For the fourth time since late May, the Colorado golf community lost one of its most notable members as Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Bill Bisdorf passed away last Monday (Sept. 19) in Denver at the age of 87.

Ironically, the man who was born exactly four months before Arnold Palmer in 1929 died just six days before The King did on Sunday.

In winning three of the first four Colorado Opens at Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen, Bisdorf is one of just three players who have captured that title at least three times, along with Dave Hill (four wins) and Bill Loeffler (three).

Bisdorf (pictured) was runner-up to Bob Pratt in the 1966 Colorado Open, meaning his first four finishes in the tournament were first, first, second, first. He was also second in 1975 (placing just in front of Peter Jacobsen), third in 1971 and fifth in ’72.

Add it up and that’s seven top-five finishes in the first dozen Colorado Opens. He also won the the 1959 and ’66 Colorado Section PGA Championships, the 1960 Wyoming Open and the 1965 Mile High Open.

Ronn Spargur, a former longtime executive director of the Colorado Open, noted that Rocky Mountain News golf writer Dave Nelson — who’s also in the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame — had a nickname for Bisdorf back in his prime.

“He called him ‘the blacksmith’ because (Bisdorf) could hit the ball two or three miles,” Spargur said. “He was really strong.”

Indeed, it’s said that Bisdorf out-drove Jack Nicklaus during practice leading up to the 1967 PGA Championship at Columbine Country Club.

Not surprisingly, Bisdorf was named the Colorado PGA’s Player of the Year following his first two Colorado Open victories (1964 and ’65). He also claimed the championship in 1967. Interestingly, Bisdorf didn’t receive any official prize money for winning the first Colorado Open as there was no purse that year. And it’s notable that the runner-up that first year, amateur Jim English, also passed away in the summer of 2016. In ’65 and ’67, Bisdorf won $1,000 and $1,200, respectively, for his Colorado Open victories.

Bisdorf competed in 46 events on the PGA Tour from 1956 to ’71, including a career-high 14 in 1957. He posted two top-10 finishes, including a third place in 1956.

Bisdorf played 16 major championships over the years — 10 PGA Championships and six U.S. Opens. He finished tied for 20th — along with Raymond Floyd — in the 1967 PGA Championship at Columbine.

And after the creation of the Senior Tour — now known as PGA Tour Champions — Bisdorf competed in nine events on that circuit from 1980 to ’86, recording three top-25 finishes.

A member of the PGA of America since 1955, Bisdorf served as the head professional at Green Gables Country Club from 1959 through ’67. He later owned Denver Capitol Golf, where golfers could receive year-round lessons, then was head professional at Twilight Golf Course from 1979 to ’89.

Bisdorf was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 1989. Since May, fellow Hall of Famers Will Nicholson Jr., English and Ed Nosewicz have also passed away.

Norma Bisdorf, Bill’s wife, said there will be no services, but half of his ashes will be placed at Fort Logan Cemetary. Bill Bisdorf served in the Navy and played on Naval Championship teams along with Billy Casper and Gene Littler during the early 1950s. 

Bisdorf is survived by Norma, five children, five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
 

Editor’s Note: With the CGA celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1915, this is the second monthly installment of a series of stories looking back on the last century of golf in Colorado. All the articles will be published on ColoradoGolf.org. This chapter focuses on the period from 1925-34. For a list of all installments to date, CLICK HERE. 

The decade beginning in 1925 featured some of the highest highs and lowest lows in Colorado golf history — just as it did for the nation as a whole.

The most obvious reason was the dawning of the Great Depression. The country went from the Roaring Twenties to one of the worst economic collapses the U.S. has ever seen, starting with the stock market crash in October 1929.

Colorado golf, of course, reflected what was happening nationwide. In the last half of the 1920s, such local gems as Wellshire Golf Course (1926) and Green Gables Country Club (1928) — both of which would go on to host men’s or women’s tour events — opened for business. But in the quarter-century from 1930 through ’54, a grand total of just eight new courses that still exist came online.

