With a ninth USGA championship coming to The Broadmoor in June, we rank the sometimes-momentous previous 8 that have been contested at the Colorado Springs resort
By Gary Baines – 4/24/2025
In late June, The Broadmoor Golf Club will host its ninth USGA championship, leaving the Colorado Springs-based resort just one behind Cherry Hills Country Club on the list of facilities in the Centennial State that have held the most such tournaments.
But, like Cherry Hills, The Broadmoor has not only been the site of many USGA events, but ones that have produced several champions who rank among the all-time best of the best in the game.
In The Broadmoor’s case, that includes Jack Nicklaus, Annika Sorenstam and Juli Inkster. Not only are all in the World Golf Hall of Fame, but between them they own 176 PGA/LPGA Tour victories and 35 major championship titles. All three have captured four different professional majors.
With the U.S. Senior Open coming to Colorado Springs for the third time June 26-29, we continue our series of stories leading up to the championship by ranking the previous eight USGA championships to have taken place at The Broadmoor, and highlighting the happenings at each:
We’ll number the posts in reverse order to preserve a little suspense. (The events are ranked not necessarily by the attendance they drew, but their historical importance and notable happenings during the championships.)
8. 1967 U.S. Amateur — Two years after an improbable penalty in all likelihood cost him the U.S. Amateur title, Bob Dickson won the national championship, defeating Martin “Vinny” Giles III by one stroke at The Broadmoor’s West Course.
Dickson went on to win twice on the PGA Tour — and once on PGA Tour Champions. But he has the distinction of being one of just four players in history — Bobby Jones being one of the others — to have won the U.S. Amateur and the British Amateur in the same calendar year.
In the 1965 U.S. Am, Dickson finished a stroke behind champion Bob Murphy after bogeying the last two holes. But during the second round, Dickson found he had 15 clubs in his bag and was penalized four strokes — two for each hole he played with the extra club. As Sports Illustrated noted, “Dickson had never seen the extra wedge before, but someone in the caddie shop had carelessly shoved it into his bag.”
But Dickson’s victory in 1967 at The Broadmoor gave him a measure of redemption. Playing at the same resort where he won the 1966 Broadmoor Invitation, he also won the British Amateur in ’67, joining Hal Hilton (1911), Jones (1930) and Lawson Little (1934 and ’35) as the players to have captured both titles in the same calendar year.
As it turned out, Dickson was fortunate to even be able to compete in the 1967 U.S. Am. He had joined the National Guard in 1967, and needed to be given leave at the last minute to play in U.S. Am.
A year after winning the U.S. Amateur, Dickson was given the USGA’s highest honor, the Bob Jones Award, which goes to someone “who demonstrates the spirit, personal character and respect for the game exhibited by Jones, winner of nine USGA championships.”
Dickson went on to play 233 events on the PGA Tour and 256 on PGA Tour Champions. Giles, the runner-up in 1967, finished second in three straight U.S. Amateurs, starting at The Broadmoor. But he went on to win the 1972 U.S. Am, plus a British Amateur and a U.S. Senior Amateur.
Though the U.S. Am had at least a match-play component for the great majority of its history, the exception was 1965-72, when it was an all-stroke-play affair.
The flag-raising leading up to the 1962 Curtis Cup. (Photo: USGA)
7. 1962 Curtis Cup — This female amateur team competition between the U.S. and Great Britain & Ireland is notable from a local perspective because the winning American squad featured two business partners who operated retail establishments at The Broadmoor — Judy Bell and Barbara McIntire. From 1962 to 2000 or 2001, Bell and McIntire, both stellar players who were high-level USGA leaders, partnered as owners of various retail shops at The Broadmoor, where their products ranged from clothing and shoes to kitchenware and accessories.
The American squad — which also featured a future Broadmoor fixture, Tish Preuss, now-World Golf Hall of Famer Joanne Gunderson Carner, and now-seven-time USGA champion Anne Quast Sander — prevailed 8-1 over GB&I.
Bell, of course, would go on to become the first female president of the USGA and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Bell, McIntire and Preuss are all Colorado Golf Hall of Famers, and Bell and McIntire are in the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.
