Barbara McIntire, a longtime fixture at The Broadmoor who won 2 U.S. Women’s Amateurs and was runner-up in the U.S. Women’s Open, passes away at age 90
By Gary Baines – 5/6/2025
It tells you plenty about Barbara McIntire’s stature in Colorado golf — and what she accomplished in the game in general — that when the Colorado Golf Association selected six local golf people of the century in 2015, McIntire was one of them.
McIntire, honored as Colorado’s Female Player of the Century at the Century of Golf Gala a decade ago, passed away this week at age 90.
Twice a U.S. Women’s Amateur champion (1959 and ’64), McIntire was not only inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame — she was inducted in the organization’s second class, in 1974 — but the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame (1998).
McIntire, a native of Toledo, Ohio, was a longtime fixture at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, where she and future World Golf Hall of Famer Judy Bell were business partners who operated retail establishments at the resort from 1962 — when McIntire moved to Colorado — to 2000 or 2001.
“Barbara McIntire exemplified everything (good) imaginable in golf with her love of the game,” Russ Miller, longtime PGA director of golf at The Broadmoor, said on Tuesday night. “Plus, there’s all that she contributed to The Broadmoor Golf Club. Her playing success, but even more importantly how kind she was to others, will always be remembered.
“She had an aura about her that made you feel important and appreciated. We will all miss her and appreciate and respect her greatness as both a player and most importantly as a tremendous person.”
McIntire on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1960.
McIntire, unquestionably among the world’s best female amateur golfers in the 1950s and ‘60s, excelled in big-time events of the day. Her two U.S. Women’s Amateur titles, included one in 1964 in which she defeated future World Golf Hall of Famer JoAnne (Gunderson) Carner in the 36-hole final.
McIntire also almost became the first amateur to win the U.S. Women’s Open, falling 82-75 to professional Kathy Cornelius in an 18-hole playoff in 1956 after the two tied in regulation. In 1960, McIntire became just the fourth American to win the British Ladies Amateur. And she finished runner-up in the U.S. Girls’ Junior in both 1951 and ’52, in the latter falling to future World Golf Hall of Famer Mickey Wright in the final, 1 up. (McIntire also competed in the inaugural U.S. Girls’ Junior in 1949.)
Among her many other high-level accomplishments were winning the women’s North & South six times, the women’s Western Amateur twice, the Doherty Cup and the Women’s Western Junior. And she also prevailed twice in the 1960s at the prestigious Broadmoor Ladies Invitation, an event for which she and Bell long served as co-chairs.
McIntire represented the U.S. as a player in the Curtis Cup matches against Great Britain & Ireland six times from 1958-72, then served as America’s non-playing captain in 1976 and ’98. With her on the team as a player, the U.S. won five times and tied once. As a captain, she was 2-0. At the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship, she competed in 1964 and captained the dominant American team in 1998.
McIntire (left) with other Colorado Golf People of the Century in 2015: Judy Bell, Will Nicholson Jr., Vic Kline and Dennis Lyon. (Not pictured: Hale Irwin)
McIntire was a formidable-enough player that she was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in August 1960.
“We lost one of the greatest women amateur golfers of all time with the passing of Barbara McIntire,” said Ed Mate, the executive director of the CGA for the last 25 years. “Colorado benefited greatly from her many years in Colorado as a player and ambassador to the game during her time at The Broadmoor.
“One of my favorite golf experiences was playing (The Broadmoor’s) East Course with her in 2000, my first year with the CGA as executive director. Barbara knew the greens of The Broadmoor as well as anyone, and I was very happy to take her advice. Rather than giving me a typical read, she pointed to the spot where I needed to roll the ball and at what pace. I made everything! What a legend.”
McIntire was part of an elite group of female amateurs who called The Broadmoor Golf Club home for many years. Others were Bell and Tish Preuss, the latter who also passed away last year.
“There was a strong corps of women golfers at The Broadmoor then,” McInitre said in 1998. “We could have fielded our own Curtis Cup team from among those players. That kind of competition gave me a chance to be a better golfer.”
McIntire (left) with Bell, her longtime business partner at The Broadmoor. (Photo: USGA)
Coming so close to winning the U.S. Women’s Open — arguably the top event in women’s golf — as a 21-year-old was particularly an eye-opener.
“It was like going to college before graduating from high school,” McIntire said in a program biography when she was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.
McIntire also made her mark off the course. Besides serving as chair of the USGA Women’s Committee in 1995-96, she earned the USGA’s highest honor, the Bob Jones Award, in 2000. It’s presented for distinguished sportsmanship. When she received the award, the USGA noted that McIntire recited an Edgar Guest poem from memory:
“Here honor counts more than the victory
And a golfer is more than their gold.
Here love of the game means more than the game,
or the joy that the pride may hold.
Oh, the game of golf gleams with the finest dreams,
and the best that we mortals know.
It is rich in the things that a true life brings,
God grant we may keep it so.”
It’s Colorado’s loss that half of the six Colorado Golf People of the Century who were honored in 2015 have now passed away — McIntire, Will Nicholson Jr., and Dennis Lyon. Still with us are Hale Irwin, Bell and Vic Kline.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com