Scholar Spotlight: Bradley Klein
ELMSFORD, N.Y. (May 20, 2025) – From growing up in Rosedale, Queens, to selling yardage books to Jack Nicholas and Arnold Palmer, and then becoming involved with over 140 course restorations, Bradley Klein’s successful career wouldn’t have been possible without caddieing.
When his family would spend summers at the beach in Rockaway, N.Y., Klein became fascinated by Inwood Country Club, which he could admire from the shore. His fascination with the views inspired him to start caddieing at 14 years old at Woodmere Country Club on Long Island.
Kelin was hooked by the end of his first summer as a caddie in 1968, “I loved learning the yardages and the strategies,” he says. “I loved the labor, smell, shadows, light, and the trajectory of a golf ball. I fell in love with all of it.”
When he discovered the opportunity to earn a scholarship from the Long Island Caddie Scholarship Fund, it became a mission of his. The scholarship required consistent caddieing, strong relationships with club members, and academic potential, standards Klein took seriously.
He remembers participating in scholarship fundraisers, working events, measuring hole-in-one contests, and getting to know key people like Joe Schlanger, a past president of the MGA and vice president of the LIGA, at Woodmere. The effort paid off.
Klein received an LICSF scholarship in 1971, which covered $500 per year—an enormous help when tuition at SUNY Binghamton was just over $2,000 annually.
“Five hundred dollars back then went a long way,” he says. “It was like getting 25% of your college paid for. My family had three boys in school at once. It mattered.”
While he was a student at Binghamton, Klein caddied for PGA Tour player Dick Rhyan in the BC Open, which was held in Endicott, N.Y., at the En-Joie Golf Course. Rhyan made the cut, and Klein was hired to caddie and travel with him over the next month. At $20 a day, he made ends meet while getting a front-row seat to the professional game.
“I started making yardage books, measuring courses with a fishing reel,” he laughs. “Selling them to Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer for five bucks. That was how I broke in.”
After graduating in 1976, Klein traveled to Scotland with nothing besides his backpack and golf clubs, immersing himself in the game’s roots by playing at Troon, Turnberry, and Gleneagles.
“That was a great education. I was entirely self-educated and completely self-motivated, and I started caddieing on tour regularly every summer. And I met people and started writing. And off I was.”
He returned home more determined than ever and pursued graduate studies at UMass. He connected with local golf course architect Jeffery Cornish, who encouraged his academic and architectural interests.
By the late ’80s, Brad had found his niche—merging his academic training with a passion for golf course design and history. He became the architecture editor at Golfweek, wrote Rough Meditations, and ultimately took over a long-stalled biography of Donald Ross, one of the most influential golf course architects in American history.
It took three years of research, including 100 days in Pinehurst and visits to every house Ross had lived in. The result was a landmark book that earned the Herbert Warren Wind Book Award from the USGA in 2001 and cemented Brad’s reputation as a leading golf historian.
Since then, Klein has consulted on over 140 design projects, including restorations of more than 25 Ross courses. He continues to speak, write, and stay involved in projects like the Rhode Island Country Club’s restoration planning. All of it, he insists, ties back to his early days in the caddie yard.
Organizations like the LICSF, Klein says, are more important than ever.
“They teach the value of showing up at 7 a.m. That’s a life skill,” he says. “Caddieing builds discipline, confidence, and perspective. You learn how to deal with all kinds of people – players, superintendents, even drug addicts. It’s a real education.”
And it’s one he’s never forgotten. Klein has generously supported the LICSF over the years, ensuring his contributions have far exceeded what he once received. He regularly hosts events at clubs like Inwood and Sands Point, consistently giving back to the organization that helped him take his first step.
“My favorite part of golf isn’t watching the pros make a million dollars,” he says. “It’s the dirt—the turf, the design, the place itself. That’s where the story lives.”
From a teenage caddie with a pencil and a sketchpad to a celebrated golf scholar, Brad Klein’s journey proves that sometimes, the best courses in life begin with a single walk across the fairway.