A bear crosses a fairway near Bernhard Langer during the 2008 U.S. Senior Open.
6. 2008 U.S. Senior Open — The field for this event was filled with World Golf Hall of Famers, including Tom Watson, Greg Norman, Hale Irwin, Bernhard Langer, Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite and Curtis Strange. But the winner — by four strokes over Fred Funk — was a man who never notched a victory on the PGA Tour, Eduardo Romero of Argentina, though he did record five PGA Tour Champions wins in his carer.
Oddly, a year after one resident of Villa Allende, Argentina (Angel Cabrera) won the U.S. Open, another (Romero) won the U.S. Senior Open. During the post-tournament press conference, among those congratulating Romero was fellow Argentine Roberto De Vicenzo, who won the British Open and the first U.S. Senior Open. Norman, meanwhile, placed fourth at The Broadmoor in one of the just-13 PGA Tour Champions tournaments of his career.
The ’08 U.S. Senior Open is remembered for the black bear that ran across a fairway in which Irwin and Langer were playing. And then there was the presence of then-celebrity couple Norman and Chris Evert.
The tournament attracted an announced 128,714 fans for the week.
David Tom was all smiles after winning the 2018 U.S. Senior Open. (Photo: USGA)
5. 2018 U.S. Senior Open — David Toms, who won the PGA Tour’s Sprint International in Colorado in 1999, added another big title in the Centennial State by winning the U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor. In his first victory in over seven years on the PGA Tour or PGA Tour Champions, Toms drained birdie putts on Nos. 16 and 17 in the final round to prevail by a stroke over three players.
Toms may not have the career panache of a David Duval, but he owns as many PGA Tour victories as Duval (13) and as many open-age major championship wins (in Toms’ case, he prevailed at the 2001 PGA Championship). Toms also now has four PGA Tour Champions victories to his credit. Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe placed fifth at The Broadmoor.
Fellow International winners at Castle Pines Davis Love III and Lee Janzen joined Toms in the top 10.
An impressive 134,500 people showed up for the week at this USSO.
4. 2011 U.S. Women’s Open — The U.S. Women’s Open, arguably the top tournament in all of women’s golf, has been conducted in Colorado just three times, with this being the most recent one. So Yeon Ryu became one of now-11 South Korean winners of the USWO since 1998. Ryu, who defeated countrywoman Hee Kyung Seo in a playoff at The Broadmoor, later won a second major championship. This time around, the tournament attracted more than 130,000 spectators over eight days; it finished with a three-hole aggregate playoff on Monday, which marked the first playoff of that type in USWO history.
In another first, this was the first U.S. Women’s Open played at the course set up at more than 7,000 yards.
Two Colorado Golf Hall of Famers — and fixtures at The Broadmoor Golf Club — received accolades in the days leading up to the Women’s Open. Judy Bell, the first female president in the history of the USGA, and Barbara McIntire, a stellar amateur in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, were honored as ambassadors by the LPGA and the USGA. Also that week, Bell, a World Golf Hall of Famer, became the first female recipient of the Nicholson Award, which recognizes a lifetime of commitment and dedication to the game of golf. Previous Nicholson Award recipients were Will Nicholson Jr., Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Ben Crenshaw.
3. 1982 U.S. Women’s Amateur — Juli Simpson Inkster became the first player to win three consecutive U.S. Women’s Amateurs since Virginia Van Wie (1932-34). And no one since has accomplished the feat. This time around, Inkster defeated Cathy Hanlon 4 and 3 in the title match.
“Someone says ‘What’s your greatest accomplishment in golf?’,” Inkster said to the USGA many years later. “I really have to say my three U.S. Amateurs in a row because you know how difficult match play is anyway, then to win 18 consecutive matches is tough. Three different golf courses. Anything can happen in match play. I just kind of got better each round.”
This championship was held at a course that no longer exists — The Broadmoor’s South (or Mountain).Course, though a 12-hole par-3 facility is now proposed for part of that area of the property.
Two weeks after helping the U.S. win the Curtis Cup at Denver Country Club, Inkster landed one of her now-five USGA titles overall. She would go on to win two U.S. Women’s Opens, seven LPGA majors overall, and she claimed 31 LPGA titles all told en route to the World Golf Hall of Fame.
