Courses
Best golf courses near Littleton, CO
Below, you’ll find a list of courses near Littleton, CO. There are 73 courses within a 15-mile radius of Littleton, 47 of which are public courses and 26 are private courses. There are 45 18-hole courses and 28 nine-hole layouts.
The above has been curated through Golf Digest’s Places to Play course database, where we have collected star ratings and reviews from our 1,900 course-ranking panelists. Join our community by signing up for Golf Digest+ and rate the courses you’ve visited recently.
![The Club At Ravenna](http://golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/GC%20at%20Ravenna%20Hole%203.JPG.rend.hgtvcom.406.271.suffix/1649276277526.jpeg)
Ravenna is terraced into the arid foothills of the Rocky Mountains southwest of Denver, so most of the holes run north/south, though several offer elevated tee shots with 20-mile views up and down the Front Range. The property, which includes upscale homes, is challenging and the course is basically unwalkable for most golfers, but the views and several gambling strategic holes like the short par-4 seventh and par-5 15th with a second shot that must either lay up or carry a lake, keep things intriguing. The one-shot holes stand out, with three that must fly over over wooded ravines, not an easy task in a market full of fun, exiting par 3s. Located just north of one of the Denver market's original must-see courses, Arrowhead, routed through 100-foot tall red rock outcroppings, Ravenna was one of the first the late architect Jay Morrish designed after going separate ways with his former partner, the late Tom Weiskopf.
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![Cherry Hills Country Club](http://golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/cherry-hills-eleventh-1258.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.406.305.suffix/1646273640786.jpeg)
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. Nearly 40 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.
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![Castle Pines Golf Club](http://golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/castle-pines-golf-club-colorado-1257-clubhouse.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.406.229.suffix/1724243458027.jpeg)
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.
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![Sanctuary Golf Club](http://golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2019/01/09/5c3577b3468c17579c7c7301_175%20-%20Sanctuary%20-%2010th%20hole%20-%20courtesy%20of%20Sanctuary%20.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.406.305.suffix/1573162846585.jpeg)
In the late 1990s, Sanctuary debuted as a counterpoint to what was then the latest fashion, the startlingly outrageous architecture of Mike Strantz. Coloradoan Jim Engh introduced his stylistic philosophy of incorporating Art Deco themes of parallel lines, sweeping curves and repetitive patterns in his bunker, fairway and green shapes. The comforting nature of his architectural style proved to be popular and soothing to many golf fans. But Sanctuary’s site itself is startling. The first tee shot drops 200 feet. Fairways twist and tumble down narrow valleys and over chasms. Enormous greens are protected not just by Engh’s squiggly bunkers but by giant transplanted pines. Sanctuary’s developers, Dave and Gail Liniger, founded the Re/Max real estate empire, but they insisted that Sanctuary have no homes that could disturb the tranquility of the course. It’s a Sanctuary indeed.
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![Colorado Golf Club](http://golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2019/01/06/5c327d73468c17579c7c7235_124%20-%20Colorado%20GC%201%20-%20Jon%20Cavalier.jpeg.rend.hgtvcom.406.271.suffix/1573162584826.jpeg)
The par-4 10th at Colorado Golf Club, playing downhill off the tee to a green hanging on a slope, with the Colorado Rockies in the far distance, has not a single bunker. Yet it sets the tone for what may well be Coore and Crenshaw’s finest example of how to massage a great golf course from topography that many would have considered ordinary. These designers made this stretch of Front Range southeast of Denver extraordinary. They ran fairways across sagebrush hills that are dotted with pines. They positioned greens on buttes and the far sides of barrancas. Colorado G.C. is a second-shot course where seemingly generous landing areas can result in awkward hanging lies for approach shots to greens that run left or right or even away from the direction of play. The massive par-5 fiirst is one of the most exciting first holes in a time zone known for exciting opening holes, and it's followed by a short cross-ravine par 3 benched into a hillside like its inspiration, the second at No. 23 Prairie Dunes. In 2019, the course hosted the USGA Mid-Amateur.
