A Coveted Invitation

The Broadmoor Invitation attracts the country’s top amateur golfers for a competitive, fun-filled event

BY JON RIZZI

IN 2014, THE BROADMOOR RESURRECTED

The Broadmoor Invitation, an elite golf tournament that had endured for over 70 years and then disappeared for 20. Thanks to the efforts of the club’s PGA Director of Golf, Russ Miller, it’s here to stay.

Miller modernized what started in 1921 as a fiveday competition between the country’s top amateurs (winners included Lawson Little, Charlie Coe, Hale Irwin, and Duffy Waldorf) by turning it into a four-day, flighted, scratch four-ball championship that not only attracted quality competitors but also presented a full menu of activities for their guests or significant others.

“The tournament really takes care of the spouses,” Allen Schlup of Overland Park, Kansas, says. In 2021, while he and fellow Loch Lloyd Country Club member Jordan Wilson ham-and-egged their way to a 17-under

269 to win the Champions flight, their wives got to select from such options as guided hikes to The Broadmoor’s Cloud Camp, cooking lessons with Broadmoor chefs, “or they could go to the spa, swim, play tennis, or go fishing,” Schlup marvels.

A 36-year-old attorney who had competed in numerous tournaments around the country, Schlup teamed with Wilson, who in 2016 finished runner-up in the Invitation with a different partner. Schlup had never played The Broadmoor.

“My wife, Amanda, and I arrived the Sunday before the event to get in a practice round, but even before that, Russ was very thorough and communicative,” Schlup recalls. “From start to finish, everyone we ran into and talked to bent over backward. It was first-class all the way.”

Wilson enjoyed the format. “As opposed to the stress of individual play, four-ball spills into a better relationship with the people you’re playing with,” he says. “Plus, with everyone staying on property, you enjoy opportunties to interact with the entire field.”

In addition to the top-tier food, service, scenery, and course conditions, Schlup especially appreciated feeling “special” during the event. “They feed you, put your name on a placard on the range like a Tour player, and announce your name on the first tee,” he says. “One of the tee gifts was a custom-fit Callaway Odyssey putter.”

Putting at The Broadmoor is famously tricky, so Schlup asked a starter to educate him about the greens before his practice round.

His reads resulted in a pair of champions’ jackets in 2021 and 2022, when a significantly longer, sterner course setup led to a winning score of three-under 283—14 shots higher than their previous score and seven clear of the runners-up.

“Russ clearly didn’t like our 17-under that first year,” Schlup laughs. “So, he added about 1,100 yards and toughened the pin placements. I can’t wait to see what they throw at us next.”

The Broadmoor Invitation, July 23–27, 2023, attracts premier amateur players to compete at one of the world’s mosthonored golf destinations over four rounds of stroke play. For application information, contact Director of Golf Russ Miller at (855) 498-7558 or rmiller@broadmoor.com