Less than 15 minutes after The Broadmoor’s eighth USGA championship concluded on Sunday, the USGA announced that No. 9 is on the way.

Before David Toms was handed the U.S. Senior Open trophy on the 18th green of the East Course on Sunday evening, the crowd was told that the Senior Open will return to the resort in 2025. Specific dates that year have yet to be determined.

It will mark the fourth U.S. Senior Open held in Colorado, and the third at The Broadmoor, which did the honors in 2008 and this year. Cherry Hills Country Club hosted the event in 1993, when Jack Nicklaus won.

“Beginning with the U.S. Amateur in 1959 (when Nicklaus also prevailed), The Broadmoor has been a gracious and wonderful host and a valued partner to the USGA, helping us to showcase the world’s greatest players on the game’s grandest stages,” USGA CEO Mike Davis said in a statement. “This has been a tremendous week of golf and a great celebration of the game, and we are excited to bring the championship back to Colorado Springs in 2025.”

It’s unusual for a U.S. Senior Open site announcement seven years in advance. In fact, the courses for the 2023 and ’24 events haven’t yet been set. But the USGA obviously was sold on all that The Broadmoor brings to the table.

“It’s amazing how well Colorado supports these things,” said Russ Miller, The Broadmoor’s longtime director of golf. “It’s been proven over and over and over. That’s exciting.”

The 2025 U.S. Senior Open will be the 34th USGA championship held in the Centennial State. In the interim, Colorado Golf Club in Parker will be the site of the 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur, with those dates set for Sept. 14-19.

The fans came out in force this week at The Broadmoor. The USGA announced the attendance for the 39th U.S. Senior Open was 134,500. That’s 5,786 more than the weeklong number for the 2008 Senior Open at The Broadmoor.

“It far exceeded what I anticipated,” Miller said of the attendance during The Broadmoor’s 100th anniversary celebration. “That’s a tremendous success.”

The 134,500 was the most for the Senior Open since the 157,126 in Omaha, Neb., in 2013. The record for a Senior Open came in Des Moines, Iowa in 1999, when more than 200,000 people attended.

The figures this week include 102,600 during the four championship days — Thursday through Sunday. It went 19,700 on Thursday, 23,200 on Friday, 28,700 on Saturday and 31,000 on Sunday.

“The fans were tremendous,” said Toms, an LSU alum. “Now I know why all these LSU people come here to get out of the heat.”

This week’s U.S. Senior Open was all the more impressive considering a hailstorm that hit the area two weeks before the championship. Large hailstones damaged the greens quite severely. But by the time the Senior Open began on Thursday, it was barely noticeable.

“We were less than two weeks out,” Miller said. “The maintenance staff took 15 guys and took ball repair tools and went to every green and did thousands on every green. I could take a golf ball and it went down in (the hailstone marks).

“It’s not like a divot. When hail hits, it splits the turf. They fixed them by hand, we verti-cut again — which we weren’t going to do — but that was a great decision by Freddie Dickman (director of golf course maintenance at The Broadmoor). And now you’d never know anything happened.

“It was about 10 days (after the storm) before you couldn’t tell anything. In practice rounds, it looked like little bruises almost. The last couple of days it’s perfect. You can’t tell a thing. (The nearby two of) Fountain had baseball-size hail, so we got very lucky — I guess.”

Overall, it turned out to be quite a week for The Broadmoor. Besides the attendance, there were no weather delays, which is no small matter this time of year along the Front Range. And while the East Course caused the players fits, few complained about the test.

“It was a perfect U.S. Open setup,” said Rocco Mediate.

Added Jerry Kelly: “Those of you who know me know I don’t like to give the USGA that much credit, but they got it right this week. It was a fantastic job. The golf course got firm, tough, fast (and still) extremely playable. It was a great championship.”

That’s the overall tenor of the feedback Miller heard this week.

“I think the golf course held up great,” he said. “A lot of the players are saying it’s very difficult but very fair. You can’t get lucky. You’ve got to manage the course. That’s what an Open championship is all about. I’ve heard no negatives on the golf course. And the weather has been perfect.”
 

In the West wing of The Broadmoor, there’s a hall of fame that includes an impressive photographic array of people of note who have visited the resort over the years.

