The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs is doubling up on celebrations this year as the 100th anniversary of its founding coincides with the resort hosting the U.S. Senior Open at the East Course from June 28-July 1.

With that in mind, we decided to take a trip down memory lane, looking back on milestone anniversaries of big golf tournaments held in Colorado or of feats accomplished by local golfers. In other words, things that happened exactly five, 10, 20, 25 years ago, etc.

So without further ado …

— 80 Years Ago (1938): Colorado hosted a major championship for the first time as the U.S. Open came to Cherry Hills Country Club. Only six men’s majors have been contested in the Centennial State to this day, so this was no small matter.

The 1938 U.S. Open marked the first Open held west of Minneapolis. Will Nicholson Sr., a future mayor of Denver and the father of a future USGA president (Will Jr.), played a key role in luring the Open and was general chairman of the championship. He served on the USGA Executive Committee at the time.

Ralph Guldahl rallied with a final-round 69 to win by six strokes, successfully defending his title. His victory margin was the largest at the U.S. Open since 1921 and he’ll go down as the last person to win a U.S. Open while wearing a necktie. Guldahl went on to supplement his two U.S. Open victories with a win in the Masters and three titles in the Western Open, which at the time was considered a major championship of sorts.

Cherry Hills drew about 37,000 people for the week, a big success at the time.

— 70 Years Ago (1948): A PGA Tour event, the Denver Open, was held in the city on and off from 1947 to ’63. Ben Hogan was by far the biggest name to win the event when he prevailed in 1948 at Wellshire Country Club.

The victory was Bantam Ben’s sixth straight on the PGA Tour, and one of 10 he posted that year on the circuit, including the U.S. Open and PGA Championship.

One oddity from that Denver Open: Hogan failed to show up for the trophy presentation. Believing his total wasn’t going to be good enough for the title, he left shortly after finishing his final round, saying, “I can’t win.”

— 70 Years Ago (1948): Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who moved to Colorado in 1943 with her Pueblo-born husband, George, won the first of her three U.S. Women’s Opens in 1948. That year’s Women’s Open, conducted in Northfield, N.J., was just the third ever held.

Zaharias, a six-time AP Female Athlete of the Year who previously excelled at track and field, cruised to an eight-stroke victory over runner-up Betty Hicks. Zaharias, sometimes dubbed “Denver’s Queen of the Fairways”, recorded an even-par 300 total.

Zaharias, a co-founder of the LPGA, won 17 consecutive tournaments in 1946 and ’47 while representing Park Hill Country Club. She also spent plenty of time at Lakewood Country Club.

In 1950, Zaharias prevailed at the Women’s Western Open, a women’s major at the time, at Cherry Hills.

— 60 Years Ago (1958): Dow Finsterwald, who would later become a fixture as the director of golf at The Broadmoor, scored his lone victory in a major, winning the PGA Championship in Havertown, Pa. That was the first PGA conducted with a stroke-play format to determine the champion, but Finsty was also the runner-up in 1957 (to Lionel Hebert) when a 36-hole match play final was held.

Finsterwald (left), the 1957 Vardon Trophy winner as the tour player with the best season-long stroke average, finished two strokes better than Billy Casper in 1958. Finsterwald closed with a 67 for a 4-under 276 total and later that year earned the PGA’s Player of the Year award.

— 40 Years Ago (1978): Cherry Hills Country Club hosted the last of its three U.S. Opens to date. Two future World Golf Hall of Famers had won the 1938 and ’60 editions (Ghezzi and Arnold Palmer), but this time around Andy North recorded the second of what would be just three PGA Tour victories, though two of them were in U.S. Opens. Few people can say they won more majors than non-majors on the PGA Tour, but North is one such person.

North tied Billy Casper’s record (set in 1966) by needing just 114 putts over 72 holes, winning with a 1-over-par 285 total. He led outright after each of the final three rounds.

Also finishing in the top 10 in a star-studded leaderboard were University of Colorado alum Hale Irwin and Tom Weiskopf (tied for fourth), and Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson and Johnny Miller (tied for sixth).

