The Broadmoor Resort's East Course will have a decidedly different look and feel as the USGA returns to the Rocky Mountains to conduct the 29th U.S. Senior Open Championship July 31-Aug. 3.
Significant changes, including the addition of 36 bunkers, have been implemented since Annika Sorenstam won the 1995 U.S. Women's Open. Overseeing the renovation for the majority of the time has been The Broadmoor's Director of Golf Course Maintenance, Fred Dickman, a certified member of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA).
Broadmoor East will play at par 70 and 7,253 yards, with Poa annua greens measuring 11 on the Stimpmeter. The ryegrass fairways have been narrowed for the championship and for the first time at a Senior Open, the bluegrass rough has been given the USGA's graduated cut with the first 20 feet at 2 1/2 inches and 4 inches thereafter.
"Our biggest challenge has been the dry summer we are having," said Dickman about the area's fourth driest summer on record. "We are six inches below normal annual precipitation, which is a lot considering our annual average is only 17 inches."
When completed in 1918, The Broadmoor East Course was the highest golf course in the United States at 6,400 feet in elevation. It is now a combination of the original Donald Ross creation combined with holes designed by Robert Trent Jones in 1965.
"We wanted to get the East back to more of the Donald Ross look versus the RTJ look that had kind of been evolving over the years," Dickman said. "Much of the renovation emphasized Ross' trademark shallow bottom bunkers with grassy banks. It's totally changed the look of the course."
Dickman is a 21-year GCSAA member and has been GCSAA certified for 13 years. Prior to arriving at The Broadmoor in 1997, he was superintendent at the Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz. East Course superintendent Mike Sartori is a five-year GCSAA member.
The 2008 U.S. Senior Open will be the sixth USGA Championship staged at The Broadmoor, as the 1952 and 1967 U.S. Amateurs, 1962 Curtis Cup, 1982 U.S. Women's Amateur, and 1995 U.S. Women's Open were held there. The U.S. Women's Open returns to The Broadmoor in 2011.
Visit GCSAA at www.gcsaa.org.