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.”
 

Kenny Perry was sitting within a few feet of a U.S. Senior Open trophy at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs on Monday, but given that he won the championship last summer, he’s got one of his own back home in Franklin, Ky.

“It makes me nervous every day where it’s sitting,” Perry explained during a U.S. Senior Open Championship Preview seven weeks before the tournament comes to The Broadmoor. “I have a little muni (course) I opened in 1995 (named Country Creek). I’ve got the trophy right there on the counter where everybody who comes in and gets a greens fee can see it, have your picture taken with it or whatever. It makes me so nervous because we’ve been broken into four or five times, and I’m afraid somebody is going to get it. But I’ve still got it.

“We keep it shiny, keep it looking nice. When people grab that trophy and just start looking at the names (of the champions), I just sit back and take pictures of them. Everybody is in awe of all the names on that trophy.”

Along with the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and Hale Irwin, engraved on that trophy is Perry’s name — twice, in fact. The 57-year-old has won the U.S. Senior Open, arguably the top event in senior golf, two times in the last five years. The only other players who have claimed the title two or more times are Nicklaus, Player, Irwin, Allen Doyle and Miller Barber, the only three-time champ.

And if Perry plays well enough come June 28-July 1 at The Broadmoor, he could join Barber in the three-timers club.

Perry came to The Broadmoor Resort for the first time on Sunday, though he didn’t arrive until late at night. So he truly had his first good look on Monday morning after he woke up. And his first reaction to the resort was the same as many people’s.

“As a golfer, you travel the world, but you don’t see the world,” he said. “You just see golf courses. Last night I flew in from Houston. I got in here about midnight. I didn’t have an idea of what we pulled into, so this morning when I woke up early, they’d given me this beautiful suite. I opened the curtains and there was this panoramic view. There was The Broadmoor out there in front of my eyes. I was like, ‘Wow. This place is amazing already.’

“The place is phenomenal. It’s beautiful. Thank you all for picking a golf course where every hole goes from right to left because that’s (the only shot) I can hit. I noticed there’s a lot of hooking holes out there. That’s right in my wheelhouse. I’m looking forward to coming here.”

Russ Miller, The Broadmoor’s longtime director of golf, gave Perry a quick tour of the East Course, where the championship will be contested. Miller made sure Perry took notice of the Will Rogers Shrine on the side of Cheyenne Mountain above the course as putts break away from it to the point of being very deceptive.

As Dale Douglass, a longtime Coloradan who won the 1986 U.S. Senior Open, noted on Monday, “I wake up having nightmares about having to make a 15-footer at this place.”

Added Ben Kimball, director of the U.S. Senior Open Championship: “This is a very, very interesting venue and every time I come here I tell Russ I struggle to figure out The Broadmoor — and I think the best players in the world will too.”

Perry is sure to be fooled too — at least on occasion — during the U.S. Senior Open, just like about all 156 players in the field will. But he didn’t win 14 times on the PGA Tour and nine times on PGA Tour Champions by lacking for talent. And though he lost two major championships in playoffs — to Mark Brooks at the 1996 PGA Championship and to Angel Cabrera at the 2009 Masters — he’s won four majors on the senior circuit: a Senior Players and a Tradition to go along with his two U.S. Senior Open victories.

“When you’ve got Palmer, Nicklaus, Player on that trophy, it makes you feel pretty special you’re part of that company,” Perry said. “It’s been pretty rough on me my whole life. I’ve always come up a little short in my career. To finally break through and win a couple of these titles really means a lot.

“This takes the edge off the pain I still carry with me to be able to have some major titles associated with my name. It still motivates me very highly. It keeps me going, keeps the fire burning inside of me.”

Elway, Solich Will Team Up in Qualifying: As was noted months ago, U.S. Senior Open honorary chairman and Broncos general manager John Elway will attempt to qualify for the championship on Memorial Day at The Broadmoor. And, as Elway indicated in a video message on Monday, he’ll have a secret weapon of sorts to help bolster his chances.