There’s no other 25-year period in Colorado golf in which so few courses opened.

But those certainly aren’t the only highs and lows of this time. The decade from 1925-34 witnessed the beginning and end of two of the most successful runs in Colorado amateur golf history.

In 1928, dentist Larry Bromfield (left) defeated Nate Grimes 1-up in the CGA Match Play final, marking his eighth and final victory in the event, a feat unmatched to this day. How good was Bromfield? In 1922, he played the famous Gene Sarazen in a 36-hole exhibition, taking him to the final hole before losing 2-down.

And on the women’s side, in 1930 Phyllis Buchanan won the first of her record six CWGA Match Play titles. The Denver resident also captured the prestigious Women’s Trans National championship in 1933 in Iowa.

Then there was an out-of-stater who did great things in Colorado in 1933 en route to a World Golf Hall of Fame career. Read on for more about him.

Here are some of the other Colorado golf highlights from the period 1925-34:

— From 1927 through ’33, the Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs hosted the prestigious Trans-Miss championship a remarkable three times in seven years. The winners of the titles those years were John Goodman (1927), Robert McCrary (1930) and Gus Moreland (1933). Goodman went on to claim the championship three times and Moreland and McCrary twice each.

— In 1933 rapidly emerging Stanford golfer Lawson Little (pictured at top) had a big year in Colorado. He won the title in the Broadmoor Invitation in Colorado Springs, one of the top amateur tournaments of the time, and captured the CGA Match Play championship with a 9 and 7 victory over Frank English in the final. Little also finished runner-up to Moreland at the Broadmoor in the Trans-Miss. He would go on to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame after sweeping the U.S. and British Amateur titles in both 1934 and ’35. During his run in the two national amateur events, Little won a remarkable 32 consecutive matches. He went on to capture the U.S. Open in 1940. Lawson and Hale Irwin (1967) have the distinction of being the only Broadmoor Invitation winners who were inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Joining Little in capturing the Broadmoor Invitation title during the decade we’re detailing was N.C. “Tub” Morris (1928), for whom the CGA Stroke Play Championship Trophy is named.

— Will Nicholson Sr. (left, at the Broadmoor Invitation), who would become the mayor of Denver in 1955, played a key role at the Western Golf Association in the mid-1930s, serving as a director from 1933 to ’36 before becoming a member of the USGA Executive Committee. Nicholson’s son, Will Jr., became president of the USGA in 1980.

— In 1929, Denver Country Club hosted the Women’s Trans National Championship, and Mrs. O.S. Hill of Kansas City, Mo., won the second of her four Trans National titles.

Next up: 1935-44, when Colorado hosts its first major championships.
 

In good economic times — and when the game was growing considerably — there were single years when 10 or more new golf facilities might open in the state. And even during recessions and the like, seldom did a year go by when at least one new Colorado course didn’t make its debut.

In fact, from 1980 through 2009, not a year passed without a new course coming on-line in the state.

But times have certainly changed. No new course has opened in Colorado since the CGA/CWGA-owned CommonGround Golf Course debuted in Aurora in 2009.

To find a similar time frame when no courses were added in the state, you have to go back to the early 1950s. A combination of the economy tanking several years ago, plus the number of golfers in the U.S. declining since 2005, put a whammy on longtime trends.

And not only have no new courses opened in the last few years, but “about seven or eight” existing courses are no longer operating, according to Gerry Brown, director of course rating and handicapping for the CGA. The most notable of those have been historic Green Gables Country Club (which shut down in late 2011) and Cornerstone, the Greg Norman-designed course in the high country near Montrose, which stopped operating last year.

And this year — and perhaps longer — the golf course at the private Monument Hill Country Club in Monument will be closed, though other country club amenities (tennis, swimming, etc.) remain in operation. Monument Hill CC golf memberships are being honored at King’s Deer Golf Club, which is under the same ownership.