— 40 Years Ago (1978): The player with the most career wins on any major U.S. tour, Kathy Whitworth, earned one of her 88 LPGA Tour victories right here in the Centennial State.

Colorado hosted LPGA events for 16 consecutive years starting in 1972, and a dozen of the winners here became World Golf Hall of Famers. But none is higher on the totem pole than Whitworth, who won the 1978 National Jewish Hospital Open at Green Gables Country Club.

— 25 Years Ago (1993): Speaking of the aforementioned Nicklaus and Weiskopf, two former Ohio State golfers, they finished 1-2 when Cherry Hills hosted the U.S. Senior Open in 1993.

Nicklaus, arguably the greatest golfer of all time, prevailed for what would be his last title in a USGA championship. Coincidentally, the first of his eight USGA championships also came in Colorado, in the 1959 U.S. Amateur at The Broadmoor.

Nicklaus (pictured at top with son/caddie Jackie) fended off Weiskopf by one stroke, recording a 6-under-par 278 total. It was the Golden Bear’s second U.S. Senior Open title in three years.

— 25 Years Ago (1993): Cherry Creek High School product Jill McGill made quite a run at USGA amateur championships in the early 1990s, winning two national titles. A quarter-century ago, McGill captured the trophy at the U.S. Women’s Amateur. Then in 1994, when she was runner-up to Wendy Ward in the Women’s Amateur, McGill earned the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links championship.

McGill (left) went on to a long career on the LPGA Tour, and though she never won on that circuit, she finished second three times and third twice.

Also in 1993, the Dunes Course at Riverdale in Brighton hosted the U.S. Amateur Public Links, with David Berganio taking home the title.

— 25 Years Ago (1993): Phil Mickelson, who three years earlier won the U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills in Colorado, claimed the first of his two International PGA Tour events at Castle Pines. He scored an eight-point victory in Stableford points over Mark Calcavecchia.

— 20 Years Years Ago (1998): Vijay Singh, like Mickelson now a World Golf Hall of Famer, beat Mickelson and Willie Wood by six points to put his name on The International trophy. All told, a half-dozen Hall of Famers won The International at least once.

— 20 Years Ago (1998): Former CU athlete Hale Irwin won three U.S. Opens from 1974-90, but that wasn’t the extent of his success in USGA championships. In 1998, the World Golf Hall of Famer won the first of his two U.S. Senior Opens, giving him five USGA championships in all.

In ’98, Irwin withstood a formidable test at Riviera Country Club outside of Los Angeles. Since 1984, just two winners of the U.S. Senior Open have finished with over-par totals, with Irwin’s 1-over tally in ’98 joining Nicklaus’ 2-over in ’91.

Earlier in 1998, Irwin also won another one of his seven career senior majors, the Senior PGA Championship — by six shots over Larry Nelson.

— 10 Years Ago (2008): It’s a rarity that Colorado hosts two USGA championships in the same year, but 2008 was such as year as the U.S. Senior Open came to The Broadmoor and the U.S. Amateur Public Links paid a visit to Murphy Creek Golf Course in Aurora.

In a U.S. Senior Open perhaps most remembered for the bear that ran across the course on national TV in the midst of play at The Broadmoor, the 2008 championship drew close to 130,000 people for tournament week. Eduardo Romero of Argentina claimed the trophy at the picturesque resort.

At Murphy Creek, Jack Newman won the title, but the field included Rickie Fowler and Billy Horschel, the latter of whom would go on to win the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship at Cherry Hills in 2014.

— 5 Years Ago (2013): The Solheim Cup, the female version of the Ryder Cup, came to the western U.S. for the first time, with Colorado Golf Club in Parker playing host. The course proved a formidable test, with the European squad handling the conditions best.

The Euros (left) won the Solheim Cup on American soil for the first time, and the 18-10 score was the largest final victory margin in the history of the event.

— 5 Years Ago (2013): Then-Colorado resident Mark Wiebe won the first major championship of his career, claiming the title in the Senior British Open at Royal Birkdale in England.

To earn the win, Wiebe had to overcome one of the greatest senior players of all time, Bernhard Langer, beating the German in a playoff that lasted five holes. Wiebe closed with a 66, while Langer double bogeyed his final hole in regulation.