Elway said George Solich, a co-founder of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy who himself caddied at The Broadmoor as a teenager en route to receiving the Evans Scholarship for caddies, will be looping for the Pro Football Hall of Famer on May 28.

“He was a caddie down there for a long, long time,” Elway said of Solich, a friend for years. “He told me he’d get me through it and make sure I qualified.

“I’m excited for the opportunity just to play in a qualifier. I don’t have high expectations. My practice for the last three months has been inside the (Broncos) draft room. It’s been the mental side of practice and nothing physical. But I’m glad to be part of the Senior Open and bringing it back to Colorado.”

A lifelong golf amateur, Elway has finished as high as 19th in the CoBank Colorado Senior Open, has made the cut once in the Colorado Open, and has placed in the top 10 14 times in the nationally televised American Century Championships celebrity tournament in the Lake Tahoe area. He and Tom Hart won the 2009 Trans-Miss Four-Ball at Cherry Hills and tied for second in the 2010 CGA Four-Ball.

In all, more than 2,200 golfers posted entries for the U.S. Senior Open, with most of them competing at one of 34 qualifying tournaments. The qualifier at The Broadmoor on May 28 has a full field of 84 players.

Irwin, Watson Conducting Kids Exhibitions: Russ Miller, The Broadmoor’s director of golf, said Monday that two World Golf Hall of Famers will conduct kids exhibitions the week of the U.S. Senior Open June 25-July 1. Former University of Colorado athlete Hale Irwin, the career victory leader on PGA Tour Champions, will do the honors on Tuesday afternoon (June 26) and Tom Watson on Wednesday afternoon (June 27).

Miller said that in addition to Irwin, Watson and Perry, among those who are planning to play in the U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor are Bernhard Langer, Davis Love III (who was previously announced) and Steve Stricker.

In Short: Among those in attendance at Monday’s U.S. Senior Open Championship Preview at The Broadmoor was a who’s who of Colorado golf. On hand were Judy Bell, a former USGA president; Dow Finsterwald, winner of the 1958 PGA Championship among his 11 PGA Tour titles; and Dale Douglass, who owns three PGA Tour wins and 11 on PGA Tour Champions, including a U.S. Senior Open. (Douglass and Finsterwald are pictured above.) Also at the festivities was Broncos placekicker Brandon McManus. … At least 21 hours of TV coverage is planned for the U.S. Senior Open, almost all on FS1. … The Broadmoor’s East Course will play 7,264 yards — and thereabouts — and to a par of 70 for the Senior Open. The 17th hole will be a par-4 rather than a par-5 for the championship. And the seventh and 11th holes will be flipped for the tournament, with both playing as par-4s.
 

Russ Miller has been the PGA director of golf at The Broadmoor for 19 years — a period during which the Colorado Springs resort has hosted two USGA open championships — the 2008 U.S. Senior Open and the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open.

Despite his experience, there’s always more to learn when helping to oversee a major championship. That’s why — at least in part — Miller traveled to the U.S. Senior Open near Salem, Mass., in late June, and to the U.S. Amateur in Pacific Palisades Calif., this week.

With a little more than 300 days before tournament week at the East Course at The Broadmoor — June 25-July 1 — the resort is gradually gearing up for the 2018 U.S. Senior Open. It will be the 13th major championship to be conducted in Colorado — at least according to the current lineups used by the PGA Tour, LPGA and PGA Tour Champions. (The Women’s Western Open, once considered a major, was held at The Broadmoor in 1938 and at Cherry Hills Country Club in 1950, when Babe Zaharias won.)

Here’s the rundown of tour majors contested in Colorado:

U.S. Open — 1938, 1960 and 1978 (Cherry Hills).
PGA Championship — 1941 and 1985 (Cherry Hills); 1967 (Columbine).
U.S. Women’s Open — 1995 and 2011 (The Broadmoor); 2005 (Cherry Hills).
U.S. Senior Open — 1993 (Cherry Hills); 2008 and 2018 (The Broadmoor). (Note: After 2018, only Ohio, home to six championships, will have hosted the U.S. Senior Open more times than Colorado.)
Senior PGA Championship — 2010 (Colorado Golf Club).

