This week’s U.S. Senior Open will be the second held at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. And if this one ends up with as many interesting — and sometimes offbeat — storylines as the one the resort hosted in 2008, they’ll still be talking about it many years from now.

Let’s look back on some of the most memorable moments from the ’08 Senior Open:

— Power Couple: Greg Norman and Chris Evert were only married for 15 months before they separated, but they were still fresh from their nuptials when they came to The Broadmoor together in the summer of 2008 for Norman to compete in the U.S. Senior Open.

Evert, winner of 18 Grand Slam singles titles in her stellar tennis career, was a fixture in the galleries at The Broadmoor while rooting on her Australian hubbie. She even wore a Shark logo hat to match his. As you might imagine, the athlete super couple drew plenty of attention that week, just a month removed for their wedding.

Alas, their divorce became final in December 2009. And they said it wouldn’t last …

By the way, Norman finished fourth at The Broadmoor. The next year, he also placed fourth in the event, marking his final U.S. Senior Open appearance.

— Quiet, Please: World Golf Hall of Famer Hale Irwin, a former University of Colorado athlete who won The Broadmoor Invitation in 1967, had something to chime in about following his second round in 2008.

When Irwin was teeing off on the par-4 first hole at the East Course, the chimes from the Will Rogers Memorial Shrine of the Sun (below) on nearby Cheyenne Mountain went off in the midst of his downswing. He tried to stop his swing, but inadvertently still made contact with his ball. It went about 20 yards, under a Rolex clock just off to the left side of the tee.

“It was the shortest tee shot I think I’ve ever hit,” the three-time U.S. Open champion said at the time. “… It was like, what else can go wrong? I told them on press day they (the chimes, which go off every 15 minutes) were going to be a problem. It’s bothersome. People (here) may be used to it, but they’re not playing a golf championship. After that, I told my caddie to keep his watch handy every 15 minutes.”

For the record, Irwin still made a par on the first hole. After he received free relief from the clock near the tee, he hit his second shot, then his approach to 22 feet from the cup, and sank the putt.

Later in the round, on the 12th tee, the Rogers Shrine chimes went off while Irwin was set up to the ball, but this time he backed off with a slight smile before having begun his swing.

FYI regarding the chimes and this week’s championship: Russ Miller, the director of golf at The Broadmoor, told the USGA on Monday that the volume of the chimes has been reduced by 50 percent this week.

— Something’s a Bruin: The same round that he hit his 20-yard tee shot, Irwin encountered another wildly unexpected happening.

The former Coloradan and playing partners Tom Watson and Bernhard Langer — the highest-profile pairing that teed off Friday morning — were on the 13th hole when a large black bear ran across the fairway in front of them around noon (pictured at top). Then-ESPN on-course reporter Dottie Pepper was in the fairway with the group, and ESPN cameras captured the action.

“Dottie about wet her britches,” said Irwin, who noted that he saw the same bear in a back yard that Thursday.

“It was a crazy day.”

Added Fred Funk: “(Jack) Nicklaus isn’t here, so I guess that’s a substitute.”

The bear later made its way through two drainage pipes on the West Course and then departed the premises. But on Saturday night, a bruin — very possibly the same one — visited the concession stand at the seventh hole and helped itself to a smorgasbord of candy bars, bananas, hot dogs and bread.

Fellow TV broadcaster Roger Maltbie didn’t blame Pepper for being alarmed by a bear in such close proximity.

“The only part of me the bear would have seen was my backside headed out of the area,” he said.

Not surprisingly, the bear footage was a prominent fixture on ESPN’s SportsCenter for the remainder of the day.

— Green Issues: As if the bear and the chimes weren’t enough on that Friday in 2008, the pin placements for the second round that day drew the ire of many a U.S. Senior Open contestant.

Said 1992 U.S. Open champion Tom Kite: Some of the Friday pin placements “almost defy the imagination.”

Added Greg Norman: “The USGA should know better.”

Fred Funk, who finished second in 2008, behind Eduardo Romero, was amazed at the general difficulty of the greens that week.

“This is the hardest set of greens I’ve ever played,” he said. “And that’s throwing Augusta in — and Oakmont and Winged Foot and Pinehurst [No. 2]. I’ve just never seen greens with this much movement in them, meaning they don’t have any flat spots on them, like an Augusta (green) has. You have all that, and then you have to factor in that mountain. That’s what’s crazy. It just gives you that illusion that you have a putt that looks like it’s uphill, and it’s really downhill, or the other way around. It just keeps you guessing.”

