player’sCorner Clubbing Up
Augusta in Evergreen Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Hiwan Golf Club remains one of Colorado’s toughest tests of putting. | By Greg Henry
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iwan Golf Club will celebrate its 50th anniversary with an August members’ party. Stories will flow like champagne at this hallowed private club nestled at 7,665 feet amid the pines of Evergreen. Founded in 1962 by Darst Buchanan (who would die before the course opened) and his three sons-in-law—John Casey, Robert Kirchner, Fred Gooddale—on the Buchanan family’s 14,000-acre Hiwan Ranch, the club hired Press Maxwell, who had moved to Colorado in 1958, as the course designer. Press’s father, Perry, designed the greens for Alister MacKenzie at Augusta National, home of the Masters. In fact, President Eisenhower, a regular at Augusta, was among the first to note the similarities of the two courses— the pines, hilly terrain and fast, undulating
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greens—when he visited Hiwan in 1963. This led to the Colorado Open—which Kirchner started at Hiwan in 1964 as a fundraiser for Craig Hospital—often being called The Masters of state tournaments. The Open took place the week before the Broadmoor Invitational in Colorado Springs, then a popular stop for older golf professionals and budding amateurs. During the Colorado Open’s 28 years at Hiwan, you could see veterans Al Geiberger, Dave Stockton, Dow Finsterwald, Gene Littler, Billy Casper and even Sam Snead. College players who became PGA Tour stars also played, including Hale Irwin, Steve Jones, Phil Mickelson and Corey Pavin (who stayed in Hiwan Superintendent Gary Russell’s home off the 14th hole). “Those years of hosting the Colorado Open and being able to get the field from
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MASTERFUL: Vibrant landscaping borders Hiwan’s par-4 opener.
those premier players allowed Hiwan to make its mark,” says Kyle Heyen, Hiwan’s head PGA golf professional since 1985 and a member of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame. While the Colorado Open gave Hiwan notoriety, the golf course remains the star. “One reason we brought so many people here was because of the golf course,” says Russell, one of the three longest tenured employees, since 1972. Perry Maxwell always said 50 percent of the game was around the green so he invented the ’Maxwell rolls’ emphasizing undulations on the green.” Sam Snead learned the effect of “Maxwell rolls” at Hiwan. While giving a chipping lesson to members in 1986, he plopped a chip on the green, which quickly rolled off. “Now I remember how fast the greens are here,” Slammin’ Sammy reportedly said. For all its attraction of high-profile players, Hiwan’s most enduring legacy may be its devotion to junior golf. “When you have 600 kids at a club, junior golf is obviously the way to go,” says Hiwan President David Fowler. Club General Manager Dan Sherman adds, “Most clubs are building a high wall (to keep people out). We’ve tried to be inclusive.” Evergreen High School’s boys’ and girls’ golf and tennis teams play free at Hiwan. Heyen and his golf assistants teach inschool lessons on golf to local schools. Hiwan hosted the USGA Girls Junior in 1965 and the USGA Junior Boys Amateur in ’76. It also hosted the American Junior Golf Association Junior from 2003-05 and the prestigious Rolex Tournament of Champions in 2006, followed by the Rolex Girls Junior in 2007. A year ago the Junior America’s Cup tournament brought the best male golfers from the western U.S., Canada and Mexico. Rickie Fowler, now a star on the PGA Tour, played in the 2006 Rolex event. Lexi Thompson played in the 2007 Rolex event, just 12 days after becoming the youngest qualifier for the U.S. Women’s Open at age 12. Dave Fowler (no relation to Rickie) readily admits, “Hiwan didn’t start as a family club.” One of Hiwan’s founding members was attorney Leo Bradley, who moved on to found the all-male Bear Creek Golf Club