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.
 

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 1915-1924. For a list of all installments to date, CLICK HERE. 

While there were certainly very notable happenings in the history of Colorado golf prior to 1915, the decade starting then marked a watershed for the sport in the Centennial State.

After all, that period included the founding of both the CGA and the CWGA; the first USGA presidency held by a Coloradan; the opening of a club that’s gone on to host more major championships and USGA championships than any other in Colorado (Cherry Hills Country Club) and of another club that’s been home to the second-most USGA championships in Colorado history (the Broadmoor); and the debut of what would become one of the country’s top amateur tournaments (the Broadmoor Invitation).

That’s what you call laying a strong foundation for golf in the state.

But before we continue with that, let’s briefly note what preceded the CGA’s founding.

A half-dozen golf courses in Colorado that opened prior to World War I remain vibrant to this day. That list includes Overland Park in Denver (left, circa 1895), Denver Country Club, Patty Jewett in Colorado Springs, Pueblo Country Club, Lakewood Country Club (then known as The Colorado Golf Club), and City Park in Denver. And there’s been some indication that other courses can trace their lineage back to pre-World War I, including perhaps Greeley Country Club.

Denver Country Club was one of the original 15 clubs in the Trans-Mississippi Golf Association (as was the Town & Gown Golf Club of Colorado Springs), and in the early years DCC hosted the Trans-Miss Championship in 1910 (won by a gentleman by the name of Harry Legg) and 1921 (George Von Elm). DCC was also the site of the 1912 Western Amateur won by Chick Evans, now best known as the founder of the Evans Scholarship for caddies. Evans would go on to capture eight Western Amateur titles in addition to two U.S. Amateurs and the 1916 U.S. Open.

Even though the CGA wasn’t founded until 1915, the tournament now known as the CGA Match Play dates back to 1901, making it the oldest continuously held state golf championship in Colorado. Frank Woodward, who played an exhibition match at Overland against the famed Harry Vardon during Vardon’s nationwide tour in 1900, captured the first Match Play title. (Keep his name in mind for a little history he’ll make later.)

Walter Fairbanks (pictured at top), also part of the Vardon exhibition, strung together four consecutive Match Play titles from 1902-05, a feat that remains unmatched in tournament history. But by far the most successful performer overall in the Match Play was Dr. Larry Bromfield, who won eight titles between 1912-28.

As for the specific decade at hand (1915-24), here are some of the highlights:

— The Colorado Golf Association was formally founded on Aug. 20, 1915. A two-paragraph Denver Post story noted that the “organization will control the state tournaments, give the cups and appoint the officers, and the winner will be the recognized champion of the association and state.”

M.A. McLaughlin of Lakewood Country Club was elected the first president. That same year, coincidentally, McLaughlin won the first of his two CGA Match Plays, this time defeating Bromfield. McLaughlin had been the Match Play runner-up the previous three years.

— The following year, on March 14, 1916, the Colorado Women’s Golf Association came into being when eight women met and elected a president, adopted a constitution and bylaws, and delineated the association’s objectives and purpose: to promote and maintain the best interests of the game of golf; to hold golf tournaments; and to promote good fellowship among member clubs.” Mrs. Olyn Hemming was named the CWGA’s first president.

In September 2016 the first CWGA Match Play Championship was held, with Mrs. M.A. McLaughlin of Lakewood prevailing for the title.

During the period from 1915-21, the McLaughlins won five CGA/CWGA Match Play titles between them.

— Meanwhile, at this same time, a Coloradan was making some history nationally. The United States Golf Association was founded in 1894, and from then through 1914, all the presidents of the organization had come from the East or Midwest. But Denver Country Club founding member Woodward, winner of the first CGA Match Play 14 years earlier, in 1915 became the first USGA president from the western U.S. He served a two-year term during which the USGA in 1916 stripped the amateur status from 1913 U.S. Open champion Francis Ouimet because Ouimet intended to open a sporting goods store. Ouimet wouldn’t be reinstated until 1918. The next USGA president from Colorado wouldn’t take office until 1980 (Will Nicholson Jr.).

During the period from 1909-20, Woodward would be president of Denver Country Club for five years. He was also a chairman of the Western Golf Association and the Trans Mississippi Golf Association.