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![Denver Country Club](http://golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/placeholder-images/Placeholder_3.png.rend.hgtvcom.406.229.suffix/1652210514464.png)
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 this directlon. 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.
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![The Country Club At Castle Pines](http://golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/CC%20at%20Castle%20Pines.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.406.325.suffix/1651064040975.jpeg)
The Country Club At Castle Pines is one of the best courses in Colorado. Discover our experts reviews and tee time information
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![CommonGround Golf Course](http://golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/commonground-golf-club-third.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.406.305.suffix/1655346396159.jpeg)
Less than 10 miles east of downtown Denver, CommonGround is a public layout designed by Tom Doak. The course—home to the Colorado Golf Association—plays on relatively flat terrain, and many fairways are framed by tall native grasses, giving the track a links feel. The fairways are generous, but well-placed bunkers pinch the landing areas in at strategic places, making the course playable for the average player yet more challenging for the low handicap.
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![The Ridge at Castle Pines North](http://golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2016/07/15/5788f5218e96d52553f22337_Denver-guide-The-Ridge-at-Castle-Pines-North-hole-12.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.406.229.suffix/1573404367392.jpeg)
From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten:It was once said, probably first about California's Monterey Peninsula, that great golf courses breed great golf courses. That's certainly true of the foothills of the Rockies a half hour south of Denver, where The Ridge at Castle Pines North sits almost immediately next door to Sanctuary Golf Club and just to the north of The Country Club at Castle Pines, which in turn is bordered on its south by famed Castle Pines Golf Club.The Ridge, the only one of the four courses actually located in the town of Castle Pines (the others are in Castle Rock), is the only one of the four open for public play. (According to the city website, The Ridge is municipally owned, but privately managed by Troon Golf.)I'm not saying The Ridge is as great a golf course as Sanctuary or Castle Pines, both of which have resided on Golf Digest's list of America's 100 Greatest, or even quite as good as the Country Club at Castle Pines, one of Jack Nicklaus' relatively hidden gems. The Ridge at Castle Pines has far too many panoramic views of rooftops and power poles to make it a great course, in my opinion, but architecturally its Tom Weiskopf design, a residential layout that loops along pine-dotted foothill ridges and across rocky foothill slopes, does provide playing qualities very similar to those experienced at the three private neighboring clubs.There is great change of pace in The Ridge. For every green that's accessible by a bouncing shot, such as the perched green on the 461-yard par-4 third, there’s a green completely surrounded by bunkers, such as at the 165-yard fourth, which demands a high soft shot. The sixth, playing uphill at 307 yards, is Weiskopf's drivable par 4 here, with a diagonal string of bunkers and high rough short of the green requiring a long carry through the thin air to reach the putting surface off the tee. The long par-5 11th has three cross bunkers in the center of the fairway over the last 150 yards leading to the green, but at least the approach is downhill. Meanwhile, the short par-4 15th has a tall Ponderosa pine in the middle of its fairway, a feature also found at Sanctuary and Castle Pines.The Ridge's final holes give us the best feel of the Rocky Mountains. The green of the 175-yard 17th sits beneath a large sandstone outcropping, and the tee boxes of the 390-yard 18th are positioned atop that stone tower. The last hole plays uphill to a green tucked well below the clubhouse level, just as found on the closing holes at both Sanctuary and the Country Club at Castle Pines.The view from The Ridge's 18th green, looking back down the fairway, is the best vista on the course. It looks southwest toward the Rocky Mountain range, with hardly a rooftop or a power pole anywhere in view.
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![Fossil Trace Golf Club](http://golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/fossil-trace-colorado-19132.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.406.203.suffix/1697896436640.jpeg)
Driving up, this public course in the center of Golden, Colo., seems to hold little promise. The locale is a hodgepodge of urban blight, with remains of a 19th-century clay pit mine edged by a high school, juvenile detention center, water park and fast-food joints. Which is why Jim Engh was the perfect architect to design Fossil Trace. 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.
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