In the 43-year period from 1972 through 2014, there was only one year (2007) that Colorado didn’t host at least one significant professional tour event or a major national/international amateur golf competition. But with the 2018 Senior Open being the first such tournament in Colorado since Cherry Hills did the honors at the BMW Championship in the 2014 PGA Tour playoffs, there appears to be some pent-up demand.

Miller said that in the first phase of ticket availability, which just concluded, sales more than doubled what they were for the same period in 2008, the last time the U.S. Senior Open came to The Broadmoor — or to the state.

“What that tells me about Colorado is people are really excited to have another championship back,” Miller said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “When your ticket sales are good, that shows you the excitement is good and it’s going to keep on growing.”

For the 2008 U.S. Senior Open — which featured the likes of World Golf Hall of Famers Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, Greg Norman, Bernhard Langer, Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite and Curtis Strange in the 156-man field — The Broadmoor attracted an announced 128,714 fans for the week. As good as that was, Miller is looking for a slight jump for next year’s event.

“We did about 130,000 in 2008. We’d love to exceed that by let’s say 5,000,” he said. “What’s neat about it this far out is you know how to build your restroom facilities, your food and beverage facilities and your concession stands based on ticket sales. It can keep going up and we just plan for it ahead of time.

“At The Broadmoor we have so much space that we won’t really sell out. We can accommodate however many we can take. We’re lucky at The Broadmoor. We can handle 35,000 people a day. At Cherry Hills or a smaller club logistics-wise, it may not be able to handle that many. I’d love to do 135,000. That would be just a home run.”

And, in an effort to encourage youngsters to attend, fans 17 and under will be granted free admission when accompanied by a ticketed adult, with each adult allowed to bring up to nine kids.

For more information about ticket sales, or to make a purchase, CLICK HERE.

If the numbers play out as expected attendance-wise, it’s believed that the Senior Open could have a $20 million-plus economic impact on the local economy after the ’08 event pulled in an estimated $21 million to the area.

“This is a big event, a big economic driver for Colorado Springs,” mayor John Suthers said. “We’ll make sure everybody is prepared.”

Next year will certainly be a momentous one at The Broadmoor, the picturesque venue at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain that opened in 1918. The resort will have centennial-related events throughout the year, starting Jan. 1. But the precise day The Broadmoor will turn 100 years old will be June 29, the Friday of U.S. Senior Open week.

The plan is to hold a large charity concert on Monday of that week (June 25) and fireworks on Friday night. As what you might expect at a five-star resort, The Broadmoor hopes to leave players, fans and anyone else associated with the event with an indelible positive impression.

“What’s unique about it is, it’s kind of the mentality we have every day at the hotel,” Miller noted. “How can we make our guest experience better and unique versus other resorts in the world? That’s the fun apart.”

The folks at The Broadmoor are certainly no strangers to hosting large-scale events, including major golf championships. Just with USGA tournaments, the club has hosted national/international events seven times since 1959, with next year being No. 8 (six at the East Course, a combination of holes designed by Donald Ross and Robert Trent Jones Sr.). The list includes two U.S. Women’s Opens, two U.S. Senior Opens, two U.S. Amateurs, one U.S. Women’s Amateur and one Curtis Cup.

“It gets easier (with the past experience), but there’s still so many things to do before the time comes,” Miller said. “It’s like taking a test in college. You kind of know how to prepare, but you still have to study and do all the things beforehand. We always try to get better and you can always learn.”

That familiarity works both ways, of course. In joining forces with The Broadmoor, the USGA knows it’s getting a first-class resort. And with the East Course and its sometimes-confounding greens, it’s produced champions such as Jack Nicklaus, Annika Sorenstam and So Yeon Ryu, currently the No. 1-ranked women’s player in the world.

