Creamer, Broadmoor course are ready to go for Women's Open

Defending U.S. Women’s Open champion Paula Creamer had hopes for a soft landing when she planned to attempt skydiving for the first time to make her entrance at media day at the Broadmoor Hotel.

The wet weather Tuesday scuttled that opportunity for a memorable arrival. Of more concern was the dry winter weather that had groundskeepers working hard to ready the East Course for the July 4-10 event at the hotel.

“Someone asked me why we had 80 people working out there,” said Russ Miller, director of golf at The Broadmoor. “We have a championship coming, that’s why.”

While 80 was an exaggeration to amuse the crowd, the work and some precautions have paid off with 18 holes that are in good enough shape to host a national championship.

“This course has never looked better,” U.S. Women’s Open executive director Doug Habgood said. “It’s ready to hold a championship now.”

Creamer was pleased by the conditions too. In the past two days before the media event, she worked in six hours of putting on the difficult East Course greens as did 2005 U.S. junior champion In-Kyung Kim, an automatic qualifier, that morning.

Neither would want to worry about subpar conditions on the all-time longest U.S. Women’s Open course (7,047 yards, par 71) with tricky greens.

“It’s definitely a course you need to play over and over again,” she said.

The course is ready because of the precautions taken this past winter, included shutting down the course, even on good weather days, and employing extra workers throughout the offseason. The course is off limits for two weeks prior to the event.

Hand watering will handle trouble spots and further offset getting only half of the usual precipitation this winter.

“It was one of the more challenging winters,” said Fred Dickman, head golf course superintendent at the Broadmoor.

Other behind-the-scenes work is nearing completion. Almost all the needed 2,800 volunteers are signed up, including all the youth workers, while officials plan a neighborhood meeting for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Broadmoor’s Colorado Hall to address concerns.

The neighbors can expect to deal with large crowds. Miller said ticket sales were already on pace to surpass the attendance record of 131,000 set at Denver's Cherry Hills in 2005.

“I am confident we will exceed that,” Miller said. “We are on the verge of that now with 41 days to go.”

That’s how much time Creamer had as of Tuesday to enjoy looking at the U.S. Open traveling trophy on her kitchen table, where she can see it “from everywhere in my house.” She’s not ready to let the only trophy on display go.

“I’m ready to do it again this year,” she said.