Broadmoor Dreams
“purple mountain majesty”
By David R. Holland

In the old days the trick-your-eye greens of The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs were challenge enough for major championships like the 1959 U.S. Amateur won by Jack Nicklaus, the 1982 U.S. Women’s Amateur taken by Juli Inkster, or the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open won by Annika Sorenstam. But in today’s world of long-hitting technology and conditioned athletes, this summer’s 2008 U.S. Senior Open Championship has decided to add another wrinkle - fairways so narrow, about 28 yards on some par fours and fives, you might want to bring a pool cue.

It wasn’t so long ago, the 1953 NCAA Tournament for example, that a famous yarn about just that was spun. Thayer Tutt, President of The Broadmoor Golf Club, and Ted Payseur, head of the NCAA, were discussing course setup. Payseur suggested to Tutt that they needed to fortify the course by making the fairways narrow and by growing thicker rough. The suggestion was disregarded. It was felt the menacing greens were enough challenge. If you don’t record any three-putts here you are in the minority. But 2008 is a new dawning. Narrowing the fairways started in the summer of 2007, and I can attest to the fact when you stand on the tee box of the historic 18th hole of Broadmoor East, a 417-yard par-four during resort play, that 35 percent of the fairway is gone. The gnarly, sticky bluegrass rough encroaches out of what used to be a safe fairway landing. Next shot? It has to negotiate a pond that is stationed at a point where the fairway bends right to the green some 110 yards away with the clubhouse in the background. When the senior professionals tee it up from July 31 to August 3, historic Broadmoor East, designed by the legendary Donald Ross, should be a grumpy, irascible gut check of professional golf skills, suitable to make the best age 50-plus players in the world have to play at a high level to take home the trophy. Ron Forse, from Forse Design, was chosen to update the historic East Course, which opened in 1918. He reshaped existing bunkers, constructed new bunkers to replace original bunkers, lengthening back tees and adding lost mounding. The main goal of the project was to return the East Course bunkers and strategic playability of the golf course to the original classic design of Ross, who said at the time it was his best work -- part of a legendary portfolio that included Pinehurst. The newly designed bunkers are being built the way Donald Ross designed them when the course was originally built in 1918, said Director of Golf Russ Miller. “These bunkers will add a classical look to the East Course and offer a more fun and challenging layout for both the accomplished and the average player.” If you had booked a spring or early summer visit to the world-famous resort in 2008 you could have seen how you measure up on the East Course. The brand-new Mountain Course, a Nicklaus design, and the West Course by Robert Trent Jones, Sr., are two other reasons to bring the family to Colorado Springs for a vacation. The renovated Mountain Course measures 7,637 yards at par 72, and includes rugged terrain, forced carries and an awesome panorama of the city below its mountainous location. It was built on the site of the old Arnold Palmer-Ed Seay design that was destroyed by erosion from an ancient water source beneath the fairways. Today’s course building technology fixed the problems.

When you are on the fairways of the Mountain Course you are reminded of why Colorado Springs is such a travel destination. Everywhere you look are those “purple mountain majesties” that Katherine Lee Bates wrote about on July 22, 1893 when she wrote a little song called “America The Beautiful”. The beginnings of today’s resort dates back to 1916, but golfers have been returning here since 1918 and the Ross course opening. The Broadmoor has countless tales of celebrity sightings -- stories of seeing Jackie Gleason, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, President Dwight D. Eisenhower or Joe DiMaggio on the first tee.

The 700 guest rooms and suites are located in the Main Complex and West Complex. Luxurious rooms have either a king bed or two double beds, comfortable furniture and elegant bathrooms. Many offer views of beautiful Cheyenne Mountain and the resort’s own Cheyenne Lake. But guests rarely spend a lot of time in the rooms at The Broadmoor because there’s just too much to do. The resort surrounds Cheyenne Lake with its new swimming pool, including water slide and old-style cabanas. Have a paraffin body wrap at The Spa at The Broadmoor, go horseback riding or end a day with a movie in The Broadmoor’s own theater. Aside from golf, dining might be the highlight of The Broadmoor. Whether you have the sea bass at Stratta’s in the golf clubhouse building or the Colorado rack of lamb at the stylish Charles Court, dining at The Broadmoor will take you back to the days when everyone dressed up for dinner in the world’s finest hotels. But you don’t have to dress up -- resort casual is fine in most restaurants. Summit, the resort’s newest, was recently honored in the Robb Report for 2006 "Best of the Best", and Esquire's "Best New Restaurants 2006", along with "Best New Design". The world’s best wines are here, but The Broadmoor’s Craig Reed, director of food and beverage, says champagne might be even more of a favorite. “Taittinger is the most popular champagne we sell,” Reed says. “The dinner menu is focused on Continental Cuisine so we feature French white burgundies such as Chassagne-Montrachet from Joseph Drouhin. Red wine favorites are the Bordeauxs such as Chateau Pichon-Longueville, Comtesse de Lalande or the classic First Growth Chateau Mouton-Rothschild.” If you are still ready for adventure, just outside the grounds of The Broadmoor one can take a trip uphill to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo or climb the seemingly endless stairs at Seven Falls. The Zoo, at 6,800 feet, is the highest in the USA, and Seven Falls cascades 181 feet in seven distinctive steps down a solid cliff of granite. If history and golf interest you, then The Broadmoor is my pick. The most influential people in the world find the way here at least once in a lifetime. For me once is not enough.