2. 1995 U.S. Women’s Open — Annika Sorenstam of Sweden came to the championship at age 24 having not yet won on the LPGA Tour, much less a major. But she left an LPGA winner and a major champ after finishing a stroke ahead of Meg Mallon and two in front of Pat Bradley and Betsy King at The Broadmoor’s East Course. That means all of the top four finishers are now in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Sorenstam would finish her career with 72 victories on the LPGA Tour, including 10 major titles. She also shot 59 in an LPGA event and became the first woman in 58 years to compete in a PGA Tour tournament before retiring at age 38.
“I wasn’t anyone” heading into the ’95 USWO, Sorenstam said in a return trip to The Broadmoor in 2010. “Nobody had ever heard of me. I was just delighted to hit balls next to Meg Mallon, Dottie Pepper — that was exciting just to stand next to them. You can just imagine the feeling walking up the 18th hole with all these people. The support was amazing. It was just an electrifying atmosphere and I will never forget.”
Sorenstam trailed by five going into the final round, but a 68 on the last day allowed her to edge Mallon, the 1991 and 2004 champion.
“It felt like the nerves were swinging, not me,” Sorenstam said after the round.
“This is really where everything started,” Sorenstam said in 2010. “This is the biggest championship in women’s golf. As a little girl, I would stand on the putting green at home and pretend a 3-footer was for the U.S. Open. I never knew if that would ever happen, but it did happen and it certainly kick-started my career in ’95.
“It’s been a wonderful ride since, with what golf has given me.”
This marked the first of three U.S. Women’s Opens held in Colorado in the course of 17 years. Cherry Hills hosted the 2005 championship and The Broadmoor the 2011 edition.
The 1995 tournament was the 50th U.S. Women’s Open and the first year it featured a purse of at least $1 million.
Jack Nicklaus during the 1959 U.S. Amateur at The Broadmoor. (Photo: USGA)
1. 1959 U.S. Amateur — Jack Nicklaus won the first and last of his eight USGA championships in Colorado — this one at The Broadmoor and the 1993 U.S. Senior Open at Cherry Hills Country Club. Nicklaus ended up with two U.S. Am titles, also winning in 1961 at Pebble Beach. At The Broadmoor, as a 19-year-old Ohio State golfer, he became the youngest U.S. Amateur champion in 50 years. He would go on to win 73 times on the PGA Tour, including 18 major championships as a pro. Nicklaus was one of the people inducted into the inaugural class of the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
After being 2-down after 18 holes of the 36-hole final at The Broadmoor’s East Course, Nicklaus defeated two-time U.S. Am champion Charlie Coe 1 up.
The match was tied going into the 36th hole, and after Coe pitched up to the edge of the cup for a conceded par on the last hole, Nicklaus birdied from 8 feet to secure the victory.
“That’s probably the most important putt I ever made,” Nicklaus said in 2015 at the Century of Golf Gala at The Broadmoor. “In those days (the U.S. Amateur) 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.”
Even though Nicklaus’ first U.S. Amateur victory came more than 65 years ago, there are several moments that remain ingrained in his memory from that week in mid-September. One of them is a conversation Jack had one evening with his dad, Charlie. They were discussing Nicklaus’ round that day, and Charlie questioned whether Jack had made the correct choice in opting to chip a particular shot.
“Before my father even finished the question, I stopped him and said, ‘Whoops. Timeout.’ I told him, ‘Dad, you’re my best friend, I love having you with me and I always want you there. But I’ve got to do this myself; this is my deal.’ He looked at me and said, ‘You know, you’re right.’ From then on, he was my greatest supporter, my greatest fan and my best friend. But never again did he try to tell me how to play golf.”
(Note: Previously published stories in this periodic series: U.S. Senior Open record book brimming with Colorado-related superlatives; fully exempt players for 2025 U.S. Senior Open; highlights of the three previous times Colorado has hosted the U.S. Senior Open; Hale Irwin named honorary chair for 2025 Senior Open; Senior Open going to a 2-stage qualifying process in 2025)
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com