the Champions Tour to the course designed by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore.
“It’s a testament to Ben and Bill that what they’ve created looks like it’s been here quite some time,” Joe Steranka, CEO of the PGA of America, said Thursday at a news conference at Colorado Golf Club.
And if the Senior PGA goes well, don’t be at all surprised if Colorado Golf Club will be in the running for a major event involving PGA Tour players.
Asked if that’s the club’s intentions, Mike McGetrick, a founder and managing partner of Colorado Golf Club, said, “absolutely. That’s something we want to do. But it takes time to build the relationships. If the Senior PGA goes great in 2010, the membership would like to be considered for a future PGA (Championship) or a Ryder Cup.”
Given how far in advance those events are booked by the PGA of America, hosting such a tournament could be a decade or more in the future. But that could still work well with Colorado Golf Club’s desires to hold major or national tournaments every three to seven years.
There are several recent precedents for clubs hosting the Senior PGA, then a PGA Championship or Ryder Cup several years down the road. Examples are Valhalla in Kentucky (2004 Senior PGA and 2008 Ryder Cup), Kiawah in South Carolina (2007 Senior PGA and 2012 PGA) and Oak Hill in New York (2008 Senior PGA and 2013 PGA).
For now, though, the focus for Colorado Golf Club is on hosting the oldest major on the 50-and-over tour in 2010.
McGetrick, a noted swing coach who works regularly with tour players, and others in club leadership got the ball rolling on the Senior PGA about a year ago with a letter sent to the PGA of America. Then there was a site visit by PGA officials that went a long way toward closing the deal.
“It came to us relatively quick,” McGetrick said of the tournament. “… I can’t wait to see the fans -- they’re going to get the ‘wow’ factor” at Colorado Golf Club.
Colorado Golf Club is located on a 1,700-acre piece of property that features wooded hillsides, meadows, natural barancas and streams. There are few homes on the course itself, which recently was ranked among the top 10 new layouts in the country by Golfweek magazine.
“Inside and outside the ropes, it’s an exceptional piece of property,” Steranka said.
“It’s incredible topography,” two-time Masters champion Crenshaw noted about the Colorado Golf Club course in a taped segment. “We certainly like the natural look. The golf course must be placed naturally on the land. We like the land to speak for itself.
“There are a lot of diversity about the holes” at Colorado Golf Club. “No two holes are remotely alike.”
Denver-area resident Mark Wiebe, a two-time winner on the Champions Tour since turning 50 last September, has played Colorado Golf Club “six or eight times,” and he’s excited about Thursday’s announcement in several respects.
“Any tournament in Denver for me is exciting,” Wiebe said. “Throw in it being a major, and I can’t believe it.”
It’s an extra bonus for Wiebe that the 2010 Senior PGA host course was designed by Crenshaw and Coore.
“I’m a huge fan of Coore and Crenshaw,” Wiebe said. “Ben is one of the most passionate and knowledgeable people in golf, and you can see that come through in his design work. I can’t think of anything we play (on the PGA or Champions Tour) that’s like this.”
With tilted and rolling fairways, and undulating, fast greens, “it takes your full attention to play,” Wiebe said. “It’s a different brand of golf. … It‘s a great test, quite a challenge.”
At 7,604 yards, the 2010 site will be the longest course ever to host the Senior PGA.
When another Champions Tour major, the U.S. Senior Open, came to Colorado over the summer, it proved a big hit, drawing more than 128,000 fans for the week. The biggest focus of attention was Greg Norman, who played in only a handful of tournaments this year.
Before the 2010 Senior PGA arrives at Colorado Golf Club, quite a few winners of major championships will turn 50 and be eligible for the Champions Tour. That list includes Fred Couples, Paul Azinger, former Coloradan Steve Jones, Bob Tway, Tom Lehman and Corey Pavin. Crenshaw, now 56, is also expected to be among the contestants.
Though there’s only 18 months until the tournament rolls into town, Colorado Golf Club has helped its cause by tapping into the organizations that ran the International PGA Tour event in Castle Rock, the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open at Cherry Hills and the 2008 U.S. Senior Open at the Broadmoor.
“Our goal is to make this as good, if not better, than the Senior Open at the Broadmoor and the Women’s Open at Cherry Hills,” McGetrick said.
