Five Colorado Gems Among Top 100 U.S. Residential Courses

Golfweek ranks Colorado Golf Club, Castle Pines Golf Club, Glacier, Redlands Mesa and Ravenna among best residential courses in the country.
By Jon Rizzi

While many golf purists scorn the presence of homes along the fairways, golf courses and residential real estate have been joined at the dogleg since the early 1900s, when residential courses like Pinehurst, The Breakers and Pebble Beach emerged as the centerpieces of exclusive communities.

Colorado is no different. With golf courses a proven way to sell premium real estate, home-free courses such as Ballyneal, Fox Hollow, CommonGround and Haymaker have become the exceptions rather than the rule.

Instead of eschewing residential golf courses, every year Golfweek magazine embraces them, ranking the top 100 based on evaluations of more than 3,600 courses by more than 850 raters.

The 100-course list includes 31 layouts—including the No. 1-ranked Wade Hampton Club in Cashiers, N.C—designed by Tom Fazio, by far the most prolific residential course architect working today. Interestingly, Fazio’s only Colorado courses, Red Sky Golf Club in Wolcott and Maroon Creek in Aspen, did not appear on the list.

However, Castle Pines Golf Club, designed by Jack Nicklaus (the runner-up with 13 courses), finished ninth.

Here’s how Colorado’s residential golf communities stacked up:

4. Colorado Golf Club. The Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw layout, which staged the 2010 Senior PGA and 2013 Solheim Cup, will also host the 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship. Situated on 1,700 wooded acres southeast of Parker and Stroh roads, the gated community enjoys 1,000 acres dedicated to golf and preserved open space with an extensive trail network, linking homes to the clubhouse and other facilities.

9. Castle Pines Golf Club. The Nicklaus-designed home of The International, a PGA Tour event for more than 20 years, lies within in the gates of the exclusive Castle Pines Village community of 3,500.  The Country Club at Castle Pines, the village’s second Nicklaus course, perches above the Golf Club, just five minutes away.

23. Glacier Club. Located on 1,000 spectacular acres north of the historic Four Corners town of Durango, Glacier recently opened a Hale Irwin/Todd Schoeder-designed Mountain Course to complement its Valley Course layout by Arthur Hills. Seclusion amid the rugged cliffs and pines and easy access to Purgatory Ski Resort add to this private, gated community’s appeal.

54. The Golf Club at Redlands Mesa.  The only public Colorado course to make the list, Grand Junction’s Jim Engh-designed masterpiece anchors a 500-acre luxury community tucked into the dramatic geology five minutes from downtown. Homesites range in size from 1/5 acre to 2.39 acre and start at $80,000. Homes cost between $285,000 and $2 million.

63. The Club at Ravenna.  Nestled among the ravines, red rock formations and wooded slopes near Waterton Canyon and Pike National Forest, the last course designed by the late Jay Morrish highlights a 634-acre gated enclave of Mediterranean-style manses. Residential building continues at a brisk pace, as does the club’s construction of a fitness center with a “sunset terrace.”

Golfweek‘s complete list of top residential courses appears here.