— And then there’s these tidbits from that week: Bernhard Langer — the second-winningest player in PGA Tour Champions history, behind Hale Irwin — played in his first U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor in 2008. The German closed with a 66 to tie for sixth place. … None of the players with strong Colorado ties finished in the top 10 at the 2008 Senior Open. The best of the bunch were local resident Gary Hallberg (14th place) and Colorado Springs native and former University of Northern Colorado athlete R.W. Eaks (18th). But a player from fairly nearby — Jeff Klein of Scottsbluff, Neb. — placed ninth at The Broadmoor. His third-round score of 64 was just a stroke higher than the Senior Open record at the time. In fact, Klein was 8 under par after 14 holes before going 2 over in his last four. … The 2008 U.S. Senior Open — which featured a field that included World Golf Hall of Famers Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, Greg Norman, Bernhard Langer, Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite and Curtis Strange — attracted an announced 128,714 fans for the week.

All in all, this week’s tournament appears to have its work cut out if it hopes to match or surpass 2008 in terms of sheer memorability.

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For all the essentials regarding this week’s U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor, CLICK HERE.

Let the celebration begin.

On Saturday, just two weeks before the official 100th birthday of the CWGA, the association will throw a wingding commemorating the occasion.

It will be part of a meeting — the CWGA annual meeting, to be precise — which is appropriate because it all started with a meeting, the one that took place on March 14, 1916 that formed the CWGA.

At Saturday’s event at the Inverness Hotel & Conference Center in Englewood, the association will kick off its centennial year with a celebration that will draw many of the most influential figures in the history of the CWGA.

Though association officials want to leave some suspense for Saturday’s festivities, among those expected to be on hand are a Colorado Sports Hall of Famer, seven Colorado Golf Hall of Famers, at least seven past presidents of the CWGA and numerous prominent past staffers. And though World Golf Hall of Famer Judy Bell of Colorado Springs won’t be able to attend due to a recent injury, the former USGA president sent a videotaped message.

“We see this as a very big event,” CWGA acting executive director Laura Robinson said this week. “It’s a great opportunity to celebrate our history, introduce our history to new members attending, and look forward to the next 100 years.”

Also expected to attend are leaders of other major golf organizations in the state, including president Joe McCleary from the CGA, president Leslie Core-Drevecky and executive director Eddie Ainsworth from the Colorado PGA, along with representatives of the Colorado Open Golf Foundation and the LPGA.

“This shows we not only have history, but we have a history of working with partners” within the Colorado golf community, Robinson said. “It’s special that we share this with them.”

In all, the CWGA expects about 230 people on Saturday, with about 120 clubs represented.

During the centennial celebration portion of the annual meeting, a 10-minute video history of the CWGA will be shown publicly for the first time. “It was humbling and touching,” Robinson said of previewing part of the video.

And three groups of outstanding people will be recognized: 10 exceptional volunteers, nine outstanding players who have won at least five major individual CWGA championships, and three especially valued friends of the association.

A “Volunteer of the Century” and “Golfer of the Century” will be singled out.

Also at the annual meeting, three items of CWGA centennial memorabilia will be available for purchase — a ball marker, bag tag and water bottle, all featuring the association’s centennial logo.

A silent auction will be held in conjunction with the annual meeting, with proceeds benefiting LPGA*USGA Girls Golf. Among the more than 50 items that will be up for auction will be an autographed photo of Bronco DeMarcus Ware, a Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado hat autographed by former LPGA standout and current CBS on-course reporter Dottie Pepper (left), a puck from the Colorado Avalanche, and plenty of rounds of golf at Colorado courses.

In addition, the CWGA is inviting people to sign up for its Centennial Club, which will raise fund for the association’s centennial events. In addition to what will take place on Saturday, that will include a celebration during the CWGA Stroke Play at Denver Country Club in early August, and a centennial celebration tournament Sept. 21 at Hiwan Golf Club.

Though the centennial celebration and related activities are a big draw for Saturday’s annual meeting, there are also some things on the agenda that take place every year at this event. Most notably, there’s a business meeting and several breakout sessions planned, including on the Rules of Golf (Karla Harding, Jan Fincher, Sandy Schnitzer), an update on GHIN/Handicapping (Gerry Brown), Test Your Golf Knowledge and Play the Rules Game (Jennifer Lorimor), a Club Presidents Roundtable (Kathy Malpass), and Acupuncture for Golfers.

Last year at the G4 Summit, former USGA president Will Nicholson Jr., announced that Jack Nicklaus had agreed to be the featured guest at the Century of Golf Gala, which turned out to be arguably the highlight of the year in Colorado golf.

