A sad situation at the Broadmoor's Mountain Course

If you ask The Broadmoor’s Mountain Course Superintendent Robert McKinney if he has any photos of his course on his phone, he would reply, "why would I want to remind myself of that?" The Arnold Palmer-designed mountain course opened in 1976, only to be closed due to landslide issues. The course reopened as a Jack Nicklaus designed course in 2006 and after a significant investment in slide mitigation, the problem resurfaced again and slid in 2013. Robert and a skeleton crew managed the portion of the course up until November 2016 when they finally had to call it quits. Reports say that a break in a municipal water line was the culprit but significant rainfall in the spring of 2013 and 2016 could have contributed.

Entry road below the starter shack

While I was in Colorado Springs last week visiting the Patty Jewett Golf Course’s First Green event, I also arranged to buy lunch for Zach Bauer’s crew at The Broadmoor as part of the GCSAA "Working for Me" campaign. After lunch, Zach offered to show me around the facility which included a tour of the Mountain Course.

As we rounded the corner, I was in disbelief. The first thing that came to my mind were the pictures that I have seen from the 1964 Alaskan earthquake. The entrance road had a five-foot drop that had been bridged with gravel, we turned into the maintenance facility and I could tell that the building had been compromised. Equipment is still being stored there, but only one door is working since the building has twisted so badly. I kept thinking to myself that this couldn't be safe but Zach assured me that this was a slow process.

Crack runs through the shop

We drove out to the driving range tee where Zach showed me more land movement. What appeared to be a two-level tee box was simply a twenty-foot drop from the slide. You could literally see the seam running right through the golf course where the earth gave way. Again, it simply looked as if this one part of the golf course suffered an 8.0 magnitude earthquake.

A crude graphic on what has shifted

  My heart just sank. I know what it means to build a golf course and all blood sweat and tears required to make it a success. I had seen the pictures of the Mountain Course in its glory and couldn’t imagine what Robert was feeling to have to see all his work simply slide away.

Robert is now working on the West Course and is a huge asset to Zach and his crew. There is talk about developing a smaller par three course on the portion of the land that hasn’t moved, but there is uncertainty regarding the area that is moving.

I am happy to report, however, that the East and West courses at the Broadmoor are looking amazing and preparations are already under way for the upcoming 2018 USGA Senior Open.