It marked the first Monday finish in Senior British Open history.

Colorado has hosted U.S. Opens, U.S. Women’s Opens, PGA Championships, U.S. Senior Opens and a myriad of other PGA, LPGA and Champions Tour events over the last 75 years.

But when it comes to professional tour players representing their country or continent in team events, that’s something the Centennial State hasn’t experienced first-hand.

That will change Aug. 16-18 of next year when the Solheim Cup comes to Colorado Golf Club in Parker. And some of the competitors who know about the event from the inside believe that Coloradans are in for a treat when the best U.S. and European female golfers square off.

“I personally think it’s the biggest event we have in women’s golf,” German-born player Sandra Gal said Tuesday at a “Year to Here” Solheim Cup event at Colorado Golf Club. “You really can’t compare it to any regular tour event or major. Even seeing how involved the fans are in the tournament, in the event, with dressing up and chanting songs. You get goose bumps when you’re there. You just have to be there to see it.”

Added U.S. captain Meg Mallon, a veteran of eight Solheim Cups as a player: “If you’ve never been to a Solheim Cup, you’ll never see anything like you’ll see on the first tee. It’s even different than the Ryder Cup. The Ryder Cup has a wonderful atmosphere, but we have our own unique experience where there’s singing on the first tee, and they’re signing songs in Europe and they’re singing songs in the USA. And as soon as that person (gets ready to) tee off, you can hear a pin drop. And as soon as they hit it, they’re cheering and chanting again. There’s nothing like it.”

The Solheim Cup, like the men’s Ryder Cup, is held every two years, with the sites alternating between the U.S. and Europe. The last Solheim Cup held in the U.S., near Chicago in 2009, attracted more than 100,000 people for the week.

“It is one of the coolest atmospheres,” American Angela Stanford said. “I was blown away in Chicago because my previous two (Solheim Cups) were both in Europe, and the European fans are amazing. They bring it, that’s for sure. That’s why it’s so tough (playing for the Cup) over there. And I wondered what was going to happen in Chicago, and they were outstanding. So (there are) high expectations here in Colorado.

“People love it. You can tee off on the second tee box and you can hear them singing on 1. So you really have to be aware when you’re taking the club back (that) they could start signing. It’s so cool.”

Not surprisingly, it’s been very difficult for the visiting team to win the Solheim Cup on foreign soil. The Americans are 6-0 in the U.S., and the Europeans have won four of six on their continent.

“It’s hard to bring a lot of people over from Europe obviously,” said European captain Liselotte Neumann (pictured laughing at left, next to the Solheim Cup). “We’re trying to make some connections (in Colorado). We met some people here today. We’re trying to tempt everybody. We could maybe put an ad in the paper, maybe pay people to come out and cheer for us. We’ll see. We pay good, by the way.”

Joking aside, though, the competition can be very pressure-packed — and in a unique way — for the Solheim Cup, as it is for the men in the Ryder Cup.

“It’s very intense actually,” Gal said. “I think (the players) get along well off the course in regular tour events, but you could definitely feel the tension once the Solheim Cup came around. We stayed at the same hotel, but we were on different floors. We’d never cross those borders. It’s definitely a huge rivalry. Once that week starts, everyone just wants that cup.”

Added Stanford: “It is kind of a cool feeling that week. You play against each other all the time. Then that one week you get to come together as 12. And all of a sudden you get to root for those people that you want to beat every week. It’s a different feeling, and by far my favorite event.”

Sorenstam, Koch Named Vice Captains for European Team: World Golf Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam, who posted her first LPGA Tour victory in Colorado at the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open, was named a vice captain for the European Solheim Cup team for the second straight time on Tuesday.

European captain Liselotte Neumann said she’s chosen fellow Swedes Sorenstam and Carin Koch as her vice captains. The three have competed in a combined 18 Solheim Cups.

“Next year’s Solheim Cup in Colorado is very important for Europe as we need to keep the momentum going after winning the Cup last year in Ireland,” Sorenstam said. “I look forward to helping Lotta in any way possible.”

U.S. captain Meg Mallon previously announced that Dottie Pepper will be one of her vice captains, with another being introduced early next year.