There’s everyone from Arnold Palmer to Babe Zaharias, from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama, from Aerosmith to Liberace, from Bing Crosby to Bob Hope, from Mickey Rooney to John Wayne, from John Elway to Peyton Manning, and even from Ted Cruz to Hillary Clinton.

Such a site seemed an altogether appropriate venue for Saturday night’s Century of Golf Gala at The Broadmoor, which featured a who’s who of golf in Colorado — and beyond.

About 1,250 people attended the Gala, the culmination of a year of activities and initiatives held in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CGA. Both the history and future of golf in the state were celebrated, with all proceeds benefiting the Colorado Golf Foundation and its mission of youth development through golf.

Jack Nicklaus — who won the first and last of his eight USGA championships in Colorado, the 1959 U.S. Amateur at The Broadmoor and the 1993 U.S. Senior Open at Cherry Hills Country Club — was the headliner on Saturday. He noted that it was his first trip back to the resort since the 1960 NCAA Championships — and just his second since his career-launching victory over defending champion Charlie Coe in the 36-hole U.S. Amateur final 56 years ago. (Nicklaus is pictured above at the Gala and at left on the 18th green at The Broadmoor’s East Course.)

“I’m really pleased to have had the pleasure to have Colorado be such a large part of my golfing life,” Nicklaus said before a fireside chat with journalist Tim Rosaforte. “… I’ve been blessed to be able to (design or redesign 10) golf courses in Colorado (including Castle Pines Golf Club, site of the PGA Tour’s International for 21 years, with three other Colorado courses done by Nicklaus Design). I’ve had a blast coming here. I’ve had two or three homes in Colorado, skied a lot in Colorado and spent a lot of time with (President) Gerald Ford when he was here; what a man. What I’m trying to say is, we’ve had a great, great time in Colorado, and it’s nice to be back here this evening.”

Also in attendance Saturday were the president and executive director of the USGA — Thomas O’Toole and Mike Davis, respectively — along with John Kaczkowski, president and CEO of the Western Golf Associaton, and Rhett Evans, CEO of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.

And, of course, there were the six Colorado golf People of the Century who were recognized on Saturday: Will Nicholson Jr. (Man of the Century), Judy Bell (Woman of the Century), Hale Irwin (Male Player of the Century), Barbara McIntire (Female Player of the Century), Charles “Vic” Kline (Golf Professional of the Century) and Dennis Lyon (Superintendent of the Century). (Five of the six are pictured above: from left, Kline, Bell, Nicholson, Lyon and Irwin. McIntire missed the event after feeling ill.)

To put things into perspective, there are six players in the history of golf to have won three or more U.S. Opens, and two of them were at the Gala, Nicklaus (four-time champ) and Irwin (three-time winner).

“We’ve got a five-time USGA champion in Hale Irwin,” O’Toole noted Saturday. “We’ve got the greatest major winner ever in Jack (Nicklaus). We’ve got two past presidents of the USGA (Nicholson and Bell). We’ve got a past chairman of the Women’s Committee (actually two in Bell and McIntire, in addition to Joan Birkland, who was also in attendance). We’ve got a many-time Curtis Cup captain in both Judy and Barbara. It was important for us to be here tonight.”

(For more about the People of the Century, CLICK HERE.)

And Nicholson, a longtime acquaintance of Nicklaus through the former’s longstanding roles with the USGA and the Masters, was responsible for getting the Golden Bear to headline Saturday’s Gala.

“Will has been an unbeliebable friend,” Nicklaus said. “He’s a great man and you’re lucky to have him in Colorado.”

Nicklaus’ fireside chat — covering his tournament, design and personal experiences in Colorado and beyond — was popular with the big crowd (left) at The Broadmoor.

Nicklaus has said in the past — and reiterated on Saturday — that the U.S. Amateur victory at The Broadmoor in 1959 was one of the most important in his career. He sank an 8-foot birdie putt on the 36th hole to secure the first of his 20 major championships, if U.S. Ams are still considered majors.

“That’s probably the most important putt I ever made,” Nicklaus said. “In those days it was a major championship. What it did was it put me in a position where if I had to make a putt if I wanted to win something, I did. And winning breeds winning.

“The U.S. Amateur was the one that gave me the confidence to know that I could play, that I could do things under pressure. That was important to me.”

Nicklaus also noted that he defeated Robert Tyre Jones III, son of Grand Slam winner Bobby Jones, in the first round of match play.

