An Open Invitation

 

IN A PERFECT bit of symmetry, 100 golfers will gather in Colorado Springs July 25-29 to compete in the 100th Anniversary edition of The Broadmoor Invitation. They’ll come for more than the golf.

Originally known as the Broadmoor Amateur, the event has changed more than its name since J.H. Potter of Colorado Springs defeated Frank Godchaux of New Orleans in the inaugural competition.

For its first 70 years, The Broadmoor sent invitations (hence the eventual appellation) to the country’s best collegiate and nonprofessional golfers to compete in the five-day match play. Notable winners included Duffy Waldorf, U.S. Amateur victors Charlie Coe and Bob Dickson, and seven future PGA Tour champions. Lawson Little won it in 1932, as did Hale Irwin in 1967. Those two and three subsequent Invitation runners- up—Lanny Wadkins, Mark O’Meara and Fred Couples—are now in the World Golf Hall of Fame.

From 1992 and 1994, The Broadmoor switched to a two-man best-ball match-play format before discontinuing the event. In 2014, however, PGA Director of Golf Russ Miller resurrected the tournament and recast it.

It initially remained a two-man best-ball match play, but whereas that format could result in a team playing as few as one or two rounds, a new flighted arrangement guaranteed four rounds in four days (plus a Sunday practice round). Then, in 2018, since many matches weren’t going 18 holes (thus depriving some teams from competing on the entire East and West courses), Miller switched the format to two-man best-ball stroke play, allowing players to select from one of three yardages: 7,100 (Champions); 6,800 (Traditions); and 6,200 (Legends). All play is from scratch—no handicaps.