The Broadmoor’s Russ Miller: the key to the resort’s success at hosting golf greats

The Broadmoor preps for 4th major championship under Director of Golf Russ Miller, with two more just announced

For the fourth time since he took the role of Director of Golf at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Russ Miller is preparing to host hundreds of golf’s most famous players.

Few people do it better.

During Miller’s tenure, The Broadmoor has hosted the U.S. Women’s Open in 2011 and the U.S. Senior Open in 2008 and 2018 before this year. Tuesday it was announced that the USGA will return with the U.S. Senior Open at least two more times – in 2031 and 2037.

That’s a neat rotation where the tournament gets to dabble with other suitors every five years, but then returns home to its one true love in year six.

What is sometimes an arduous process for a golf course – readying itself to host a national USGA tournament – is for Miller and his Broadmoor staff just a little easier.

“We don’t have to change any fairway widths, tee boxes or bunkers,” he said this year. “It’s basically what we play day-to-day.”

That’s a nice position to be in when other courses have to get the bulldozers rolling years in advance to get their courses ready.

Miller is The Broadmoor’s chief negotiator with these tournaments, and he said they have been working hard for more than three years to make sure this tournament goes smoothly.

The Broadmoor’s East Course, partly designed by Donald Ross, is renowned as having some of the toughest greens in pro golf. It’s elevation – more than 6,000 feet – gets talked about a lot on TV, but it is the greens that decide the winner.

“When you leave here for a major championship, you are just mentally exhausted,” Miller said. “Ours are the hardest two-footers in the world.”

The trick of The Broadmoor greens – everything tilts away from the mountai,n regardless of how it looks to you lining up the putt – is something players have to learn for themselves.

Jack Nicklaus has said that during a practice round for his very first national championship, the 1959 U.S. Amateur, he lined up one of his first putts to have it break two feet left and instead watched it swing two feet right. Miller said that he and his team don’t even mess much with the speeds of the greens when the biggest tournaments come to town, keeping them consistent with their normal conditions. “As far as speed, it will be about as fast as our regular resort guests get to play,” Miller said.

This is a job Miller takes very seriously. He has pushed for The Broadmoor to stay among the rotation for consideration of USGA championships; nothing has been announced for the years ahead but there is a gap in the USGA schedule for the U.S. Senior Open in 2031.

The only thing Miller said they do to make the East Course grow its fangs out just slightly is that they allow the rough to grow to 3.5 inches up from its usual 2 inches. In 2018, they began the week with the rough at 4 inches but practice rounds went so poorly that the tournament directors asked that it be taken down a half-inch.

Miller is very generous with his advice to some of the senior players who are coming to play in the U.S. Senior Open. He said he has great sympathy for the players who are slotted to tee off on Thursday’s first round, beginning on the back nine.

“If you have to start on No.10 – 10 to 15 are some of the most challenging holes I’ve ever seen,” he said. “The 10th hole is a 500-yard par 4. The 7 a.m. starting time on Thursday – that’s kind of a hard start. You’re hoping for bogey and hope you don’t make anything worse.”

He said he works hard to keep The Broadmoor experience a good one for all the visiting players and their families.

“On a big picture for The Broadmoor to be able to continue to host USGA championships, that’s a big thing for me,” he said. “Not many clubs have hosted nine like we have. It’s kind of rare air with the number we’ve hosted.”

He said he hopes the entire city of Colorado Springs benefits from the tournament. With 130,000 spectators expected for the week and 20 hours of TV coverage on NBC and The Golf Channel, “If we had to pay for that marketing, it would be millions of dollars and we couldn’t do it,” he said.

Last year, when Castle Pines Golf Club hosted the BMW Championship, its longtime GM Keith Schneider used the occasion to cap off his career. He led his team to put on a great show, then retired.

Miller has no such plans. With 27 years under his belt at The Broadmoor, the North Carolina-native said he is planning to keep a good thing going. “I will definitely be staying on beyond the Senior Open this year,” he said.

More on Miller … In 2003, he earned the national PGA of America award for Resort Merchandiser of the Year—a category in which the Colorado PGA Section has honored him in 2000, ’02, ’03 and ’12. In November 2019, the Colorado PGA awarded him its highest honor, Golf Professional of the Year.