Altitude With Attitude: Broadmoor Set to Host 2025 U.S. Senior Open

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In 2015, Jack Nicklaus was a guest speaker during the Colorado Golf Association’s centennial celebration at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. During a break, he and Russ Miller, the resort’s longtime director of golf, strolled out to the fourth green on the East Course, where Nicklaus won the 1959 U.S. Amateur.

“He said to me, ‘Russ, I want you to know that Augusta National has the second-most difficult set of putting greens in the world,’” Miller recalled. “I had to kind of absorb what he was saying. I said, ‘So Mr. Nicklaus, you mean these are the toughest?’ He replies, ‘The Broadmoor East are the most difficult set of greens I’ve ever played – fair, but difficult.’”

Those greens, plus playing at an altitude almost 6,600 feet above sea level, will be the primary issues facing competitors this summer when the U.S. Senior Open returns to The Broadmoor for the third playing. In 2008, Eduardo Romero claimed the title in convincing fashion, shooting 6-under 274 to win by four strokes over Fred Funk. A decade later, David Toms finished at 3-under 277 to edge Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Tim Petrovic and Jerry Kelly by a single shot.

This year’s championship, to be held June 26-29, will mark the latest chapter in The Broadmoor’s relationship with the USGA, begun 66 years ago when the resort hosted the aforementioned U.S. Amateur. The 1962 Curtis Cup followed, as did the 1967 U.S. Amateur, the 1982 U.S. Women’s Amateur, and two U.S. Women’s Opens: won by Annika Sorenstam in 1995 – the first of her two consecutive titles (of three total) – and So Yeon Ryu in 2011.

The East Course layout combines the work of two legendary architects: holes 1-6 and 16-18 on the lower portion of the property were part of the resort’s first course, designed by Donald Ross in 1918. Holes 7-15 are the work of Robert Trent Jones Sr., who in 1948 designed an additional nine holes. The latter was combined in 1952 with nine Ross holes to form the layout used for the championship.

“The Ross holes remain virtually untouched, while the Jones holes have much larger greens, primarily because those holes are longer and much more difficult,” said Miller. That was reflected in scoring during the past two U.S. Senior Opens, when the front nine played approximately three strokes easier in relation to par than the back nine.

“The stretch of 10 through 15 is extremely difficult,” Miller said. “There are five par 4s, and several of them can play more than 500 yards. The 12th is a par 3, but it can play up to 240 yards. When you start on No. 10 one of the first two days of the championship, your first six holes are just a grind. You better get it on the front because you’re not going to get it on the back.”

That said, on the front side the slightly downhill par-3 4th, which can play from 145 to 165 yards, poses its own particular challenge. 

“You just can’t go long there, which is automatic bogey in the best case,” said Miller. “You can get fooled on how long the ball goes. That’s why when these guys come in for practice rounds, I say forget where the hole location is – let’s try to land the ball on the front third of the green. If you have a 30- or 40-footer uphill, so be it.”

Toms, who had three top-5 finishes in the U.S. Open (his best was a tie for 4th in 2012 at The Olympic Club in San Francisco), remembers well the level of concentration he needed on the greens to finally win a USGA championship seven years ago.

“First of all, you have to pay attention to your surroundings,” Toms said. “Some of the course is down in a valley, and some of it is on the side of a hill. But you are always looking around to see where the mountains are. Everybody has their theory on how the ball breaks there – away from this mountain, towards this area, down this hill – so you just can’t lose sight of the fact of where you are on each green and where the slopes are. A lot of times the slope will actually be opposite from the way the overall landscape is. It’s very tricky. If you have a mental lapse, you can make a big mistake really quick.”

Miller calls the layout “quirky” in terms of how challenging it is to plot your way around it successfully.

“Tee-to-green is not overly hard, but, man, once you’re on the green, it is brutal,” he said. “It is just one of those sites where you see a lot of players scratching their heads and wondering how they shot 76 instead of 69. It’s because of all these factors that kick in. The uniqueness of some Ross holes and some Jones holes, the greens, the mountain, the altitude, all of that weighs in. It’s about the player’s ability to adjust to the conditions and the environment.”

Knowing the local geography is a key to success. Keeping Cheyenne Mountain, just west of the course, in mind throughout the round is a prerequisite, per Miller.

“No matter what hole you’re playing, on your approach shot you always want the flagstick between your ball and the mountain,” he said. “Do that, and you will always have an uphill putt. If you get your ball between the mountain and the flagstick, you’re always going to have a downhill putt, which is extremely difficult. Just watching Eduardo and David (in the previous U.S. Senior Opens), they did a good job of managing where they hit it on the green. They putted well, but not fantastically. They just managed where they hit their approach shots on the greens.” 

It’s not all about the greens – Miller also highlights the rough.

“With the bluegrass rough expected to be cut to about 3.5 inches, the ball just sinks down. It’s not like bermudagrass. It doesn’t sit up at all. You have to hit it in the fairway, or you’re wedging out or maybe have an 8-iron.”

The demanding layout means a title won here is one well-earned, according to Ben Kimball, USGA championship director. “The fact that the players physically have to deal with playing in a mile-high setting, and also then being able to work through their bag and understand the adjustments needed because of the altitude, makes the site attractive,” he said.

Toms agrees with that assessment about the location of his maiden USGA title.

“To get one was a feather in my cap. I finally got enough patience to win one of those at age 51,” he said. “That was probably a reason early on in my career on the PGA Tour why I didn’t contend more – just patience, being there on every shot. Not getting ahead of yourself  is so hard to do at our level. The Broadmoor is the ultimate test of patience.”

Tom Mackin is an Arizona-based freelance writer whose work has previously appeared in Golf Journal and on USGA websites.