Arrowhead Golf Club

Arrowhead Golf Club sits in Roxborough State Park south of Denver, where 300-million-year-old red sandstone formations, the same geologic family as Red Rocks Amphitheatre a few miles north, break through the landscape and frame nearly every hole. Robert Trent Jones Jr. opened the course in 1972 and routed it to expose those rock walls as often as possible; the stretch from holes 3-6 and again on 10-14 plays directly alongside the formations, with sandstone spires visible from tees and greens. At 6,636 yards and par 70, Arrowhead isn't long for a modern championship course, but Jones Jr. used elevation, bunker scale, and firm greens to keep it honest. The 10th is the photographer's hole, a downhill par-4 that presents a horizon full of the same jagged formations pointed toward the mountains beyond. Fast greens and big bunkers throughout hold up to every handicap. Arrowhead is regularly voted the #1 public course in the Denver area and appears on Golf Digest's Top 75 Public Courses list. For a Denver golf trip, it's the first round to book, the scenery alone puts it on most first-timer bucket lists.