Best golf courses near Denver, CO

Denver Country Club mirrors the experience of many urban courses. When the club moved to its current location in 1905, the property was rural prairie on the outskirts south of what is now downtown Denver. The presence of the country club added prestige to this nascent suburb and influenced the decision of the moneyed class to move in this direction. As the city expanded, it consumed the area surrounding the club and course, and today, located in the heart of Cherry Hills Village, it is enclosed by expensive homes, high rises, shops and restaurants. The course has been tinkered with relentlessly through the decades as the club was never quite settled on how the design, hazards and issues with Cherry Creek, running through the middle of the course, should be handled. It seems to have found some relative peace under the ongoing consultation of Gil Hanse and his team, who have helped dial in the bunkering and course conditions, especially following a comprehensive 2012 renovation, though tree clearing and other adjustments continue. These include the construction of new green complexes at the par-3 7th and lengthened par-3 17th in 2020. There's a lot of golf packed into a small footprint here with the creek coming into play on a third of the holes, and Denver Country Club seems to have found the design recipe to match its priceless setting.

Cherry Creek Country Club is one of the best courses in Colorado. Discover our experts' reviews and tee time information

Bear Creek Golf Club is the 17th ranked golf course in Colorado.

A classic tree-lined parkland layout, Wellshire is one of few Donald Ross designs west of the Mississippi. This Denver muny hosted the U.S. Amateur Public Links in 1946 and 1959.

When Cherry Hills opened in the early 1920s, it was a ground-breaking design, with the nation’s first par-5 island green and closing back-to-back par 5s, although in championships, the 18th is played as a par 4. In the 1960 U.S. Open, winner Arnold Palmer popularized the idea of a drivable par-4 by going for the first green in every round. Curiously, when Palmer and partner Ed Seay remodeled Cherry Hills in 1976, they lengthened the first hole so no player could duplicate Arnie’s feat. Almost 50 years later, modern equipment has once again made the first hole reachable from the tee. A decade's worth of renovation and individual feature restoration by Tom Doak and Eric Iverson of Renaissance Golf have primed Cherry Hills for the next phase of its illustrious tournament history, which began with the 2023 U.S. Amateur.

Perry Dye, the eldest son of Pete and Alice Dye, worked alongside his father in designing Riverdale’s Dunes course. Host of the 1993 U.S. Amateur Public Links, the Dunes course is expansive and open, but in typical Dye fashion, numerous pot bunkers, mounds and ponds lurk to punish wayward shots.

This Aurora muny is a former host of the Colorado Open and has hosted numerous other statewide amateur and professional events. The course has a good amount of elevation change and presents some forced carries over thick native grasses. Back in 1998, we ranked Saddle Rock as one of the Best New Affordable Public Courses in the country. Today, with rates under $50, the quality public track remains a great value.