Next week at the third annual G4 Summit — set for Tuesday at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs — more significant news is on the agenda. And considering the Summit is all about leaders in the Colorado golf industry joining forces to deal with issues that the game faces, the news is particularly fitting.

One of the first orders of business at the event deals with the junior golf collaboration that was announced last fall by the CGA and the Colorado PGA. Since then, with the help of the CWGA and other golf organizations, the 2016 schedule has been released (CLICK HERE). And on Tuesday, the name of the new junior golf organization will be revealed, along with a logo designed by Adrenalin, a tagline and possibly information regarding a new website. Also, registration for 2016 tournaments will open that day.

In addition, several Colorado junior golfers from years past who have gone on to success professionally will be lending their names to the cause.

The junior organization will have events both for top-level players — including a Junior Tour which will feature four junior majors for both boys and girls — as well as for up-and-coming golfers through the developmental Junior Series. In short, there will be events for players of many ages and abilities.

The inaugural tournaments on the schedule are set for April 16-17 in Colorado Springs at the Country Club of Colorado and Valley Hi Golf Course.

When the new junior golf website is launched, it will feature registration for Junior Tour and Junior Series events, and information on the PGA Junior League; the Colorado PGA Golf in Schools program, which exposes school kids to the game through P.E. classes; the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy; the Drive, Chip & Putt Championship and much more.

All in all, the idea is to streamline, improve and expand the junior golf experience in Colorado.

“We’re really excited,” said Dustin Jensen, the CGA’s managing director of operations, who has helped spearhead the collaborative organization along with Keith Soriano, the Colorado PGA’s assistant executive director/Foundation programs. “It’ll be fun to get things kicked off.

“It’s significant that we’re doing this at the Summit. The Summit signifies unity. That’s what the Summit is, and it’s what the alliance is. It’s a coming together of the game.”

And the announcements at the G4 Summit will be followed in a major way at a further rollout of the junior golf organization at the Denver Golf Expo, set for Feb. 19-21 at the Denver Mart (58th and I-25).

While the junior golf announcements will be a key part of the G4 Summit on Tuesday, there’s much, much more to the event that brings together all the allied golf associations in the state — the CGA, CWGA, Colorado PGA, the Rocky Mountain Golf Course Superintendents and the Mile High Chapter of the Club Managers Association — in an effort to address key issues facing golf. There will be speeches given by industry leaders, panel discussions, meetings, a legislative update, social functions and announcements, with the G4 Summit theme this year being “The Changing Landscape of the Game of Golf”.

The speaker lineup certainly doesn’t lack firepower. It includes:

— Dottie Pepper (left), who won 17 LPGA Tour events, including the Nabisco Dinah Shore twice in the 1990s. Pepper served as an assistant captain for the U.S. team at the Solheim Cup matches at Colorado Golf Club in 2013. Since 2005, she’s been a prominent on-course reporter on TV, working for NBC, the Golf Channel, and now ESPN and CBS, where she’ll be part of the Masters and PGA Championship broadcasting teams. Pepper, who replaces David Feherty at CBS and becomes the network’s first female golf analyst, recently spent three years on the board of directors for the PGA of America.

Pepper will also be the keynote speaker for the Colorado PGA’s Teaching and Coaching Summit on Feb. 17 at The Broadmoor, addressing what players look for in a coach.

— Rhett Evans, the CEO of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, who will be delivering the keynote address. Evans was well received as the keynote speaker at the CWGA annual meeting last March.

— Rand Jerris, the USGA’s senior managing director for public services, who is also an author (or co-author) of three golf books, speaking on building a sustainable game.

— David Lorentz, senior research manager for the National Golf Foundation, a trade assocation which provides market research, information and insights about the business of golf. Lorentz will be speaking on “golf and the millennial generation”.

All four of the speakers will also participate in an industry panel discussion.
 

And, mind you, the event is still more than six months away.

With the Solheim Cup — a biennial Ryder Cup-like matchup between the best female golfers from the U.S. and Europe — being held in America just once every four years, there’s nothing held back.

The Solheim Cup staff estimates that the total economic impact for this year’s event at Colorado Golf Club in Parker (Aug. 13-18) could approach $30 million. And they’re hoping for total attendance of 110,000-120,000 at the golf course and for perhaps the best TV ratings of the year for a women’s golf tournament.

As LPGA commissioner Mike Whan noted earlier this week, “Colorado has been a consistent home run for women’s golf” in terms of fan support.

“This event doesn’t just happen,” said Pepper, the former NBC golf broadcaster, in an interview with COgolf.org on Friday. “You need community support and you need corporate support and you need awareness.

