Waiting for a day when typewriters, legal pads and ballpoint pens re-emerge to replace smartphones, tablets and laptop computers, Golfweek's Bradley S. Klein, Ph.D., is a renaissance golf writer who tolerates the modern world of immediacy journalism.In a day when information often is limited to 140 characters or less, Klein thrives in telling a story about a game he has written about for more than a quarter-century, the people who mold it and the venues on which it is played.
The author of seven books on golf course architecture, including Discovering Donald Ross, Rough Meditations and Wide Open Fairways, Klein recently was named the recipient of the Donald Ross Award by the American Society of Golf Course Architects.
The ASGCA's highest honor, the Donald Ross Award is presented annually to "an individual who has made significant and lasting contributions to the profession of golf course architecture."
A writer for Golfweek since 1988 and the publication's architecture editor for the past 15 years, Klein first learned an appreciation for course design while coming up through the caddie ranks, and today is a regular speaker at industry events on such topics as course architecture and history. As architecture editor, Klein also directs Golfweek's Best course-rating program.
"This is such an honor," Klein told Golfweek. "I'm really proud to have had a home for so long at Golfweek and with so much print space to develop a voice on these issues."
He is the latest in a long list of journalists to win the honor, joining Herbert Warren Wind (1977), Peter Dobereiner (1985), Charles Price (1987), Dick Taylor (1989), Ron Whitten (1996), George Peper (2008) and James Dodson (2011).
Klein, whose doctorate degree is in political science, spent 14 years as a college professor before joining Golfweek. He will receive the award in March during the ASGCA's annual meeting in La Jolla, California.