Colorado, save for the Great Plains east of Denver and Colorado Springs, is the Rocky Mountains and home to more peaks of 14,000 feet or higher than any other state. It's crisscrossed by the Colorado, Rio Grande, South Platte, and Arkansas Rivers where the lowest point is 3,315 feet above sea level. The best public golf courses in Colorado are in two distinct flavors either over comparatively level topography around the Denver and Colorado Springs areas in the east or those dominated by their environs in the mountains, forests, and canyons of the mountainous west.

The best public golf courses in Denver and Colorado Springs are courses like Fossil Trace, Murphy Creek, and The Broadmoor in the Denver and Colorado Springs areas respectively. The Rocky Mountains highlight the best golf resorts in Colorado with Red Sky Ranch near Vail, Lakota Canyon near Glenwood Springs, Breckenridge and Raven at Three Peaks, and Haymaker in Steamboat Springs among many notable others found in this map and guide.