“When you’re starting with the course here at The Broadmoor, you don’t want to mess with the masterpiece too much,” USGA championship manager Robbie Zalzneck said recently. “It’s a great test and we’ll have a great championship.”

To make sure The Broadmoor has all the bases covered — and perhaps to plant the seeds for future big-time championships coming to the resort — Miller was on hand for the 2017 U.S. Senior Open at Salem Country Club and is this week for the U.S. Am at Riviera Country Club near L.A.

“I’m kind of privileged they asked me a couple of months ago to serve on an advisory committee for the U.S. Amateur,” Miller said. “But it’s kind of all hand-in-hand. We want to keep on getting championships in the picture (for The Broadmoor) no matter what they are. So that’s why I’m here mostly.”

But Miller has learned some things in his recent USGA-related travels, most notably related to the player and family experience at championships.

“The USGA is really putting an emphasis on (that),” he said. “And from there, it goes on down the line to the caddies and the fans. No matter if you’re a Tom Watson or a club pro like me that qualified, they want to make sure that your experience was off-the-chart good. A big part of what I was doing (at the Senior Open in Salem) was seeing how we can initiate that program next year for the players. … That’s what we’re focused on is really, really making the player and family experience our No. 1 priority.”

As for the set-up of the golf course, the USGA and the staff at The Broadmoor finalized their plans back in May. Some new tees were built last winter, with the championship in mind. Fairway widths and rough height will vary depending on various factors. The perhaps-driveable par-4 second hole, for instance, will feature a fairway width of 23 or 24 yards, with the rough right next to the fairway being 3 1/2 inches deep. On longer par-4s, the fairway may be 28-30 yards wide, with graduated rough going from 1 1/2 inches to 2 1/2 inches, then deeper the further from the fairway.

“It’s kind of hole by hole, based on the width of the fairways and the difficulty of the hole, which is really neat because it makes it inconsistent — and we think inconsistent is good,” Miller said.

One of the more notable changes on the scorecard will be that the third hole will be a 540-yard par-4 and the 17th a 610-yard par-5. That’s the opposite of what was done for the 2008 U.S. Senior Open, when No. 3 was a par-5 and No. 17 a par-4.

“The back nine is so much more difficult, so by making No. 3 a long par-4, it’ll help make the front nine a little bit more difficult and not make them as different,” Miller said. “But it’s downhill, downwind and normally firm. It sounds like a long hole but 500-some yards downhill, they can handle it; it’s not a huge deal.”

Fan experience-wise, the biggest change from the 2008 U.S. Senior Open and the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open will be that cell phones are now allowed.

“Now the world is so technological that we’re promoting cell phones and trying to create apps and ways to have visual maps of the golf course; player locations during the round that you can look up on your cell phone; scoring updates on your cell phone,” Miller said. “It’s just a totally different mindset from the past, but it’s just the way the world is going. It’s the best way to communicate.”

Another big change from the past will be that Fox Sports — with its tech-heavy broadcast mindset — will be televising the Senior Open at The Broadmoor, whereas the telecasts were handled by NBC in 2008 and for the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open.

“Back in ’08 NBC had three tractor-trailor trucks for their entire production,” Miller noted. “We’re expecting between 11 and 13 tractor-trailor trucks (with Fox next year). Why it’s so much bigger is (shot tracker and ball tracker on every green). There’s now 18 towers for all 18 greens. That’s a big change.

“(But) there’s a lot less cables than there used to be. There’s more cloud (communication) and all that stuff. That makes it easier too. But we’re definitely going to use more space than we did in the past for (the TV compound).”

All told, the tournament broadcast will reach more than 100 countries, and Fox and Fox Sports 1 will combine for more than 20 hours of live TV coverage.

About 2,300 volunteers will be needed for the 2018 U.S. Senior Open, and Miller said roughly 70 percent of those slots have already been filled, with about 43 states represented.

