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BROADMOOR
Golf Club
PAR 5 485 YARDS
Seattle, WA
206.325.5600
www.broadmoorgolfclub.com
Broadmoor Golf Club is a private club just minutes from downtown Seattle—so
close, in fact, to Husky Stadium on the University of Washington campus that on
specific Saturday afternoons the UW band sounds as if it is marching across the
driving range. The 18th hole is a majestic finish for a majestic course; a par 5 where,
despite the beauty and challenge that comes from a pond left of the hole and Lake
Washington to the right, it is the grand clubhouse just up the hill from the green that
you remember most.
Built in the 1920s by the esteemed designer A.V. Macan, Broadmoor has a rich
history. It has been the site of the Seattle Open multiple times and is most noted
for Byron Nelson's win there in 1945, when his 21-under-par total of 261 was a PGA
record. In 1954, Bing Crosby and Jack Benny came to Broadmoor to play in the
Western Amateur, and the 1962 Seattle Open celebrated the staging of the World's
Fair with a field that included pros Arnold Palmer, Bill Casper, Tony Lema, and Ken
Venturi, and amateurs Bob Hope and James Garner. A young pro named Jack
Nicklaus won the tournament.
More recently, England's Paul Casey shot 60 for 18 holes en route to winning the
Pac-10 championship. He had a 25-foot putt for eagle on the 18th hole and a 59. For
better players, the 485-yard 18th is a two-shot hole, but the risk of being short is a dip
in the pond; for a shot that goes long, a chip down a slick green is almost impossible
to hold. The long look to the iconic clubhouse is so captivating that few visitors know
that they are walking three feet below the level of Lake Washington and on a seven-
acre wetlands preserve—or really care.
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Photographs by Rob Perry