Jones III told Nicklaus that he had called his dad and asked the elder Jones if he was going to come out and watch him. Bobby Jones asked who Jones III was playing. After being told it was Nicklaus, Bobby Jones told his son, “I’ve heard of him. No, I’m not coming out to watch you play 13 holes.”

And, noted Nicklaus, “We played 13 holes” in the Bear’s match play victory.

As for his performance in the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills, where he finished runner-up — as an amateur — to Arnold Palmer while being paired with Ben Hogan for the final two rounds …

“Probably the best thing that ever happened to me in my career was not to win that tournament,” Nicklaus said. “Had I won that tournament, I probably wouldn’t have put my nose to the grindstone and would not have wanted to get better. It brings you down to earth.”

But Nicklaus would win again in Colorado, both at the 1977 Jerry Ford Invitational, then prevailing by one shot at Cherry Hills over fellow former Ohio State golfer Tom Weiskopf in the 1993 U.S. Senior Open.

And though Nicklaus’ competitive golf days are now over — aside from periodic participation in the PNC Father-Son Challenge — he still isn’t done making his mark in Colorado. Just in recent months, he made alterations to numerous holes at the Castle Pines Golf Club course which opened in 1981.

“It’s a better course now,” Nicklaus said.

(For more about Nicklaus’ many accomplishements in Colorado, CLICK HERE.)

Odds and Ends from The Broadmoor: In tribute to Nicklaus for playing such a prominent role in the Century of Golf Gala, CGA president Phil Lane said that $25,000 will be donated to the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation. …

George Solich, a former Broadmoor caddie who provided the lead gift for the Colorado Golf Foundation three years ago, spoke at the Gala along with current University of Colorado Evans Scholar Josh Aguilar (left, next to Solich). Aguilar was a product of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, one of the beneficiaries of the Colorado Golf Foundation. Solich, a CU Evans Scholar alum, encouraged support of the Foundation and the programs it supports. …

About 20 Evans Scholar caddies from CU assisted with Saturday’s Century of Golf golf outing, held at The Broadmoor’s East and West courses, along with the Gala. …

Roughly 170 players participated in the golf on a mid-November day in which the temperature reached the mid-60s. Each threesome/foursome/fivesome competed Saturday by seeing if its net best-ball score bettered that of Jack Nicklaus during the 36-hole U.S. Amateur final in 1959 at the East Course. Also, each competitor had the chance to try an 8-foot birdie putt similar to the one Nicklaus sunk to win the Amateur on the 18th green at the East Course, with those making it being awarded a Century of Golf in Colorado poster created by artist Lee Wybranski.
 

Last week was a national coming-out party for CommonGround Golf Course, and the event certainly attracted many dignitaries.

Jack Nicklaus was on hand to watch his son, Gary, play a stroke-play round in the U.S. Amateur. Former USGA president Will Nicholson Jr., was likewise there, along with USGA Executive Committee member Christie Austin and course architect Tom Doak.

And, of course, there were the U.S. Amateur competitors, including most of the biggest names in amateur golf: U.S. Open low amateur Jordan Spieth; Beau Hossler, the 17-year-old who led the U.S. Open during round 2; and the world’s No. 1-ranked amateur Chris Williams. (Spieth is pictured in orange above at CommonGround with No. 2-ranked Justin Thomas.)

CommonGround, just 39 months after opening, put its best foot forward to all. And now we’ll see if being the second stroke-play course for the U.S. Amateur leads to a sole hosting role for another USGA championship in the next five or 10 years.

As for how CommonGround — which is owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA — fared in the stroke-play portion of the U.S. Am, several officials came away impressed.

“I think it held up exceedingly well,” said Nicholson, a member of the CommonGround Board of Directors as long as there’s been such a board. “And I have heard nothing but compliments about the golf course from players and officials. One of the (USGA) Executive Committee members played out there (a couple days after the stroke-play rounds) and said, ‘I wasn’t impressed when I drove up, but when I played the golf course I walked away impressed.'”

Added USGA executive director Mike Davis: “In full disclosure, I didn’t get here until we started match play, but based on everything I heard (CommonGround) was a wonderful, wonderful venue. It couldn’t have been a better companion course for stroke play.

“It’s got so many great storylines that go with it beyond just being a marvelous architectural, fun course that’s well-conditioned. I think the thing that’s so appealing is it’s a great story. Very affordable golf, it focuses on junior golf and now it has a great caddie program (the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy). And it’s close to the city. It’s a model we’d love to see in a lot of other cities around the country.”