To volunteer, REGISTER HERE.
 

Editor’s Note: With the CGA celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1915, this is the ninth monthly installment of a series of stories looking back on the last century of golf in Colorado. All the articles are being published on coloradogolf.org. This chapter focuses on the period from 1995-2004. For the previous installments, CLICK HERE.

There have been many groundbreaking and pivotal moments for women in the history of golf in Colorado and beyond, but it hasn’t gotten much bigger in the Centennial State than in the mid- and late-1990s.

It started with The Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs hosting the 50th U.S. Women’s Open in 1995, marking the first time arguably the top championship in women’s golf has come to Colorado — or the Mountain time zone, for that matter. And though no one realized it at the time, one of the sport’s all-time greats was to emerge, as Annika Sorenstam made that tournament the first of what would become 72 LPGA Tour victories before she unexpectedly retired in 2008.

In the first of her 10 major championship wins, Sorenstam (below) finished a stroke ahead of Meg Mallon and two in front of Pat Bradley and Betsy King at The Broadmoor’s historic East Course. That was the first year the U.S. Women’s Open featured a purse of at least $1 million.

While all that was huge from a historical perspective, the next year was even more unique.

That was when Colorado Springs resident Judy Bell was elected president of the USGA, becoming the first female to hold that post. In fact, Bell’s two-year term beginning in January 1996 remains the only one in which a woman has served as USGA president since Theodore Havemeyer became the first president of the association in 1894.

“I bet that’s the first time the incoming president kissed the outgoing president on the way to the dais,” Bell memorably joked after it was announced she would succeed Reg Murphy.

But, as former USGA president Stuart Bloch noted, “Judy’s gender, I don’t believe, was a consideration in her election. Her abilities, I think, were the consideration that caused her to be selected as the first woman president. If she were a man, she would have been elected.”

Overall, Bell was the third Coloradan to become USGA president, following Denver residents Frank Woodward (1915-16) and Will Nicholson Jr. (1980-81). (Bell is pictured at top in a USGA photo presenting the low-amateur award to Cristie Kerr at the 1996 U.S. Women’s Open.)

During Bell’s presidency, the USGA started the “For the Good of the Game” program, a $50 million initiative which aimed to increasingly spread the game to groups such as youth, minorities and the disabled.

Bell had had a long, distinguished career as both a player and a volunteer golf administrator leading up to her presidency. She had served on the USGA Women’s Committee starting in 1968 and chaired that committee from 1981 to ’84. Then in 1987, she became the first woman elected to the USGA Executive Committee.

On the playing end, Bell won three Kansas women’s amateurs, starting at age 15, and three Broadmoor Ladies Invitation titles, competed in 38 USGA championships and was both a player and captain on U.S. Curtis Cup teams. And in 1964, she shot the lowest round in the history of the U.S. Women’s Open, a 6-under-par 67, a standard which stood for 14 years.

For all this and much more, Bell was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2001.

But Bell wasn’t the only woman from Colorado in USGA volunteer leadership roles around this time. Colorado Springs’ Barbara McIntire, winner of two U.S. Women’s Amateurs and a British Ladies Amateur, served as USGA Women’s Committee chair in 1995-96, and Denver’s Joan Birkland, another accomplished athlete, followed McIntire in that role in 1997-98.

On a more local level, 1995 marked the debut of the Colorado Women’s Open.

Here are some of the other Colorado golf highlights of the period from 1995-2004:

— Steve Jones (left), who grew up in Yuma, Colo., and played golf at the University of Colorado, won the 1996 U.S. Open, overcoming runners-up Davis Love and Tom Lehman. The victory culminated a remarkable comeback after Jones was off the PGA Tour for almost three years following a dirt-bike accident in November 1991. The victory gave former CU golfers four U.S. Open titles — three for Hale Irwin and one for Jones.

— In 1996, the CGA entered into an agreement with the Lowry Redevelopment Authority to purchase the former Lowry Air Force Base golf course. The CWGA became partner with the CGA in the purchase of the course. The site is now home of CommonGround Golf Course, which is owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA.

