Castle Pines Golf Club

Castle Rock, CO Private

Overview

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.

About

Holes 18
Length 7701
Slope 148
Facility Type Private
Year Opened 1981
Designer Jack Nicklaus

Awards

100 Greatest
Best Courses in Every State

Ranking history:

100 Greatest: Ranked since 1987.
2023-'24 ranking: 46th.
Previous ranking: 48th.
Highest ranking: 28th, 2009-'10.

Best in State: Ranked first, 1987-'91, 2005-'18. Ranked second, 2019-'24. Ranked inside the top 5 since 1983.

Current ranking: Second.

Panelists

Ratings from our panel of 1,900 course-ranking panelists

4.6

100 GREATEST/BEST IN STATE SCORES

Shot Options
7.6948
Character
7.8583
Challenge
7.7364
Layout Variety
7.6752
Fun
7.4844
Aesthetics
7.9909
Conditioning
7.7264

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