The high cost of watering the Monument Hill CC golf course — more than $500,000 over the last three years, according to the (Colorado Springs) Gazette — was cited as the reason for the closure. Monument Hill Country Club was previously known as Woodmoor Pines Golf and Country Club.

But there is a sliver of more positive news this year: There are those bucking this trend regarding golf courses in Colorado.

The Club at Cordillera, which consists of three private 18-hole courses (plus a nine-hole short course) in Edwards west of Vail, will be largely operational this year after all but one of the courses were closed in 2011 and 2012. An investment group, Wind Rose Properties, acquired Cordillera for $14.2 million in a December bankruptcy auction.

Wind Rose subsequently turned over management of the three 18-hole courses — the Valley (designed by Tom Fazio), Summit (designed by Jack Nicklaus) and Mountain (designed by Hale Irwin) — to Arizona-based Troon Golf. The Valley Course was the only one of the three that opened for play in 2011 and 2012, according to the Vail Daily.

Troon plans to open both the Summit and Valley courses in 2013 and 2014, with the Mountain Course opening in 2014, and possibly sooner. If there are enough members by April 15, the Mountain Course’s drainage system will be repaired and the fairways will be “regrassed”. How many courses will be open in 2015 and beyond depends on membership levels.

For more information about the Club at Cordillera, CLICK HERE. 

“I never dreamed that course would close up,” said Ron Vlosich, a former longtime director of golf at the private club in west Denver. “You think of all the great times out there, and you get real sad.”

Green Gables is scheduled to close for good after this weekend, ending a run that dates back to the Roaring ’20s. The financially troubled club was sold in June to a group of investors who plan to redevelop the property at 6800 W. Jewell Ave.

According to the Colorado Golf Guide, only about 20 existing golf courses in Colorado have been around longer than Green Gables, which was established in 1928, with a nine-hole course debuting the following year.

“This is pretty sad for a golf course that old,” Green Gables director of instruction Perry Holmes said recently.

“It was a great club,” added Vlosich, who led the golf operations at the club from 1989 through 2006. “It’s been there since 1929. It’s been a mainstay in the Jewish community and the golf community.”

And few courses in Colorado have hosted more big-time professional golf tournaments than Green Gables.

Six times, the LPGA Tour played events at Green Gables (1972, ’73, ’76, ’78, ’79 and ’84), and the Senior PGA Tour paid a visit in 1983. Among the winners of those tournaments were three World Golf Hall of Famers: Kathy Whitworth, Betsy King and Sandra Haynie.

And another World Golf Hall of Famer, Paul Runyan, who won two PGA Championships and was a world-renowned golf instructor, served as the director of golf at Green Gables from 1972 until the early 1980s. Runyan was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame this year.

Recalling some of the good times, Vlosich can remember when the golf shop received a call out of the blue in the 1990s, and a guy named Phil Mickelson said he’d be coming to the club in a few days. When he showed up, he gave a little clinic and played golf with one of the members.

“The club had a great group of members — a lot of different characters and different personalities,” said Vlosich, who was given an honorary membership after departing as director of golf. “There were a lot of great times and good memories. It was always interesting and fun.”

The course at Green Gables was expanded from nine to 18 holes in 1948, according to worldgolf.com. But the course underwent a total redesign — by Arthur Hills — that started in the fall of 2003 and lasted to the spring of 2005. The total make-over cost a reported $6 million, which led to financial stress for the club.

“It was a matter of a couple of things coming together at the same time,” Vlosich said. “When they did the renovation they took on some debt, then the economy tanked in ’07 and ’08. They couldn’t at least break even anymore.”

Vlosich played one of his last — if not the last — round at the course on Monday of this week. He’s prepared himself for the end, but that still doesn’t make it easy to say goodbye.

“Anytime you lose such a good course, it’s kind of tragic,” he said.