Broadmoor Invitation

‘My Favorite Week of the Year’

The Broadmoor Invitation attracts the country’s top amateur golfers for a competitive, fun-filled event like no other. BY JON RIZZI

“WITHOUT QUESTION, IT IS MY FAVORITE week of the year,” Trent MacEachran of Chicago says of the five-day Broadmoor Invitation, the resort’s premier amateur tournament that draws up to 100 players each July. This year marks the 101st anniversary of the event.

MacEachran, a 3.5 handicap and a veteran of five Broadmoor Invitation tournaments, doesn’t mind that everyone plays off scratch; nor that the format of the two-man-team event recently changed from match play to stroke play. “Sure, I want to win, but that’s not what keeps me coming back,” he says. “It’s the experience.

“It’s world-class from start to finish,” he says. “They have your name on placards on the range when you warm up, like the U.S. Open; starters wear jackets and ties; your name appears on the leaderboard they use for the USGA championships. For those of us who never made it on any professional tour, it’s pretty cool.”

The Invitation’s elite pedigree dates to 1921, when it was known as The Broadmoor Amateur. Over the next 70 years it became one of the top amateur golf tournaments in the country, drawing the best collegiate and nonprofessional golfers to compete in a five-day match play. Notable winners include U.S. Amateur champions Charlie Coe and Bob Dickson and seven future PGA TOUR champions. Hale Irwin, winner of the 1967 tournament, and three subsequent Invitation runners-up—Lanny Wadkins, Mark O’Meara, and Fred Couples—are now World Golf Hall of Famers.

In 2018, since many matches weren’t going 18 holes—thus depriving some from competing on the entire course— PGA Director of Golf Russ Miller switched the format to stroke play, allowing players to select from one of three yardages: 7,100 (Champions); 6,600 (Traditions); and 6,200 (Legends). New this year is the Honors Flight, consisting of one player from the Legends Flight and another from either of the other two flights.

And unlike the cash-strapped college golfers who had often played the Invitation without staying at The Broadmoor, today’s competitors and their significant others also lodge at the resort, taking full advantage of its myriad Forbes FiveStar, AAA Five-Diamond amenities.

“We put a huge emphasis on making sure the spouses have activities very unique to the hotel and the area while their significant others are playing golf,” Miller says.

Gala receptions, speakers, and championship-jacket presentations are among the featured events. Both players and spouses receive gifts, such as an embossed leather weekender, fashionable garment bag, and well-appointed Dopp kit. This year, everyone in the field will also get fitted by Callaway SVP/Odyssey GM Sean Toulon for an Odyssey Triple Track putter to help handle those tricky Broadmoor greens.

“Camaraderie,” banker Robert Blair answers when asked to summarize what makes the Invitation so special. Blair has played in every Invitation since 2014 and says he loves seeing familiar faces. While he jokes that the competition gets tougher every year, he’s not complaining. It’s a sign that everything about the Invitation keeps improving—both on and off the course.

.ESSENTIALS. THE BROADMOOR INVITATION

The Broadmoor Invitation, July 24–28, 2022, attracts premier amateur players to compete at one of the world’s most honored 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.