As part of GOLF’s rigorous ratings process for our newly released Top 100 Courses in the U.S. and Top 100 Courses You Can Play rankings, our fleet of 100-plus expert panelists identified the best golf courses in every state.
You can check out the links below to browse all of our course rankings, or scroll down to see the best courses in Colorado. And if you’re looking to create your own trip in the future, you’d be wise to let GOLF’s new Course Finder tool assist you. Here, you can toggle all of our lists — Top 100 public, best munis, best short courses, best par-3s and more — or filter by price to create the perfect itinerary for your next trip.
GOLF’s other course rankings: Top 100 Courses in the World | Top 100 Courses in the U.S. | Top 100 Courses You Can Play | Top 100 Value Courses in the U.S. | America’s Best Municipal Courses | The 100 Best Short Courses in the World
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The best golf courses in Colorado (2024/2025)
SYMBOL GUIDE
# = Top 100 Course in the U.S.
Y = Top 100 You Can Play in the U.S.
V = Top 100 Value Course in the U.S.
P = Public/Resort
Ed. note: Some courses were omitted from our rankings because they did not receive enough votes.
1. Ballyneal (Holyoke) [#]
Founding a private club in a remote destination is not without peril and it is reasonable to expect a club to take some time to find its footing. Now deep into its second decade, Ballyneal enjoys its finest playing conditions since opening. Fescue fairways help the ground-game options flourish as balls release across the rumpled ground. Often on a Tom Doak course, the best way to get a ball close to the hole requires both imagination and creativity. That’s true in spades here as players delight in finding creative ways to use banks and punchbowl features on such holes as at the one-shot 3rd, the drivable 7th and the bruising 15th.
2. Cherry Hills (Cherry Hills Village) [#]
While much of William Flynn’s work is clustered around Philadelphia, this design stands out as one of the few he did west of the Mississippi River. When it opened in the early 1920s, Cherry Hills was a ground-breaking design that featured America’s first par-5 island green. After a decade-plus-long restoration with Renaissance Golf Design’s Eric Iverson, the course once again showcases Flynn’s penchant for well-placed hazards and subtly crafted greens that demand that you stay below the hole. Its finishing stretch makes expert use of a lake as well as a creek that winds through the property. Standout holes include its 14th, 17th (featuring newly restored cross bunkers at two different junctures) and its famous 18th where you have to flirt with the lake to enjoy a level stance for your long, uphill approach. However, for pure charm, the stretch of the par 5 5th, par 3 6th and par 4 7th are hard to beat and deserves to be better known.
3. Colorado GC (Parker)
4. Castle Pines (Castle Rock)
5. Broadmoor – East (Colorado Springs) [Y]
A mashup of the original Donald Ross design and work done by Robert Trent Jones, Broadmoor’s East course has serious pedigree; when it opened in 1918, it was the highest-elevation course in the nation. The East has been a USGA championship host mainstay, and for good reason: The pinched fairways and fast greens have always bred noteworthy champions. Jack Nicklaus won the 1959 U.S. Amateur here, and the course also was the site of Annika Sörenstam’s first U.S. Women’s Open win, in 1995. The East course will crown another national champion in 2025, when it plays host to the U.S. Senior Open. The property also houses the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame.
6. CommonGround (Aurora) [V, P]
7. Bear Dance (Larkspur) [P]
8. Sanctuary (Sedalia)
9. Riverdale Dunes (Brighton) [V, P]
10. Frost Creek (Eagle)
How we rank our courses
For our newly released Top 100 U.S. and Top 100 You Can Play lists — a process that helped us create 50 best-in-state rankings — each panelist was provided a ballot that consisted of 609 courses. Beside the list of courses were 11 “buckets,” or groupings. If our panelists considered a course to be among the top three in the U.S., they ticked that first column. If they believed the course to be among Nos. 4-10, they checked that column, followed by 11-25, 26-50, and so on out to 250+ and even a column for “remove.” Panelists were also free to write in courses that they felt should have been included on the ballot.
Points were assigned to each bucket; to arrive at an average score for each course, we divide its aggregate score by the number of votes. From those point tallies, the courses are then ranked accordingly. It is an intentionally simple and straightforward process. Why? Because it historically has produced results that are widely lauded. Like the game itself, there’s no need to unnecessarily complicate things or try to fix something that already works so well.
The key to the process is the experience and expertise of our panel. Hailing from 15 nations and all the worldwide golf meccas, each of our 127 handpicked panelists has a keen eye for architecture, both regionally and globally. Many of our panelists have played more than 1,000 courses in 20-plus countries, some over 2,000. Their handicaps range from +5 to 15.
Because the nature of course rating is so intensely subjective, no one opinion carries the day. The only way, then, to build meaningful consensus is to incorporate this diversity of panelists and experiences into one ranking.
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