In an effort to provide a robust list of service offerings for our clients and client clubs, KK&W has expanded our list of recommendations to include a veteran golf journalist and academic specializing in golf course architecture and maintenance.

Bradley S. Klein has focused his career in security studies, media, and sports culture and expanded these interests to include golf architecture and course maintenance. Brad has been a design consultant on dozens of golf course projects, primarily restorations. Among his consultancies are California Golf Club, CA; Desert Forest Golf Club, AZ; Old Macdonald, OR; Country Club of Waterbury, CT; Worcester Country Club, MA; Keney Park, CT; Country Club of Mobile, AL; Meadowbrook Country Club, MI; Meadow Brook Club, NY; and Kennett Square Golf & Country Club, PA.

This builds upon an early career as a PGA Tour caddie, which he has now parlayed into thousands of articles for Golfweek, Golf Channel/Golf Advisor.com, Links Magazine, and USGA Green Section Record. He has written nine books on the subject, including Rough Meditations (1997), Wide Open Fairways (2013), and the definitive design biography Discovering Donald Ross (2001). In 2015, he was honored with the Donald Ross Award for lifetime achievement by the American Society of Golf Course Architects. From 1995 through 2017, he founded and ran the “Golfweek’s Best” course rating system. He has also consulted on over 100 golf course projects and lectured on the subject all over the world.

He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Massachusetts and taught for 14 years at St. Lawrence University (NY), Trinity College (CT), and Clark University (MA) before retiring from formal academia in 1999 to devote himself to golf journalism and design consulting and is principal in the consulting firm, Divot Designs LLC.

Brad Klein - Golf Course Consultant - Headshot

Trends in Golf Course Design with Armen Suny & Brad Klein

Services Offered

  • Objective evaluation of strengths/weaknesses/potential of golf courses
  • Historic golf course restoration research
  • Tree management plans
  • Member education
  • Walking boards and committees through the Master Plan process
  • Helping committees search for, evaluate and select architects suitable for the project
  • Working with architects on Master Plan projects

Collaborative Partners

• National Golf Foundation
• ASGCA
• Golfweek
• Golf Channel
• KemperSports
• The Cheesebrough Group
• Carr Golf
• Donald Ross Sportswear

Select List of Previous Projects

  • Augusta Country Club, GA – tree management plan
  • Beverly Country Club, IL – member education, tree management, ongoing review
  • California Golf Club of San Francisco, CA – walked club through entire restoration process
  • Cedar Rapids Country Club, IA – kept telling them what they needed to hear until they listened
  • Country Club of New Bedford, MA – course assessment and recommendations
  • Country Club of Mobile, AL – guided club through entire restoration process
  • Desert Forest Golf Club, AZ – ongoing course consulting
  • Meadow Brook Hunt Club, NY – walked club through entire restoration process
  • Old Macdonald – Bandon Dunes, OR – member of design consulting team
  • Scioto Country Club, OH – restoration consulting and board/member education

Contact Information

Please contact Bradley S. Klein directly for assistance.  He can be reached at igolfbadly@aol.com | 860-508-7696 | @BradleySKlein on X (Twitter)

Resources & Insights from Bradley…

In my 40 years of writing and advising on golf course design, maintenance and operations, I have acquired a reputation for frankness. Surely that is because of my prior work history as a caddie.

I got to see players’ strengths and weaknesses; their moments of hesitation, delusion and fear under pressure; and their fleeting achievements and the pride they take in those moments of triumph. You also learn a key insight into people—how they treat service staff and those lower on the totem pole (they think!) than themselves, since it is you, as their mobile servant and office manager, who is the recipient of their emotions. In other words, you read their character. As the saying goes, “once a caddie, always a caddie…”

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In scope, quality and imaginativeness, golf writing soars above the literature of other major sports.

Yes, I’m biased. I love the game. But I also love great writing…

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For superintendents, deciding to pursue a general manager position can happen in a lot of different ways. Usually, it’s a goal at the end of a five- or ten-year plan that has long been brewing in their mind. But sometimes an unexpected opportunity arises and opens up a clear path. Whatever drives the upward move, it’s a step that an increasing number of veteran greenkeepers have taken in recent years and it’s likely to be a path of advancement for many more in the next decade…

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