— During the period from 1915-24, two of Colorado’s most famous courses opened, with the Donald Ross-designed Broadmoor Golf Club coming online in 1918 and William Flynn-designed Cherry Hills in 1922. Between them, Cherry Hills and the Broadmoor have hosted 16 USGA championships and 10 major championships (PGA, LPGA and Champions tours combined).

— In 1921, the Broadmoor debuted the Broadmoor Invitation (sometimes referred to as the Broadmoor Amateur Open in the early years), which would become one of the most prestigious amateur tournaments in the country. From 1921 to ’95, the tournament built a reputation for crowning top-notch champions. Among the winners of the tournament over those years — the event returned in 2014 as a scratch four-ball — were Hale Irwin, Lawson Little, Tom Purtzer, Grier Jones, Duffy Waldorf, Bob Dickson, John Fought and Willie Wood — all of whom went on to win on the PGA Tour — as well as Charlie Coe and locals N.C. “Tub” Morris (his 1922 Broadmoor Invitation medalist honor is pictured above), Bill Loeffler and Jim English.

As for the Broadmoor Ladies Invitation, its most famous champion would be Babe Zaharias, who won the event three consecutive years beginning in 1945.

All in all, the decade beginning in 1915 — along with the period leading up to it — had Colorado golf off to a rousing start through the first quarter of the 20th century. But many ups and downs awaited in the years to come.

Next up: 1925-34.
 

The year it was first held, William McKinley was president of the U.S., Butch Cassidy allegedly was in on a train robbery in Montana, and Queen Victoria passed away.

The 113th CGA Match Play will be held next week — July 8-12 — at Bear Creek Golf Club in west Denver.

The championship has been contested every year since 1901. That not only makes it the oldest continuously held statewide golf tournament in Colorado, but one of the oldest in the nation.

While the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur, Masters and PGA Championship — along with the British Open — all weren’t held various years because of World War I and/or II, the CGA Match Play has never missed a beat. It’s been contested each year without fail since Frank Woodward defeated H.K.B. Davis Sr., 3 and 2 in the finals in 1901.

The Match Play actually predates the CGA by 14 years, but the association’s first official function when it was founded in 1915 was becoming the administrator of the event.

Over the first 112 years, the champions have included the very famous and the obscure.

Four members of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame have their names on the Richard C. Campbell CGA Match Play trophy — N.C. “Tub” Morris (1924 and ’27), Charles “Babe” Lind (1946), Hale Irwin (1966) and Steve Jones (1980). Between them, Irwin and Jones went on to win the U.S. Open four times.

“I look back at all those (Colorado amateur) events I was fortunate enough to play and have some success in as really the groundwork that got me started into the golf scene,” Irwin said last year. “Colorado golf is where it all started.”

Other current PGA Tour players who have won the CGA Match Play are Brandt Jobe (1984, ’85, ’88) and fellow Kent Denver High School alum Kevin Stadler (1999 and 2002).

The championship has seen everything from a couple of 12-and-11 routs in the 36-hole final match, to one finale that lasted more than 40 holes, as Sam Valuck needed 42 to overcome future state senator Les Fowler in the 1961 title match at Cherry Hills.

Dr. Larry Bromfield has been by far the most successful player in CGA Match Play history, having won an amazing eight times from 1912-28. Next best are Mark Crabtree, Larry McAtee and Walter Fairbanks, with four titles each.

This year’s Match Play will be contested at Bear Creek, which has hosted the championship 13 previous times since 1986.

Former Georgetown University golfer Brian Dorfman of Cherry Creek Country Club will defend his 2012 title, and last year’s runner-up, Colorado State University golfer Parker Edens, is also back. (Dorfman is pictured above in front of the Match Play trophy.)

Likewise in the field are former University of Colorado golfer Derek Fribbs, who last month won the CGA Public Links Championship after shooting a final-round 62; 2012 CGA Stroke Play champion and 2013 Publinks runner-up Steven Kupcho; 2012 U.S. Amateur match play qualifier Mike Schoolcraft; and 2004 Match Play winner Steve Irwin.

As the defending champ, Dorfman will be the No. 1 seed, with a single round of stroke play on Monday setting up the rest of the 64-man match play bracket.