Anna Nordqvist didn’t like golf right away, but she fell in love at first sight with The Broadmoor.

The Sweden native put in some practice rounds the past couple of days during her first visit to Colorado Springs and didn’t like the idea of leaving.

“It’s a good place,” she said Saturday while relaxing on a patio chair outside the club with Cheyenne Mountain looming over the resort. “Once you’re here, you don’t want to leave the property. It’s so amazing with the lake and everything.”

Nordqvist was just as impressed with the East Course, site of next summer’s U.S. Women’s Open.

“It’s a tough trek,” she said. “And I think a U.S. Open should be played on a really tough course. And this is really going to be a challenge.”

Nordqvist was up to the challenge last season as a rookie, winning her first major in just her fifth professional start at the McDonald’s LPGA Championship and also winning the season-ending LPGA Tour Championship.

Another native of Sweden,  Annika Sorenstam, won her first LPGA event at The Broadmoor in 1995 on her way to a Hall of Fame career. Could Nordqvist be the sport’s next star?

“There are a lot of good players, so it’s going to take a lot of hard work,” she said. “But I’m ready to put in the hard work to get there. I will get there.”

Nordqvist nearly didn’t go anywhere in golf. When she was 10, she and her younger brother played for the first time with her older brother and dad.

“I played for two months, and then I quit because I thought it was a frustrating game,” she said. “I didn’t think it was fun. There was no one I knew that was playing.”

Three years later, she decided to give it another try.

“My mom said she was going to start,” Nordqvist said, “and I thought ‘Well, I guess I gotta pick it up now. I don’t want to be the worst golfer in the family.’ … And ever since I’ve been kind of hooked.”

Nordqvist hopes she can help the sport’s popularity.

“It is a male-dominated sport, but I think a lot of people may come out to tournaments and see the level of competition and decide to play,” she said. “ … Because I think that’s what I was missing when I was 10. I didn’t have anyone to look up to, so I think it’s important to inspire young girls to play.”

With Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa retired, the LPGA is without a star. But despite that and recent troubles with sponsors, Nordqvist doesn’t see her sport struggling.

“I feel women’s golf is as strong as ever,” she said. “Obviously, we don’t have the high profiles as Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam but there are so many good players out there. And I believe that the top is wider, there are more players out there contending week after week than ever before.”

Anna Norqvist came away impressed with The Broadmoor, the course for next year’s U.S. Women’s Open. Photo by AP PHOTO