Notable: Americans Stacy Lewis and Angela Stanford and Europeans Sandra Gal and Anna Nordquist played in a three-hole Solheim Cup exhibition Tuesday at Colorado Golf Club (pictued at top), competing in the three formats: singles, four-ball and foursomes. The Europeans prevailed in the match. … The Junior Solheim Cup, held in conjunction with the regular Solheim Cup, will be played at Inverness Golf Club in Englewood Aug. 12-14 of next year. The event features a dozen Americans and a dozen Europeans age 18 and under. … The 2013 Women’s British Open, set for Aug. 1-4, will be the final event in which American and European players can earn points for the Solheim Cup. Points, accumulated via top-20 Tour finishes, are accumulated over two years. After the Women’s British, Mallon and Neumann will announce captains’ picks — two for Mallon, four for Neumann — for their respective 12-player teams.
 

“It was cute because Kathy Whitworth was our captain and she would call us into the room and say, ‘OK guys, what do you want to wear tomorrow?’,” recalls Sheehan, one of eight American players competing in the inaugural event. “It was very low-key. We didn’t have a lot of spectators.”

My, how things have changed. From those humble beginnings, the Solheim Cup will come to Colorado Golf Club in Parker next year as one of the most popular women’s golf events in the world. It draws big, boisterous galleries and its TV ratings are high.

Over the weekend, Sheehan was in Denver promoting the 2013 event — which will take place Aug. 16-18 — and signing autographs at the Solheim Cup booth at the Denver Golf Expo. (Sheehan, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, is pictured at left on Saturday with Coloradan Hollis Stacy, who will join the World Golf Hall this year, and Colorado Sports Hall of Famer Joan Birkland.)

The Solheim Cup “has grown exponentially, and I just see it continuing to grow and get more popular.,” said Sheehan, winner of 35 LPGA Tour events and six major championships. Sheehan played in the first four Solheim Cups, and was the last two-time U.S. Solheim captain (2002 and 2003).

Not coincidentally, the Solheim Cup was launched at a time when its counterpart on the men’s side, the Ryder Cup, was reaching its peak in terms of fan interest. After the U.S. won seven straight Ryder Cups over the GB&I/European teams, the Europeans prevailed in 1985, and sports fans started paying attention in a big way.

The Solheim Cup may be at a similar juncture now. After the U.S. won the Cup in eight of the first 11 meetings, the Europeans took it back last fall in Ireland by the closest margin in the history of the competition (15-13).  If that doesn’t get the buzz going for the 2013 event in Colorado, nothing will.

“It was close and really did look like the U.S. was going to win it, and right at the end it slipped away,” Sheehan said. “It was great to see the Europeans win it on their home soil, but I’m looking forward to bringing it back to the U.S. so that we can win it back. It’s going to be super exciting. The competition is going to be better than ever.”

The type of event the Solheim Cup is makes for a completely different atmosphere than any other golf tournament, Sheehan noted. A team format and having national pride on the line gives the competition a unique flavor.

“You’ve got singing, chanting, cheers, booing; all the great stuff you get at football and baseball games, you can find at the Solheim Cup,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s completely different from any other golf tournament that (people) have ever been to or seen on TV.”

And next year, the Americans will have home course advantage, which is no small matter when it comes to the Solheim Cup. In fact, the U.S. is 6-0 when the competition is played on American soil. Of course, that makes for more pressure on the Americans and captain Meg Mallon as they host the event at Colorado Golf Club.

“I know I felt (that pressure),” Sheehan said. “It’s got to be even more so for Meg. It’s going to be great. (But) I don’t see us losing the Cup. I see us winning it back.”

Sheehan like the choice of Mallon to lead the Americans. Besides being a success as a Solheim Cup player (13-9-7 in eight Solheim appearances), Mallon has an effervescent personality that may fit right in for a leader of the U.S. team.

“She’s such a great competitor … (and) she pretty much eats and breathes USA, so she’s a perfect captain, and to do it here in the States is great,” Sheehan said. “She’s a lot of fun to be around. The players are going to love here. I think it’s the perfect pick.

