Broadmoor Golf Club (East Course 9/West Course 9)

Donald Ross drew plans for The Broadmoor’s original 18 in 1916 after Spencer Penrose commissioned a championship course to anchor his new resort at the base of Cheyenne Mountain. Construction followed, and the course opened in 1918 alongside the hotel. Contemporary club histories record that Ross considered the assignment a pinnacle in his portfolio, and that the resort touted the course’s uncommon elevation when it debuted. Ross’s 1918 routing occupied the lower, lake-side portion of the property closest to the hotel. Those holes are not preserved today as a single 18; instead, they were divided between the modern East and West courses in later decades. On today’s East Course, the Ross holes are Nos. 1–6 and 16–18; the intervening stretch (Nos. 7–15) was built later. On the West Course, Ross’s work comprises Nos. 1–6 and 15–18, with the middle run by another architect. Those allocations are documented by the resort and remain the club’s canonical account of who designed which holes. Ross did not return to execute a second construction phase. The next major design activity came three decades later, when Robert Trent Jones Sr. was hired in 1948 to add nine holes; those were joined to nine Ross holes to form the new East Course in 1952. In 1964 Jones designed nine more and reworked nine original holes to form the West Course. The resort’s chronology, along with historical summaries, fixes those dates and explains the 20th-century evolution from a single Ross 18 to the present 36-hole complex. Unique design characteristics (as they survive on site) Because Ross’s 1918 holes now bookend the East Course, the opening stretch (Nos. 1–6) and the closing trio (16–18) give the clearest window into his Broadmoor work. The current No. 1—a mid-length par 4—plays to an upsloping green guarded by a pronounced false front and flanking bunkers, a detail that punishes under-spun approaches and is repeatedly noted in hole-by-hole descriptions of the championship setup. This green contouring is a tangible vestige of Ross’s approach at Broadmoor and still dictates club selection on the very first approach of the round. Water, though sparingly used on Ross’s original plan, is integral to his early-round sequence at East. The par-5 third brings a pond into play near the green, asking players to choose between laying back for an aerial wedge or flirting with the hazard to hold the surface. The very next hole, the par-3 fourth, plays over the same water to a green that sits in full view of the hotel—a resort-stage tableau that dates to the 1918 build. The finishing hole, No. 18 on East, remains a Ross dogleg-right into an elevated green above a pond; modern photography and venue guides repeatedly call out that perched target as a defining test in championship play. Collectively, Nos. 3, 4 and 18 are the most photogenic—and architecturally intact—examples of Ross’s work on the East Course. Elevation and topography at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain shape putting perception on the Ross holes: putts tend to “break away from the mountains,” a local read that is part agronomic truth and part Broadmoor lore. The club itself emphasizes this effect in its golfer guidance, and national ranking panels likewise point to the greens’ optical illusions as a signature characteristic of the East Course experience. On the Ross stretches the tilts are more subtle than on the later-built upland holes, making line and pace more difficult to decipher. On the West Course, the Ross bookends (Nos. 1–6 and 15–18) traverse gentler terrain and narrower corridors than the middle Jones sequence. The resort’s scorecard and architect breakdown confirm the distribution and show that West finishes on a Ross par-5 after a Ross par-3, a cadence that mirrors the East Course’s Ross-authored close and reinforces how the hotel-side acreage anchored Ross’s original routing. Historical significance within Ross’s body of work Broadmoor is one of the few Ross resort courses conceived at true mountain altitude and attached to a grand hotel opening in the same season; the interdependence of hotel and course was central to Penrose’s “world-class resort” plan and helps explain the ceremonial July 1918 debut. Over time, the surviving Ross holes have provided the stage for a long USGA relationship. Jack Nicklaus captured his first USGA title at Broadmoor—the 1959 U.S. Amateur on the (then-new) East Course—and the East has since hosted the U.S. Women’s