“It’s an event that although it’s over 20 years old now, it’s still gaining its traction, so everything we do is about awareness of the event, getting people involved, and telling them how great it’s been. The whole mantra has been, ‘Don’t wake up on Monday, the 19th of August, and say, ‘Oh man, I missed it.”’

Just this week, LPGA and Solheim Cup officials have gone on another publicity tour for an event that has already generated plenty of buzz with close results in recent years, including a 15-13 European win in Ireland in 2011.

Mallon and Pepper, who have won 35 LPGA Tour events and six major championships between them, and Whan led a contingent to Colorado. Among other stops, they promoted the Solheim Cup at the Denver Golf Expo, where between 100 and 200 people watched a Friday Q&A involving Mallon and Pepper and they later signed autographs. (Pepper, left, and Mallon are pictured above on Friday.) They and Whan also attended Thursday’s Denver Nuggets game, and all three made the rounds with numerous media outlets during the week.

This week was Mallon’s fourth Solheim Cup-related visit to Colorado since being named U.S. captain. She said she’ll probably make four more stops in the state before the week of the event. In addition, she said she’ll probably go on five or six other trips this year to promote the Solheim Cup and attend to various details of her duties.

As for Pepper, she indicated she’ll make six or seven Solheim-related trips leading up to tournament week.

“The event is so big,” said Mallon, whose promotional efforts take up much of her time as U.S. captain, particularly at this point. “It’s our biggest event on tour. It’s every four years that it comes to the United States and there’s an awful lot of planning that goes into it. So it’s just making sure we’re prepared for an incredibly hectic (tournament) week and trying to eliminate as much of the potential problems as possible so we can have a pretty smooth week.

“It’s eye-opening. Being the home captain is a lot of work and a lot of travel, and it’s good that the staff involves the captain. But it’s not something the everyday (tour) golfer does. Instead of being just in charge of your own life, now you’re in charge of 12 lives and trying to logistically make things happen. Not only 12, right now I have 30 people on my email list because I don’t know who’s going to be on the team.”

And the same is certainly true for European captain Liselotte Neumann and everyone assisting her. But the pressure is particularly intense for the Americans, who have never lost a Solheim Cup competition held in the U.S. And, of course, regaining the Cup after a close loss will be a high priority.

“Since they lost in 2011, we have a highly motivated group coming to Colorado,” Mallon said.

And Mallon and Pepper want to capitalize on that motivation by doing their part to assure the Americans play their best in mid-August.

“We want (the players) to know that we have their interests at the forefront,” Pepper said. “We want to make their week is as great as it can be, and as simple as it can be so that they can just go play great golf. The more we can get across to them — give us your junk (problems), we’ll take care of it, we’ll make it go away or we’ll deal with it. That’s what they need to know from us.”

Notable: World Golf Hall of Famer Kathy Whitworth, the captain for the first two U.S. Solheim Cup teams (1990 and ’92), will be the American captain for the Junior Solheim Cup that will be held Aug. 13-14 at Inverness Golf Club in Englewood. Scotland’s Janice Moodie will captain the European squad. Each team will be made up of a dozen players ages 12-18. … Pepper said Friday that the seventh hole at Colorado Golf Club, which normally plays as a par-5, will be a par-4 for the Solheim Cup.
 

“The number of man-hours that goes into putting this on — not just us, but for the CGA and the PGA — means there’s a lot riding on it,” Cramer said.
    

20th Annual Denver Golf Expo: Just the Facts
   
What: 20th Denver Golf Expo.
   
When: Feb. 8-10 (Friday through Sunday).
   
Where: Denver Merchandise Mart (I-25 and 58th Ave.)
   
Show Hours: Friday Feb. 8, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday Feb. 9, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday Feb. 10, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
  
Ticket Prices: adults, $12; seniors (50 and over) and military with ID, $10; kids 12 and under, free.
   
Tickets Available: At the door at the Merchandise Mart or at TicketsWest at King Soopers.
   
Parking Shuttles: Available from the East parking lot and at the south side of the Merchandise Mart.
  
Show Features: Colorado Junior Golf Experience interactive exhibit, free swing seminars from Colorado PGA professionals, Used Club Sale to benefit CGA and CWGA junior golf developmental programs, free seminars beginning at 10 a.m., club demo area.
   
Donations for Used Club Sale Accepted: Drop off at the north side main entrance of Merchandise Mart Feb. 7, noon to 3 p.m.; Feb. 8, 8 a.m.-noon.
 

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.