“She’s so sincere, so kind and very sweet, and yet she has that competitive fire inside. The players are going to feed off of that.”

So, if Sheehan were captain in 2013, what would she do to motivate the U.S. team?

“I think I would say, ‘We’ve never lost on U.S. soil, and I’m not about to start now. Go out and win it,'” Sheehan said.

Sounds like a theme Mallon may very well pick up on.
 

The LPGA announced the news Thursday morning at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla.

Mallon will try to help the Americans regain the Solheim Cup after Europe claimed the glass trophy last year in Ireland by a 15-13 margin, the closest in the history of the event. The Americans had won the previous three Cups in the biennial competition, and are 6-0 against the Europeans on U.S. soil. The Solheim Cup is held in America once every four years, and in Europe in other odd-numbered years.

The 48-year-old Mallon served as an assistant captain under Beth Daniel in the 2009 Solheim Cup, and has a 13-9-7 record in eight Solheim Cup appearances as a player, including five on a winning team. In her LPGA Tour career, Mallon had 18 LPGA Tour victories, including four major championships, when she retired in mid-2010.

“It’s an absolute honor to be selected as the 2013 U.S. Solheim Cup team captain,” said Mallon, whose 16 1/2 points as a Solheim player are second only to Inkster among U.S. competitors. “I’ve participated in the Solheim Cup on nine occasions and each has been a proud moment for me, but to represent the United States as team captain definitely caps off my career. I look forward to working hard on getting the Cup back in U.S. hands.”

Mallon and Inkster were the two primary candidates for the 2013 job. Both players are very familiar with Colorado Golf Club, having done a lot of swing work there with their coach, Mike McGetrick, a founder of CGC who is no longer affiliated with the club. Inkster, a World Golf Hall of Famer who has played on the U.S. Solheim team a record nine times, is now expected to get the U.S. captaincy for the 2015 Solheim Cup.

“My connection with Colorado Golf Club runs very deep because of Mike McGetrick, and I saw the property before there was even a hole put in the ground,” Mallon said. “To see it now host the best event in women’s golf  is pretty exciting. Mike and I would be on the driving range, and he’d be talking to me about this piece of property he wanted to build a golf course on. So it’s really cool how it’s come full circle.”

As Mallon noted during her August 2009 visit to Colorado Golf Club, the workload of a U.S. Solheim Cup captain is formidable, especially when the competition is held in America.

“I know the job is harder for the American captain when the matches are played in the U.S. (with media and sponsor commitments, and other issues),” Mallon said in Colorado 2 1/2 years ago. “It’s a lot more time-consuming. I saw what Beth (Daniel) went through (in 2009).”

The U.S. Solheim Cup captain is picked by a committee that includes LPGA commissioner Mike Whan, former American captains and members of the Solheim family.

“From world-class golfer, to world-class Solheim Cup player, to world-class Solheim Cup assistant captain and Ping Junior Solheim Cup captain (in 2011), Meg has always been a well-respected role model that all players can look up to,” Whan said. “I know she loves the Solheim Cup and the players who compete for it. On behalf of everyone at the LPGA, we are both proud and honored to see her as the U.S. captain.”

The American team has won eight of the 12 Solheim Cup competitions played to date.

The European Solheim Cup captain for 2013 has not yet been named, but there’s been speculation that World Golf Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam will be the choice. Sorenstam has a history in Colorado, having won the first of her 72 LPGA Tour events at the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open at the Broadmoor. Mallon finished second in that tournament.

The Solheim Cup will be the second major golf event held at Colorado Golf Club, which hosted the 2010 Senior PGA Championship won by Tom Lehman.
 

Tom Ferrell traveled to Ireland late last month hoping that the U.S. would win the 2011 version of the Solheim Cup. And though that didn’t happen, in many respects the result couldn’t have worked out better.

After all, as director of communications for Colorado Golf Club in Parker — site of the next Solheim Cup, in 2013 — Ferrell is primarily hoping for an event that draws the most interest possible among the public. And this fall’s biennial women’s competition fit that bill quite nicely.