CommonGround was certainly a stark contrast to Cherry Hills Country Club, the primary host of the U.S. Amateur. And not every player liked the public layout, but many thought it was a worthy venue.

“It was good. I really like it actually,” Hossler said. “The greens are really good and firm and pretty fast. You have to definitely drive it well because of the fescue and everything off the fairway. It’s a good track. This is definitely a challenge, especially if it gets windy.”

Thomas, who advanced to the semifinals of the Amateur, concurred.

“I liked (CommonGround). It was really cool,” he said. “It’s very similar to the other course we played for the U.S. Am two years ago (the Home Course in Washington, which will host the 2014 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links). It’s really firm and fast and it’s in perfect shape. It’s just a good course.”

Probably no one would have expected it, but the lowest round of the stroke play came from Cherry Hills, not CommonGround, as medalist Bobby Wyatt fired a 7-under-par 64 on Day 1. But that was certainly the exception rather than the norm. Overall, CommonGround’s stroke average for the two days of stroke play was 72.3. Meanwhile, Cherry Hills yielded 76.2.

“A lot of people say, ‘No one will remember the companion course,’ but we will,” CGA executive director Ed Mate said. “The other thing that’s kind of neat, comparing and contrasting, (Cherry Hills) is not a golf course that yields driver. But at CommonGround, that opportunity was there. I think it produced a more well-rounded 36-hole qualifier because the two courses complemented each other pretty well. And the green complexes are every bit as challenging at CommonGround as they are at Cherry Hills.”

Most importantly, when looking ahead, the movers and shakers at the USGA thought CommonGround stood up well as a USGA championship test.

“I think it was a wonderful choice for our companion course,” said Austin, who as a member of the Executive Committee has plenty of pull in deciding on future USGA venues. “Not only is it a good story, but it’s a good track. It’s a good test of golf. I thought it played hard but fair for a lot of the field, The course was in perfect condition considering our heat this summer. So we were very pleased — really really pleased.”

So the time might come in the not-too-distant future that CommonGround hosts a USGA championship on its own. A U.S. Public Links Championship has been mentioned, but a U.S. Women’s Amateur or a U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links might be more likely.

“Assuming that CommonGround wants us and invites us, I can’t imagine the committee wouldn’t look favorably on that,” Davis said.

As a longtime resident of Colorado — and an at-large member of the CWGA Board of Directors — Austin knows CommonGround’s story well and is a big supporter of the course and all the “for the good of the game” initiatives that take place there.

“I hope someday we can have one of our championships there — the WAPL or a Publinks,” she said. “I think the CGA and CWGA are open to that idea. We’ll have to talk to them about it and get a letter in. That’s really what initiates our interest is the course saying, ‘We’d be interested’. They need to show some interest — and I think verbally they have. We’ve already been out there, so that helps, but we’d need to do a little bit more work on which (championship) would be appropriate.

“But (the USGA) loves coming to Colorado. If you were out there (Sunday at Cherry Hills, where 4,500 people attended the final of the U.S. Amateur) you saw the support. This is a great sports town, and they just don’t see enough national ranked amateur golf here.”

Mate, for one, is certainly interested in CommonGround hosting a future USGA championship, but there are financial aspects to be considered.

“We built the golf course to host championships, and that’s high on the priority list,” he said. “But we have to weigh all the other things we’re trying to accomplish there, including cash flow. Hosting USGA championships is great and wonderful, and it’s great to see the best players play on your golf course, but it also costs you a lot of money. The USGA doesn’t pay you a course fee, so you’re displacing a lot of rounds and revenue, not to mention some of your out-of-pocket expenses like trailers and roping and transportation and all the things that go into it. If money weren’t an object, we’d be hosting something right away. But we have to consider the whole thing.”

That said, Mate makes it clear he would love to see a future USGA championship at CommonGround, and if he had his druthers, it would be a women’s championship of some sort.

“We could do so many more things with the course from a set-up standpoint,” he said. “We had to build five new tees for (the U.S. Amateur) to make some of the strategy of the bunkering be relevant. For the women, we could do all kinds of things.”

For the record, sites for the U.S. Women’s Amateur, Women’s Publinks and men’s Publinks are set through 2014.