From personal experience, the greens are so confounding because of the mountain that putts that appear to break one way will actually break sharply the other way. You have to factor in the mountain on every putt.
Did they mention the carillon in that monument? It is beautiful hearing the chimes while playing the Broadmoor, a truly lovely place.
The green surfaces themselves are among the slickest I've ever seen, and that was on a routine week day, not during a USGA event. 
I was there for the opening round on Thursday. I've played the East Course several times over many years, and I was very curious to see how the best senior players handled the greens and the course in general. A few observations:
--The greens are indeed confounding, and truly are next to impossible to read due to the mountain break/Shrine effect etc. The most difficult greens I've played (I haven't played Augsuta or Pinehurst #2...). It is a total guessing game except for putts straight uphill. The day I was there, however, I thought the players handled the greens quite well. I saw a number of putts made, and there were some low scores that day. I also thought the USGA actually slowed the greens down from regular play on the East Course, though the afternoon players experienced somewhat faster and tougher conditions due to the drying effect of the wind. The next day (some of which I watched on TV), the USGA had tougher pins in place and there appeared to be more struggles (eg with the front left hole location on the par 3 8th and on the par 5 9th). I didn't see what happened on the weekend. If I were in an event there, I would find the most experienced member I could and put him on my bag.
--The course played much shorter than when I have played it. The USGA set the course up to provide 40-50 yards of roll. 320+ yard drives were commonplace. So 7.400 yards played well below 7,000 given the altitude and the roll. When I've played the course the fairways have been much softer. I'd also say that these guys hit the ball pretty long as a group despite their advancing age.
--The rough was much shorter than I expected. It looked like the USGA had it mowed to about 2 inches. I saw a number of shots played from the rough on Thursday and the rough didn't affect shots too much.
--Bill, the Will Rogers Shrine carillon would be great if it rang once an hour, but it rings every 15 minutes and gets a bit annoying when you're out there watching golf for 8 hours. It was particularly annoying to some of the players when it rang mid-stroke or at address. I was a little surprised the USGA didn't have it turned off.
--The USGA does a great job with these championships from a spectator's standpoint. Very well organized and very viewer friendly.