis said the benefits outweigh the concerns.

"You're earning money, learning how to deal with people, and just learning how to go to work and all the different life lessons you learn that are so valuable if they stick with it as a caddie," he said. "One of the things that we see most with young kids is, how their personalities can blossom over time as caddies, and it's just so much fun to see these young, quiet kids turn into very confident, almost young adults."

Carter acknowledged feeling nervous about applying for the Evans Scholarship. When she heard the good news, she immediately thought of her grandparents.

"I think for them to have two Evans scholars, they can kind of just take a deep breath and know that they got us through a lot," she said. "I was really happy for them."

Carter said she was accepted to Penn State and Rutgers but opted for Maryland for its proximity to home and strong academic reputation. She said she hopes her example encourages others.

"It means opportunity, not only an opportunity to chase my dreams, but it's also an opportunity for me to pave the way for other young Black girls in golf," she said. "Growing up, there weren't a lot of us, and I was, for most of the time, the only one. And so being able to show other young Black people that golf is a great sport, it's a great networking sport, and you don't have to be scared to get in an environment that makes you uncomfortable because you can definitely beat the stereotypes and make a difference."

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This story was originally published June 14, 2026 at 4:34 AM.