CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — Blue skies, gentle breezes, and balmy temperatures made for a glorious week of golf in the Colorado Rockies. Fan support at the BMW Championship? It was off the charts. Some of the crowds on pro-am day at Castle Pines Golf Club looked as if Tiger Woods was approaching the green even if it was actually Tommy Fleetwood.
“Denver showed out great,” said hometown hero Wyndham Clark, the 2023 U.S. Open champion. “I would love for us to come back at least every few years or every other year or every year. It would be great to be able to come back here. I hope we do, and hopefully that happens.”
Showed out, they did. Ticket sales, with crowds of upwards of 35,000 a day, sold out for three of the four rounds, and it was the earliest sell-out for weekend tickets in BMW Championship history. Hospitality sold out in record time too. More than twice the number of volunteers that were needed had signed up within two days.
Ten years of pent-up demand will do that – the PGA Tour was last in the Mile High City in 2014 at Cherry Hills for that year’s edition of the BMW – but Denver is a city that lives for its sporting events.
Nearly two decades had passed since the state’s only regular Tour event, The International, ceased to exist at Castle Pines after a 21-year run. It was a beloved event with its unique modified Stableford scoring format. Pros raved about the milkshakes and the club’s hospitality. Members, dressed in green jackets, modeled their event as “the Masters of the West.”
Fortunately, the absence of this popular summer staple had been lessened by an incredible run of high-profile events visiting the Rockies. The Broadmoor in nearby Colorado Springs hosted U.S. Senior and Women’s Opens. Colorado Golf Club in Parker, Colo., approximately 25 minutes southeast of Denver, was the venue for the 2010 Senior PGA Championship and the setting for the 2013 Solheim Cup. In addition to the BMW, Cherry Hills hosted the 2012 and 2023 U.S. Amateur, which produced record crowds.
“But it was what we had out here for Tuesday for the practice rounds,” said George Solich, the president and chairman of Castle Pines.
When Solich was asked if he could envision Castle Pines hosting an event more regularly than once every 10 years, he smiled and said, “We don’t want to call the victory before the clock runs out. And so I think it’s important that we really look at this week and see how the players like it, see how the sponsors like it, and see how the PGA Tour likes it. What are some of the things we can do better? But you know, short answer is we would love to have PGA Tour golf here more often.”
Billy Horschel, who won the 2014 BMW, suggests that Castle Pines and Cherry Hills rotate hosting the Tour and make a play for being in the BMW’s rota, which already is slated to bounce to Caves Valley near Baltimore next year, Bellerive in St. Louis in 2026 and Liberty National in Jersey City, N.J. in 2027. (The BMW hasn’t been held at the same venue in consecutive years since 2011.)
An effort is underway to lure prominent events back to Cherry Hills. A source at the Tour tells Golfweek that club member Peyton Manning has been enlisted to assist efforts. Cherry Hills officials attended the U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine two weeks ago to meet with members of the USGA.
Golfweek also has learned that Cherry Hills is seeking to bring a significant championship there and eyeing 2035, which would be the 75th anniversary of Arnold Palmer’s iconic victory there. That Open is already spoken for with anchor site Pinehurst No. 2, but anniversaries such as these do resonate with the USGA and perhaps Pinehurst, which has ’29, ’41 and ’47 on the books would agree to move dates. Conversations with the PGA of America about a PGA Championship, which Cherry Hills hosted in 1941 and 1985, and a Ryder Cup are under consideration too.
Castle Pines passed its test from an operational standpoint and shouldn’t have to wait another decade for the Tour’s return.
“My last comment to the Tour was let’s sit on it a little bit and then go talk about what the art of the possible is,” Solich said.
Either Cherry Hills or Castle Pines would be a worthy Presidents Cup site but the first open date for a home venue? 2034. That would be another decade from now. Denver — and Colorado for that matter — deserves better.