Open (1995, 2011) and the U.S. Senior Open (2008, 2018, 2025), with the West Course hosting the 1967 U.S. Amateur. That continuity of championships—often decided on Ross greens and approaches—cements the site’s standing in Ross scholarship as a high-altitude laboratory for approach precision and green reading. Modern raters consistently recognize the East Course (with its Ross/Jones blend) in national lists of public-access courses. In Golf Digest’s 2025 update of America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses, the East Course was again included, with the panel explicitly noting the composite nature of the routing and the mountain-driven green illusions that define play. GOLF Magazine’s 2024–25 “Top 100 You Can Play” also ranked the East. For students of Ross, those third-party assessments matter less for the rankings themselves than for how they single out the Ross stretches as the course’s personality. Current condition and integrity As a whole, Broadmoor is not a “time capsule” Ross course; his 1918 18-hole routing was segmented, then interwoven with Jones nines in 1952 and 1964. Nevertheless, on the East Course the Ross identity remains legible across 12 holes (Nos. 1–6, 16–18 on East; Nos. 1–6, 15–18 on West) where green pads, approach tilts and select hazard placements survived the mid-century additions. In preparation for USGA championships and to refresh historical character, the club undertook a bunker program that it describes as a return to the “original 1918-bunker design” in 2005; subsequent accounts credit consulting architect Ron Forse with restoration and contouring work completed in the mid-2000s, with additional advisory touches noted by third-party outlets a decade later. The upshot is that the Ross holes today present bunkering and surrounds intended to echo the 1918 look while meeting modern maintenance and championship needs. Tree growth and framing are heavier today than Ross would have seen in 1918, particularly on corridors shared with the resort campus, while mowing lines around green-front roll-offs have been tightened for speed and presentation during championships. The club’s own guidance about putts “breaking away from the mountains” remains the best single tip for navigating the East Course, underscoring that the largest intact “feature” from the Ross era is the macro-tilt of the landscape itself. West, a composite of Ross and Jones, plays slightly shorter but tighter, with the Ross holes offering smaller-scale movement than the bold middle sequence added in 1964. Citations and uncertainty Two points warrant caution. First, the mapping of which specific West Course holes are Ross differs between sources: the resort states Nos. 1–6 and 15–18 are Ross, while some tertiary summaries list Nos. 1–4 and 13–18. Because the club’s materials include detailed hole-by-hole yardages and an architect breakdown, they are treated here as authoritative; the discrepancy is noted for researchers comparing lists. Second, the timing and authorship of the 21st-century restoration work is variously described: the resort dates a “return” to 1918 bunkering to 2005; LINKS Magazine reports Ron Forse’s restoration and surround reshaping as completed by 2007; other directories mention modifications circa 2016. The practical takeaway is that a bunker-and-surrounds program in the mid-2000s, guided by Forse, re-emphasized Ross characteristics ahead of USGA events, with later touch-ups as needed. Sources & Notes Broadmoor Golf Club (club site): “Courses & Scorecards” (architect attribution and yardages for East and West); “Legacy Golf” and “Club History” (commissioning in 1916; Ross’s view of the work; 1952/1964 reconfigurations). The Broadmoor resort timeline/USSO fact sheets (opening in 1918; championship history including 1959 & 1967 U.S. Amateur; 1995 & 2011 U.S. Women’s Open; 2008, 2018 & 2025 U.S. Senior Open). USGA championship pages and records (2018 Senior Open fast facts; 2025 Senior Open winner Pádraig Harrington; U.S. Amateur results and venue confirmations). National rankings commentary recognizing the composite nature of East and the mountain-influenced greens (Golf Digest 2025; GOLF Magazine 2024–25). Historic Hotels of America (note on 2005 return to 1918 bunker style on the East Course). Disputed/uncertain items flagged above: (a) exact assignment of certain West holes (club listing vs. secondary summaries); (b) precise dating/attribution of 2005–2016 restoration phases (club claim vs. LINKS/other directories).