— From 1996 to ’98, Ken Krieger won three consecutive Colorado PGA Professional Championships, becoming the second player in the 1990s to do so, joining Ron Vlosich (1991-93).

— In the five-year period from 1997-2001, an amazing 42 courses opened in Colorado.

— Cherry Hills Country Club hosted the 1998 Trans Miss, won by Dan Dunkelberg. Coloradan John Olive was the runner-up.

— CU graduate Hale Irwin won two U.S. Senior Opens in three years, in 1998 and 2000. That gave the former Buff a total of five USGA championships, including his three U.S. Opens.

— In 1998, The Broadmoor hosted the biennial PGA Cup matches, which pits the top club professionals from the U.S. and Great Britain & Ireland. In Colorado Springs, the U.S. defeated GB&I 17-9.

— In the period from 1999 to 2002, Kevin Stadler won the CGA Match Play title twice, along with the 2002 Colorado Open championship in his pro debut. During the decade 1995-2004, Stadler and Jonathan Kaye (1996) won the Colorado Open en route to becoming PGA Tour champions.

— John Olive, winner of the 1977 CGA Match Play, became one of the top senior players in Colorado history. In addition to claiming titles in five CGA Senior Stroke Plays and four Senior Match Plays during this decade, he won the inaugural Colorado Senior Open (1999) and remains the only amateur to earn the title in that event.

— Colorado PGA members received four more PGA of America national awards in this decade: Alan Abrams (1997 Junior Golf Leader), Mike McGetrick (1999 Teacher of the Year), Charles “Vic” Kline (2000 Golf Professional of the Year) and Russ Miller (2003 Resort Merchandiser of the Year).

— In 2000, Coloradan Kaye Kessler won the PGA of America’s National Lifetime Achievement Award for Journalism.

— Also in 2000, Warren Simmons retired as CGA executive director, with Ed Mate succeeding him. Mate continues in the position to this day.

— Nicki Cutler won the CWGA Stroke Play three times in a four-year period from 2000-03.

— Rick DeWitt, the 1999 CGA Stroke Play champ, won the last of his record seven CGA Mid-Amateur titles in 2002 before being inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame and later turning pro. He was named CGA Player of the Year a record six times.

— With financial issues and mismanagement burdening the Colorado Open, the 2003 championship was called off during tournament week. Thanks in large part to developer Pat Hamill, the event was resurrected in 2004.

— The International at Castle Pines saw two future World Golf Hall of Famers — Phil Mickelson (1993 and ’97) and Davis Love III (1990 and 2003) win the PGA Tour event for the second time.

— Les Fowler, a Colorado Golf Hall of Fame player and a former CGA president who had a key role in the CGA acquiring the golf course at Lowry, passed away in 2003.

— In 2004, Steve Irwin, a former pro who regained his amateur status, joined his father Hale (1966) as a winner of the CGA Match Play.

— Jamie Lovemark won the prestigious 2004 Western Junior at Denver Country Club. Lovemark later became the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world.
 

When it comes to Colorado hosting USGA championships, The Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs and Cherry Hills Country Club run virtually neck and neck.

Cherry Hills has been the home of nine such championships, dating back to the 1938 U.S. Open. And The Broadmoor, which like Cherry Hills will celebrate its 100th “birthday” within the next decade, is on a similar pace.

With the USGA announcing Tuesday that The Broadmoor’s East Course will be the site of the 2018 U.S. Senior Open — the dates will be June 28-July 1 — the venerable resort at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain will be hosting a USGA championship for the eighth time. It’s scheduled to be No. 6 for the East Course, including the 2008 U.S. Senior Open, which drew 128,714 fans — and at least one bear (pictured below) — to The Broadmoor.

Appropriately, the 2018 Senior Open will be held at The Broadmoor in the summer it celebrates its 100th “birthday”.

