Jeff Stein, a golf course architect from Port Chester, New York, is the recipient of the first “World 100 Club” scholarship. Stein will travel in Spring 2023 to study the great golf courses of Scotland, recreating the trip made by Charles Blair Macdonald in the late 1800s.
World 100, a private international golfing society founded with the goal of playing each of the World’s Top 100 courses, partnered with the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) to create and fund an annual fellowship for a golf course architect early in his/her career.
The World 100 Club developed the program to support the architecture profession by recreating McDonald’s famous Scotland trip that have inspired the likes of Alister Mackenzie, Henry Colt, Pete Dye, ASGCA Fellow, and so many others.
Working with ASGCA staff, World 100 Club members developed the application, which was completed by a dozen qualified and passionate young professionals. The list was narrowed to three finalists. Stein, an ASGCA Tartan Program participant, was selected following a formal interview, in an announcement made by David Wecker of World 100.
The fellowship will provide Stein airfare, lodging for three weeks in and around St. Andrews, and a stipend for meals and local travel. Meetings with club historians, superintendents, the R&A, and golf architects working in Scotland will be arranged. Upon return, Stein will present a summary of what was learned. Alister Mackenzie, who remarked after a year of studying the Old Course, that “I thought I knew the course thoroughly…I found my knowledge was of the slightest, and the subtleties which I discovered have always been a source of amazement to me.”