Best golf courses near Castle Rock, CO

When Golf Digest began its annual Best New Course awards in 1983, the review panel selected Castle Pines as the Private Course winner, but Bill Davis, co-founder of Golf Digest and founding father of all its course rankings, didn’t care for the course and vetoed its inclusion. So no private course was honored that year. Davis soon recognized his error, and in 1987—its first year of eligibility—Castle Pines joined America’s 100 Greatest and has remained there ever since. Club founder Jack Vickers, a Midwest oilman, had urged architect Jack Nicklaus to produce a mountain-venue design worthy of a major championship. Jack did, but when a championship never resulted, Vickers established his own, The International, which for many years was the only PGA Tour event played under a unique Stableford format. It’s a pity that The International is no longer on the Tour’s schedule. Like Muirfield Village, the only other solo Nicklaus design in the top 50, Castle Pines has undergone a steady procession of hole alterations to keep pace with changing technology, and changing tastes.

The Country Club At Castle Pines is one of the best courses in Colorado. Discover our experts reviews and tee time information

From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten:It was once said, probably first about California's Monterey Peninsula, that great golf courses breed great golf courses. That's certainly true of the foothills of the Rockies a half hour south of Denver, where The Ridge at Castle Pines North sits almost immediately next door to Sanctuary Golf Club and just to the north of The Country Club at Castle Pines, which in turn is bordered on its south by famed Castle Pines Golf Club.The Ridge, the only one of the four courses actually located in the town of Castle Pines (the others are in Castle Rock), is the only one of the four open for public play. (According to the city website, The Ridge is municipally owned, but privately managed by Troon Golf.)I'm not saying The Ridge is as great a golf course as Sanctuary or Castle Pines, both of which have resided on Golf Digest's list of America's 100 Greatest, or even quite as good as the Country Club at Castle Pines, one of Jack Nicklaus' relatively hidden gems. The Ridge at Castle Pines has far too many panoramic views of rooftops and power poles to make it a great course, in my opinion, but architecturally its Tom Weiskopf design, a residential layout that loops along pine-dotted foothill ridges and across rocky foothill slopes, does provide playing qualities very similar to those experienced at the three private neighboring clubs.There is great change of pace in The Ridge. For every green that's accessible by a bouncing shot, such as the perched green on the 461-yard par-4 third, there’s a green completely surrounded by bunkers, such as at the 165-yard fourth, which demands a high soft shot. The sixth, playing uphill at 307 yards, is Weiskopf's drivable par 4 here, with a diagonal string of bunkers and high rough short of the green requiring a long carry through the thin air to reach the putting surface off the tee. The long par-5 11th has three cross bunkers in the center of the fairway over the last 150 yards leading to the green, but at least the approach is downhill. Meanwhile, the short par-4 15th has a tall Ponderosa pine in the middle of its fairway, a feature also found at Sanctuary and Castle Pines.The Ridge's final holes give us the best feel of the Rocky Mountains. The green of the 175-yard 17th sits beneath a large sandstone outcropping, and the tee boxes of the 390-yard 18th are positioned atop that stone tower. The last hole plays uphill to a green tucked well below the clubhouse level, just as found on the closing holes at both Sanctuary and the Country Club at Castle Pines.The view from The Ridge's 18th green, looking back down the fairway, is the best vista on the course. It looks southwest toward the Rocky Mountain range, with hardly a rooftop or a power pole anywhere in view.

The par-4 10th at Colorado Golf Club, playing downhill off the tee to a green hanging on a slope, with the Colorado Rockies in the far distance, has not a single bunker. Yet it sets the tone for what may well be Coore and Crenshaw’s finest example of how to massage a great golf course from topography that many would have considered ordinary. These designers made this stretch of Front Range southeast of Denver extraordinary. They ran fairways across sagebrush hills that are dotted with pines. They positioned greens on buttes and the far sides of barrancas. Colorado G.C. is a second-shot course where seemingly generous landing areas can result in awkward hanging lies for approach shots to greens that run left or right or even away from the direction of play. The massive par-5 fiirst is one of the most exciting first holes in a time zone known for exciting opening holes, and it's followed by a short cross-ravine par 3 benched into a hillside like its inspiration, the second at No. 23 Prairie Dunes. In 2019, the course hosted the USGA Mid-Amateur.

In the late 1990s, Sanctuary debuted as a counterpoint to what was then the latest fashion, the startlingly outrageous architecture of Mike Strantz. Coloradoan Jim Engh introduced his stylistic philosophy of incorporating Art Deco themes of parallel lines, sweeping curves and repetitive patterns in his bunker, fairway and green shapes. The comforting nature of his architectural style proved to be popular and soothing to many golf fans. But Sanctuary’s site itself is startling. The first tee shot drops 200 feet. Fairways twist and tumble down narrow valleys and over chasms. Enormous greens are protected not just by Engh’s squiggly bunkers but by giant transplanted pines. Sanctuary’s developers, Dave and Gail Liniger, founded the Re/Max real estate empire, but they insisted that Sanctuary have no homes that could disturb the tranquility of the course. It’s a Sanctuary indeed.

Ravenna is terraced into the arid foothills of the Rocky Mountains southwest of Denver, so most of the holes run north/south, though several offer elevated tee shots with 20-mile views up and down the Front Range. The property, which includes upscale homes, is challenging and the course is basically unwalkable for most golfers, but the views and several gambling strategic holes like the short par-4 seventh and par-5 15th with a second shot that must either lay up or carry a lake, keep things intriguing. The one-shot holes stand out, with three that must fly over over wooded ravines, not an easy task in a market full of fun, exiting par 3s. Located just north of one of the Denver market's original must-see courses, Arrowhead, routed through 100-foot tall red rock outcroppings, Ravenna was one of the first the late architect Jay Morrish designed after going separate ways with his former partner, the late Tom Weiskopf.

Situated between Denver and Colorado Springs, Bear Dance plays over 753 acres of mountainous terrain. The course has a tranquil setting, with wide fairways lined with tall Ponderosa pines and the occasional creek and ravine. There is some elevation change, including at the signature par-4 16th, which from the tee offers a picturesque view of Pikes Peak in the distance.