“The Broadmoor has a rich and vibrant history in hosting tournament golf,” two-time U.S. Senior Open champion Hale Irwin noted in an email to coloradogolf.org on Tuesday. “The facilities (are outstanding) and, more importantly, the people there are gracious and accommodating hosts who proudly welcome anyone to one of our nation’s greatest resorts. The USGA has chosen a wonderful place to once again play the USGA Senior Open Championship as proven by the last time the tournament was played there in 2008.”

Overall, it will be the third time Colorado has hosted a U.S. Senior Open, which dates back to 1980. Jack Nicklaus won at Cherry Hills in 1993 and Eduardo Romero prevailed in 2008 at The Broadmoor. The resort’s East Course is combination of holes designed by Donald Ross and Robert Trent Jones Sr.

“The Broadmoor has been a great partner with the USGA and a friend to golf on the international, national and collegiate levels since the 1920s,” said Diana Murphy, USGA vice president and Championship Committee chairman. “The U.S. Senior Open is senior golf’s most coveted championship and we know the East Course will test the players thoroughly.”

By the time the 2018 championship is completed, only Ohio (with six) will have hosted the U.S. Senior Open more times than Colorado, which will be tied with Michigan and Pennsylvania with three each.

“The Broadmoor is thrilled to have the opportunity to host its eighth USGA championship,” said Russ Miller, The Broadmoor’s director of golf. “Not only will it be a time to watch and enjoy the greatest senior golfers in the world, it is a tremendous accolade to the city of Colorado Springs and the state of Colorado to be chosen as its site. We are privileged to once again stage such a prestigious and highly reconizable worldwide golf championship.”

All eight of The Broadmoor’s USGA championships will have been held since 1959, when Nicklaus defeated Charlie Coe in the final to claim the first of his two U.S. Amateur titles. Two U.S. Women’s Opens are among the events that have been contested on the East Course, including the one Annika Sorenstam won in 1995 for her first LPGA Tour victory. Another World Golf Hall of Famer who has won an USGA individual title at The Broadmoor is Juli (Simpson) Inkster, who in 1982 claimed her third consecutive U.S. Women’s Amateur championship at what was then the South Course.

Overall, the 2018 U.S. Senior Open will mark the 32nd USGA championship played in Colorado, with The Broadmoor and Cherry Hills combined having hosted more than half of those.

Not only has Colorado been home to more than its share of U.S. Senior Opens, players with strong ties to the Centennial State have captured the title on several occasions. Irwin, a former University of Colorado golfer who grew up in Boulder, won the Senior Open in 1998 and 2000 to go with his three U.S. Open championships. Another former Buff, Dale Douglass, who grew up in Fort Morgan, landed the Senior Open title as a 50-year-old in 1986. And Orville Moody, who was once stationed at Fitzsimons while in the Army, won in 1989.

With the 2018 U.S. Senior Open, Colorado will add to the extensive and diverse list of significant golf championships it has hosted since The International PGA Tour event ended its 21-year run after the 2006 tournament.

That list includes:

— The 2008 U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor
— The 2008 U.S. Amateur Public Links at Murphy Creek
— The 2009 Palmer Cup at Cherry Hills
— The 2010 Senior PGA Championship at Colorado Golf Club
— The 2010 Trans-Mississippi at Denver Country Club
— The 2011 U.S. Women’s Open at The Broadmoor
— The 2012 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills and CommonGround
— The 2013 Solheim Cup at Colorado Golf Club
— The 2014 BMW Championship at Cherry Hills

Other upcoming U.S. Senior Opens are scheduled for Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio (2016) and Salem Country Club in Peabody, Mass. (2017).
 

The competitive golf season in Colorado will crank up to high gear in the coming weeks, and for one of the most notable tournament additions for this year, organizers will go back to the future.

The Broadmoor Invitation, an amateur event that built a big-time local and national reputation over a run that started shortly after World War I (1921) and continued until after the Cold War concluded (1995), will be resurrected this year.

