Editor’s Note: With the CGA celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1915, this is the third 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 1935-44. For a list of all the installments to date, CLICK HERE.

The decade from 1935 to ’44 was certainly a tumultuous time in the country, with the Great Depression lasting through the ’30s and then World War II posing one of the biggest challenges the U.S. has ever faced.

Ironically, it was during this same period that Colorado golf burst onto the national scene.

Twice in a remarkably short timespan of less than three years, Cherry Hills Country Club hosted major championships — the first two of what is now a half-dozen men’s majors that have come to the state. Five of those six have been held at Cherry Hills.

The club was the site of the 1938 U.S. Open — the first Open staged west of Minneapolis — and the 1941 PGA Championship, the first PGA held in the Mountain Time Zone.

Will Nicholson Sr. (left), a future Denver mayor, was a member of the USGA Executive Committee from 1937-41. He served as general chairman of the ’38 Open after playing an integral role, with prominent local insurance man Clarence Daly, in bringing the tournament to Colorado.

With the Great Depression still plaguing the country, and with the U.S. Open never having ventured west of Minneapolis, the USGA was concerned about ticket sales and therefore required Cherry Hills to raise money for a $10,000 bond to assure profitability. Nicholson and Daly took the lead in that effort so the championship could go on.

“It was the first time that (major) championship golf had ever come to Colorado, and it wouldn’t have come to Colorado if it wasn’t for one person, and that person is Will Nicholson Sr.,” current Cherry Hills head professional John Ogden noted in a 2013 speech. “He had the vision and the determination to bring championship golf not just to Cherry Hills but to Colorado. Since then, we know what has happened. Cherry Hills has had numerous championships, the Broadmoor, Columbine (and) The International kind of sprung from that. Without the vision of Mr. Nicholson, none of this would be possible.”

At the ’38 Open, Ralph Guldahl (pictured at top) rallied with a final-round 69 and won by six strokes — the largest margin at the U.S. Open since 1921 — in successfully defending his national title. He holds the distinction of being the last U.S. Open champ to win while wearing a necktie. Ironically, shortly after prevailing at the U.S. Open, Guldahl lost by three strokes at his home course in the New Jersey State Open.

The 1938 U.S. Open also will be remembered for the tournament’s single-hole-record 19 that competitor Ray Ainsley recorded on the par-4 16th hole, where he kept whacking at his ball in the creek near the green.

Guldahl was one of the top golfers in the world in the late ’40s, supplementing his two U.S. Open victories with a Masters title and three straight wins in the Western Open, which then was considered a major championship of sorts.

Overall, the ’38 Open proved a big success, drawing about 37,000 spectators for the week to Cherry Hills.

Three years later, another of the current Grand Slam events visited Cherry Hills. Through 1957, the PGA Championship was a match-play event, and the ’41 version was the last time the 36-hole final went extra holes.

At Cherry Hills, defending champion Byron Nelson defeated Guldahl, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen to reach the final, but Vic Ghezzi foiled Nelson’s run to the title by outlasting him in 38 holes. Nelson missed a 30-inch putt on the second green. It would be the only major championship for Ghezzi, who rallied after being 3 down after 27 holes in the final match.

Here are some of the other Colorado golf highlights from the period 1935-44:

— In 1936, the Rocky Mountain Golf Course Superintendents Association was founded, with the goal of improving golf course management practices through education, sharing knowledge and networking.

— Starting in 1937, the Denver District Golf Association conducted a stroke-play championship. For more than two decades, what are now known as the CGA Match Play and Stroke Play championships were conducted by separate organizations. Nate Grimes won the first Stroke Play title in 1937. Babe Lind captured two of his three Stroke Plays during World War II (1941 and ’42), sparking a career that would culminate with his being inducted in the inaugural class of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 1973. In 1943, Claude Wright won the first of his four Stroke Plays. He also claimed two Match Play titles (1944 and ’56).

— In 1939, the first Rocky Mountain Open is played in Grand Junction. The event has been held each year since, making it the oldest continuously-conducted golf championship in Colorado that is open to both professionals and amateurs.

— In 1942, a group of African-American golfers based at City Park Golf Course formed the East Denver Golf Club. East Denver GC, which wasn’t allowed membership in the CGA until the early 1960s, became a member of the Central States Golf Association, a group of golf clubs with primarily African-American members.

— Several of the nation’s top amateur championships were held in Colorado in the decade beginning in 1935. The Western Amateur was hosted by the Broadmoor in 1935 and ’41, the latter being one of three Western Ams won by Bud Ward in the 1940s. The Broadmoor was also the site of the 1939 Trans Miss — won by Chick Harbert, who would go on to earn seven titles on the PGA Tour — while Cherry Hills hosted the ’37 Trans Miss. And the Women’s Trans National came to Denver Country Club in 1936.

In addition, Sam Snead played an exhibition at Boulder Golf Club (now the site of Flatirons Golf Course) in the late 1930s. A photo with a scoreboard from that day notes that Snead went 9 under par.

Next up: 1945-54, when legends Babe Zaharias and Ben Hogan made their mark in Colorado golf.
 

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.