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.
 

Not coincidentally, the inaugural Match Play was conducted the same year the CWGA was founded, 98 years ago.

But with interest dwindling in competing in the oldest continuously-held statewide women’s golf championship in Colorado, CWGA leadership decided to cancel the 2014 CWGA Match Play Championship “due to low entries”. It was scheduled for June 23-26 at Lone Tree Golf Club, with the first round being qualifying to set the match-play bracket.

The CWGA had extended the entry deadline for the Match Play twice, but still had drawn only 43 players between the open-age and senior flights. Last year, 54 started the event. A full field for the Match Play as currently configured would be 96 players. (The CWGA Match Play trophy is pictured above.)

“It’s a traditional championship and historical, but it’s OK to stop and get feedback,” said Ann Guiberson, the CWGA’s new executive director. “It may be time to stop and rebrand.”

Guiberson added that “we want to continue to have it because it’s one of the oldest championships.” But, according to the notice that the CWGA sent to 2014 Match Play entrants, the CWGA Tournament Committee “will further review the format, timing and participation in this championship over the course of this season. We welcome your input.”

Guiberson indicated the numbers simply weren’t there to support a full-scale, multi-flight championship. With 16 players in the open championship-flight bracket and eight in the senior championship flight, a total 19 players would have been left for the non-championship-flight brackets on the open and senior side.

“It’s just in fairness to the players and the (Lone Tree) club,” Guiberson said. “You’ve got to take into consideration the course; they would have lost tremendous revenue.”

Looking forward, the CWGA will consider how heavily it promotes the championship, and how it’s presented. There are two champions crowned — open division and seniors — “but it’s presented as one,” Guiberson noted.

There’s also the issue of timing. The CWGA Match Play was scheduled to be contested just two weeks after a very popular team match play event — the just-completed CWGA Mashie, which drew 192 competitors.

“Are they too close?” Guiberson asked. “We have to look in relation to other events.”

Colorado Sports Hall of Famer Joan Birkland, a four-time winner of the CWGA Match Play in the 1960s, admits she doesn’t know why competitor interest in the championship is dropping, but she has a guess. “The players of college golf age are so good that older players figure it’s not worth playing,” she said.

The last open-division CWGA Match Play champion who won when she was 25 or older was Kim Eaton in 2004.

Among the most successful players all-time in the CWGA Match Play, Phyllis Buchanan won six times in the 1930s, and Birkland, Marcia Bailey and Carol Flenniken claimed the title four times each in the 1960s and ’70s.

Players who entered the 2014 Match Play will receive a full refund.