After an absence of nearly two decades, the Broadmoor Invitation will rejoin the golf scene July 6-10, with the East Course at the Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs hosting the first return installment. The West Course also will probably be used in future years, according to Russ Miller, the Broadmoor’s director of golf.

“We’re trying to re-establish a historical tournament and things around the hotel,” Miller said, acknowledging that Phil Anschutz, whose corporation bought the Broadmoor in 2011, would like to tap into — and build upon — the rich history of the Broadmoor. “He’s very much that way. And we had a great Invitation here for a long time.”

Indeed, among the winners of the men’s Broadmoor Invitation over its long run as a premier amateur tournament were future U.S. Open champions Hale Irwin (winner at the Broadmoor in 1967) and Lawson Little (1933), along with Tom Purtzer (1973), Grier Jones (1968), Duffy Waldorf (1984), Bob Dickson (1966), John Fought (1977) and Willie Wood (1983) — all of whom went on to win on the PGA Tour.

Irwin, who also captured the 1967 NCAA title as a University of Colorado golfer, won 20 times on the PGA Tour (including three U.S. Opens), a record 45 times on the Champions Tour, and has been a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame since 1992. Little is also a World Golf Hall of Famer. Other Broadmoor Invitation champions include noted lifelong amateur great Charlie Coe (1947 and ’48), three-time Colorado Open champion Bill Loeffler (1976, ’78 and ’87), N.C. “Tub” Morris (for whom the CGA Stroke Play Championship Trophy is named; 1928), and Jim English (1955 and ’64). For the record, the tournament was called the Broadmoor Amateur Open during its early years.

But while the Broadmoor Invitation was an individual competition for the great majority of its run, the 21st-century version will hearken back to the format the tournament used in the final years of its previous incarnation — as a scratch four-ball championship.

Miller hopes to draw 64 two-man teams — with players with handicaps of 12 and lower — and he currently has about half the field full. After a practice round on July 6, a qualifying round will be played on July 7, then July 8 through 10 will feature match play. And regardless of how teams fare, they’ll play all the way through the 10th.

“We’re trying to get away from college golfers, and go more to seniors and mid-amateurs,” Miller said. “We’re not trying to compete with the U.S. Amateur. Most of the people in the field will be 40 or older,” though it’s open to younger golfers.

“Most of the players signed up (so far) are from Texas and Oklahoma, and a lot of them played (the Broadmoor Invitation) in the past or their dads played.”

While players from all over are welcome, the Broadmoor is hoping to get a large representation from Colorado.

Though the Broadmoor Invitation in its previous run preceded Miller’s arrival at the golf club (1998), he said the tournament went by the wayside primarily due to financial reasons, with two golf courses being used for a week during the prime season, and players not required to stay at the Broadmoor Hotel.

In the 21st-century Broadmoor Invitation, it’s a package deal. The cost — $3,950 for one player and a spouse/guest — includes accommodations at the Broadmoor Hotel, five rounds of golf, tournament registration, a variety of exclusive events and activities, selected meals and receptions for both players and their spouses/guests, and gifts and awards. Dow Finsterwald, winner of the 1958 PGA Championship and a former director of golf at the Broadmoor, will be a special guest at the closing awards dinner on July 10. For more information or to enter, contact Miller at rmiller@broadmoor.com.

With the Broadmoor featuring a five-star hotel and golf courses that have hosted seven USGA championships, the Invitation is right in the resort’s wheel-house. Earlier this year, the Broadmoor was named the top resort in North America in Golf magazine’s biennial rankings. In earning the No. 1 spot, the Broadmoor beat out the likes of The Greenbrier, Bandon Dunes, Kiawah Island, and the Pebble Beach, Pinehurst and Sea Island resorts.

(Top photo: Will Nicholson Sr., a onetime mayor of Denver, presents the Broadmoor Invitation trophies. Photo below: runner-up Walter Crooks and champion George Cornes with the trophy in 1929.)