Not only was the 15-13 margin of victory the closest in Solheim Cup history, but the European team (pictured is Norway’s Suzann Pettersen) snapped a win streak of three by the U.S., setting the stage for peak excitement when the next competition rolls around Aug. 16-18, 2013.

“The way it worked out could not have been any better,” Ferrell said. “I was pulling for the USA, but trying to get the Cup back on home soil (in 2013) is perfect. It was a shot in the arm for the event.”

Ferrell and two members of the Colorado Golf Club board of directors attended the Solheim Cup Sept. 23-25 at Killeen Castle in Ireland in hopes of being fully prepared when the event comes to Parker in 22 months.

What they saw — by all accounts the most exciting tournament in the 21-year history of the Solheim Cup — must have whet their appetites for the 2013 competition.

As Ron Sirak wrote in Golf World Monday following the event, “Next up is a return to the U.S., at Colorado GC in 2013, and you can bet that the Yanks won’t forget the tears they shed Sunday in Ireland before then. Nor will anyone who saw this finish soon stop talking about it. This was as good as it gets …”

Ferrell, who also attended the 2009 Solheim Cup in Sugar Grove, Ill., noted, “In order to be viable, there’s got to be a back and forth (between the teams). And the competition (in Ireland) was fantastic. The birdies that were made in the last hour were unbelievable. I was talking to someone, and they said (the event) was like football and golf combined.”

Perhaps the Solheim Cup is becoming something similar to what the Ryder Cup did in the 1980s. After the U.S. won seven straight Cups over the GB&I/European teams, the Europeans prevailed in England in 1985, and interest in the event suddenly skyrocketed.

“In the 1980s once the Europeans started to win, that’s when the event really took off,” noted Colorado Golf Club head professional Graham Cliff, who attended the 2009 Solheim Cup in Illinois.

The Solheim Cup isn’t as lopsided as the Ryder Cup once was, but the U.S. has won eight Solheims, compared to four for Europe. And on American soil, the U.S. is 6-0 in the Solheim Cup.

Ferrell points out that this event takes on a personality considerably different than a traditional stroke-play tournament. A team element in an individual game — especially when there’s some nationalistic fervor involved — makes a big difference, particularly when the competition goes down to the wire.

More than 80,000 fans attended the Solheim Cup in Ireland, which was no match for the 120,000 for the week in Illinois two years ago. But considering the size of Ireland and the struggling economy there, the numbers were still impressive.

“The magnitude of this event — it’s a big deal,” Ferrell said. “The Solheim Cup is becoming the Grateful Dead of golf tournaments. You’ll talk to people in the galleries and they’ll say this is their third, second, fifth Solheim. We had a booth in the expo area (in Ireland) and it was remarkable the number of people looking at hotels and asking about committees to volunteer for (in 2013). Every single day I get e-mails from Europeans looking to come to Colorado Golf Club.”

One thing that Colorado GC’s visiting contingent particularly took note of in Ireland was the atmosphere surrounding the first tee.

“People sang songs and did chants, and they started a full hour before the beginning of the first match,” Ferrell said. “We want to make sure we impress on people that this isn’t your usual golf event. We want people to take part in what is a spirited atmosphere.”

The Solheim Cup will be the second major international tournament hosted by Colorado Golf Club — following the 2010 Senior PGA Championship — and the first since membership acquired the golf club five months ago. Just in the last few weeks, the club fully opened its high-end clubhouse.

“Coming out of a difficult period (financially) for us, it’ll be exciting to be in the spotlight for this event,” Ferrell said. “The international exposure not only for us but for Colorado overall will be great. We want to put on our best face for the club and for Colorado.

“The golf world is here for that one week. It’s a great stage.”

The U.S. and European captains haven’t yet been named for the 2013 event at Colorado Golf Club, but Golf World magazine has said the likelihood is that it will be Juli Inkster (U.S. ) vs. Annika Sorenstam (Europe). If so, that would only add to the glamour of the event as both are World Golf Hall of Famers and have won significant events in Colorado. Inkster claimed the 1982 U.S. Women’s Amateur title at what was then known as the Broadmoor’s South Course, while Sorenstam made the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open at the Broadmoor’s East Course her first LPGA Tour victory.