Broadlands Golf Course

Signature Setup

TL;DR — Broadlands is a Rick (Dick) Phelps prairie layout that opened in 1999 in Broomfield, sitting at roughly 5,400 feet between Denver and Boulder. It stretches to 7,249 yards from the Black tees (rating 73.2 / slope 130) down to 5,217 from the Silver, par 72 throughout. The opening loop is honest, but the closing stretch and the par 5s are where the card gets decided.

The first time I looked at the Broadlands scorecard I went straight to the 3rd: a 620-yard par 5 that carries the #1 handicap from the Black tees, and still plays 589 from the Gold and 547 from the Blue. On a Front Range course that's the hole everyone remembers — there is no version of it that's short.

Hole-by-Hole Wind & Playing Lines

The three index holes here — 3, 10, and 9 — all run long, and the prevailing Front Range wind is W/NW downslope off the foothills, strongest by early afternoon.

• Hole 3 (#1, par-5 620y Black): Into the typical W/NW breeze this is a genuine three-shotter for almost everyone. Don't chase the green in two and short-side yourself; lay back to a full wedge number. The elevation gives you carry, but the wind takes it back.
• Hole 10 (#2, par-4 451y Black): Opens the back nine. On gusty afternoons the 451 plays closer to 470. I'd take an extra club into the green and accept the long putt over the front bunker.
• Hole 9 (#3, par-4 471y Black): The longest two-shotter on the card. Downwind it's reachable in regulation; into wind it's a layup-and-pitch hole even for a single-digit player. Read the flag on the 1st before you commit to a line.

Green & Fairway Characteristics

Greens are bentgrass and roll true; fairways are Kentucky bluegrass with prairie/native rough framing the corridors — miss the short grass and you're in thicker stuff than a typical city muni. The back nine is the firmer test: the women's Blue back-nine slope hits 136 versus 133 on the front, and the men's Black back rates 36.4. Front-nine yardage from the Gold tees is 3,552 with the back at 3,109, so the back is shorter on paper but plays its slope. Note the par-3 set: 198 (4th), 183 (6th), 215 (12th) and 160 (14th) from the Black — the 12th at 215 is the one that bites.

Seasonal Weather Pattern

Broomfield's golf season is genuinely long because the Front Range gets dry, sunny stretches even in winter, but the wind defines it. Spring (March–May) brings the gustiest W/NW days — 20–30 mph afternoons are normal — plus the occasional heavy wet snow. Summer mornings are calm and warm (upper-70s to mid-80s) with afternoon thunderstorm risk building after 2 p.m. off the mountains. Fall is the prize: cool, stable mornings in the 50s–60s, firm turf, and the cleanest scoring windows of the year. I haven't played Broadlands in deep winter, so I won't pretend the greens hold the same in January — that's historical pattern, not my scorecard.

Local Play Tips

At ~5,400 feet your ball carries roughly 8–10% farther than at sea level — a stock 150 plays closer to 135, and that gap matters most on the long par 3s like the 215-yard 12th, where club selection off altitude is the whole hole. Don't just add a club for wind; subtract one for elevation first, then adjust. The other local read: the closing par 4s (9, 10) are the slope, not the par 5s — protect par there and let the reachable 5s give your strokes back.

Pre-Round Weather Workflow

Use the 7-day G-Score and windExposure for Broadlands like this: target the earliest tee time you can get — Front Range mornings are calmest and the G-Score typically runs 8–12 points higher than the windy afternoon. Two days out, check the forecast W/NW wind speed; anything over 20 mph and you should plan the 3rd and 9th as layup holes before you leave the house. Watch the afternoon convective (thunderstorm) timing in summer — if storms are flagged after 2 p.m., a first-off-the-1st time gets you to the clubhouse before the lightning horn. Cross-reference temperature for your altitude club math: cold, dense morning air cuts some of the elevation carry, so on a 45°F start, club up a touch versus a warm afternoon.