2 Colorado golf courses ranked among top 30 that have opened in the U.S. this century
By Gary Baines – 2/16/2026
Of all the golf courses currently operating in Colorado, roughly 20 percent opened in the 21st century.
But what an impressive group that is, taken collectively.
Among those courses are TPC Colorado, which has hosted a Korn Ferry Tour event since 2019; Colorado Golf Club, where a Senior PGA Championship, a Solheim Cup and a U.S. Mid-Amateur have been held; CommonGround, the CGA’s acclaimed home course; much-ballyhooed Ballyneal; Cornerstone Club; Green Valley Ranch, home of the Colorado Open championships for more than two decades; Ravenna; Redlands Mesa; Red Sky Golf Club; Cherry Creek Country Club and RainDance National.
And that just scratches the surface.
That’s why it caught our attention last week when Golf Digest celebrated the first quarter of the 21st century by publishing a story highlighting “The 50 greatest courses built since 2000” in the U.S.
We scrolled through the list with interest, both to see how many Colorado courses made the grade, and to note where other prominent newish courses were ranked.
Colorado-wise, what we found is that not only did two courses from the Centennial State make the top 50, but both were in the top 30. And one cracked the top five. Not too shabby.
First, we should note that Pacific Dunes, one of Tom Doak’s layouts at Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon, landed the top spot.
Ballyneal in Holyoke in northeastern Colorado, a Doak-designed course which ranks highly on so many “best of” lists, wasn’t far behind, in the No. 4 spot. Golf Digest, which rated Ballyneal 34th among its “America’s 100 Greatest Courses” list, had this to say about Ballyneal: “Along with No. 50 Shelter Harbor, Ballyneal is the only course built in the last 25 years that has risen in every ranking. We infamously awarded the course a 6th-place finish in the Best New Private course category in 2006, but its ultimate enshrinement among the greatest courses in the U.S. shows it’s never too late to get right.”
Not all is straightforward at Colorado Golf Club.
Meanwhile, Colorado Golf Club in Parker, the Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw layout which will host the U.S. Junior Amateur in 2030, was slotted in at No. 28. CGC, ranked No. 105 among “America’s Second 100 Greatest” courses, drew this from Golf Digest: “The holes at this Coore & Crenshaw design on Colorado’s Front Range southeast of Denver chug up and down foothill slopes, crossing through meadows and upland pine forests. It’s also been chugging up the ranking — does it have the power to crack the top 100” on the America’s Greatest list?
For the entire list of Golf Digest’s 50 greatest courses built since 2000, 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