Fossil Trace, Colorado Golf Club, Cornerstone, Castle Pines GC among Colorado courses that draw national accolades
By Gary Baines – 3/31/2025
Golf course rankings come out throughout the year, with publications such as Golf Digest, Golfweek, Golf.com and others rating some of the top layouts both in the U.S. and worldwide.
Already a few such rankings have been published in 2025, and if they’re any indication, it could be another year where Colorado courses are featured prominently on such lists.
Just last week, Golf Digest published author Ron Whitten’s “13 most fun golf courses in the U.S.”, and one from Colorado made the grade as Fossil Ridge Golf Club in Golden was slotted in No. 9 in the public-access-facility-only list, which features courses “fun primarily because of their architecture.”
Colorado Golf Hall of Famer “Jim Engh was the perfect architect to design Fossil Trace,” Golf Digest wrote. “His style, with recessed fairways and greens that twist, turn and funnel shots toward the center, dips beneath the urban landscape and places it out of view. What’s more, Engh’s emotional architecture aims to surprise and delight golfers. The back nine is one-of-a-kind—with the 11th through 15th playing beneath sandstone bluffs and rock monoliths, particularly on the 12th, where walls of fossils split the fairway and hide the green. Even the fishhook par-5 18th, all grass and water and no rock, is intriguing. Any time a course exceeds expectations, it’s a fun day of golf.’
And earlier this year, Golfweek published two of its course rankings, rating the best resort and residential courses in the country. On the residential course list, 10 out of the top 150 layouts were based in Colorado, including three of the top 20. And the resort rankings includes five Colorado courses in the top 200.
The par-3 second hole at Colorado Golf Club.
Cracking the top 20 on the residential-course ratings were Colorado Golf Club in Parker (sixth overall), host of the 2013 Solheim Cup, 2010 Senior PGA Championship and the 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur; and Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Rock (19th), home of the 2024 BMW Championship and 21 Internationals on the PGA Tour. In addition, Cornerstone Club near Montrose, a Greg Norman design which was closed for years before fully reopening in 2019, checks in at No. 12 on the rankings.
In the resort course rankings, leading the way for the Colorado contingent of courses was The Broadmoor’s East Course, which in late June will host the U.S. Senior Open for the third time. That course checked in at No. 76, according to Golfweek.
In each of these recent national rankings, here are the Colorado courses on each list, along with the No. 1-ranked layout overall in each case.
GOLF DIGEST’S “13 MOST FUN COURSES IN THE U.S.”
1. The Prairie Club (Dunes Course) in Valentine, Neb.
Colorado Course Ranked
9. Fossil Track Golf Club in Golden
For the complete list, CLICK HERE.
GOLFWEEK’S TOP 200 RESIDENTIAL COURSES IN THE U.S.
1. Wade Hampton Club in Cashiers, N.C.
Colorado Courses Ranked
6. Colorado Golf Club in Parker
12. Cornerstone in Montrose (new or returning to list)
19. Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Rock
78. Glacier Club’s Mountain Course in Durango
90. Frost Creek in Eagle
102. Flying Horse North in Colorado Springs
105. The Golf Club Redlands Mesa in Grand Junction
131. The Club at Ravenna in Littleton
141. Aspen Glen in Carbondale
143. Cherry Creek Country Club in Denver
For the complete list, CLICK HERE.
GOLFWEEK’S TOP 200 RESORT COURSES IN THE U.S.
1. Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, Calif.
Colorado Courses Ranked
76. The Broadmoor’s East Course in Colorado Springs
79. Red Sky’s Fazio Course in Wolcott
124. Red Sky’s Norman Course in Wolcott
148. RainDance National in Windsor
181. The Broadmoor’s West Course in Colorado Springs
For the complete list, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com