The toughest course in the Edwards, CO area is Summit at Cordillera Summit Course, at slope 149 — ahead of Red Sky Golf Club Norman Course at slope 147 and Country Club of the Rockies at slope 145.
All 14 courses in the area with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees are ranked below, along with 5 more lists: hardest from the tips, longest, widest tee spread, oldest, highest above sea level.
Edwards, CO is a micropolitan area as the U.S. Office of Management and Budget delineates it — the boundary is theirs, not ours. Each list counts only the courses in the area that publish that figure, so the totals differ between them. Slope and course rating measure difficulty, not quality — nothing here ranks how good a course is.
Toughest test
— all 14 courses with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees
| # | Course | Toughest test |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Summit at Cordillera Summit Course | slope 149 |
| 2 | Red Sky Golf Club Norman Course | slope 147 |
| 3 | Country Club of the Rockies | slope 145 |
| 4 | Beaver Creek Golf Club | slope 144 |
| 4 | Valley at Cordillera Golf Course | slope 144 |
| 6 | Sonnenalp Resort of Vail | slope 142 |
| 7 | Red Sky Golf Club Fazio Course | slope 141 |
| 8 | Vail Golf Club | slope 139 |
| 9 | Roaring Fork Club | slope 138 |
| 10 | Eagle Ranch Golf Club | slope 137 |
| 11 | Eagle Springs Golf Club | slope 136 |
| 12 | Eaglevail Golf Club | slope 135 |
| 13 | Willow Creek Golf Club at Eagle Vail | slope 89 |
| 14 | Short at Cordillera Golf Course | slope 88 |
The highest USGA slope rating published for any of the men’s tee sets. Slope rates difficulty for a bogey golfer relative to a scratch golfer — a rated figure issued by the golf association, not an opinion about the course. Men’s ratings only, because a tee is rated separately for men and for women and the two scales do not compare; a course rated only for women is not in the running rather than converted.
Hardest from the tips
— all 12 courses with a USGA course rating for its men’s tees
| # | Course | Hardest from the tips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Country Club of the Rockies | rating 75.1 |
| 2 | Summit at Cordillera Summit Course | rating 74.7 |
| 3 | Red Sky Golf Club Norman Course | rating 74.6 |
| 4 | Eagle Ranch Golf Club | rating 74.1 |
| 5 | Sonnenalp Resort of Vail | rating 73.8 |
| 6 | Eagle Springs Golf Club | rating 73.5 |
| 7 | Roaring Fork Club | rating 72.8 |
| 7 | Valley at Cordillera Golf Course | rating 72.8 |
| 9 | Red Sky Golf Club Fazio Course | rating 72.3 |
| 10 | Beaver Creek Golf Club | rating 72.0 |
| 11 | Vail Golf Club | rating 71.9 |
| 12 | Eaglevail Golf Club | rating 70.5 |
The highest USGA course rating published for any of the men’s tee sets — the score a scratch golfer is expected to shoot. Men’s ratings only, for the same reason as slope: the men’s and women’s ratings of one tee are different measurements. It measures difficulty and nothing else; it is not a quality score and never orders these pages by how good a course is.
Longest
— all 13 courses with a published scorecard
| # | Course | Longest |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Summit at Cordillera Summit Course | 7,518 yds |
| 2 | Red Sky Golf Club Norman Course | 7,480 yds |
| 3 | Eagle Ranch Golf Club | 7,461 yds |
| 4 | Country Club of the Rockies | 7,402 yds |
| 5 | Roaring Fork Club | 7,130 yds |
| 6 | Red Sky Golf Club Fazio Course | 7,116 yds |
| 7 | Sonnenalp Resort of Vail | 7,074 yds |
| 8 | Eagle Springs Golf Club | 7,058 yds |
| 9 | Valley at Cordillera Golf Course | 7,046 yds |
| 10 | Vail Golf Club | 6,766 yds |
| 11 | Beaver Creek Golf Club | 6,642 yds |
| 12 | Eaglevail Golf Club | 6,538 yds |
| 13 | Short at Cordillera Golf Course | 1,252 yds |
The longest tee set the course publishes, in yards from the tips. Compared against every course that publishes a scorecard — length is a measurement, not a verdict on the golf.
Widest tee spread
— all 13 courses with two or more tee sets of different lengths
| # | Course | Widest tee spread |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sonnenalp Resort of Vail | 3,274 yds between tees |
| 2 | Vail Golf Club | 2,884 yds between tees |
| 3 | Red Sky Golf Club Norman Course | 2,558 yds between tees |
| 4 | Summit at Cordillera Summit Course | 2,432 yds between tees |
| 5 | Eagle Ranch Golf Club | 2,429 yds between tees |
| 6 | Valley at Cordillera Golf Course | 2,215 yds between tees |
| 7 | Red Sky Golf Club Fazio Course | 2,207 yds between tees |
| 8 | Beaver Creek Golf Club | 2,115 yds between tees |
| 9 | Country Club of the Rockies | 2,033 yds between tees |
| 10 | Eagle Springs Golf Club | 2,009 yds between tees |
| 11 | Roaring Fork Club | 1,875 yds between tees |
| 12 | Eaglevail Golf Club | 1,799 yds between tees |
| 13 | Short at Cordillera Golf Course | 202 yds between tees |
Yards between the longest and shortest published tee sets — how far the course moves to fit a different player. Courses publishing a single tee set are not in the running, because one set is an unmeasured spread rather than a narrow one.
Oldest
— all 14 courses with an opening year
| # | Course | Oldest |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vail Golf Club | opened 1962 |
| 2 | Eaglevail Golf Club | opened 1974 |
| 3 | Willow Creek Golf Club at Eagle Vail | opened 1975 |
| 4 | Sonnenalp Resort of Vail | opened 1980 |
| 5 | Beaver Creek Golf Club | opened 1982 |
| 6 | Country Club of the Rockies | opened 1984 |
| 7 | Eagle Springs Golf Club | opened 1995 |
| 8 | Short at Cordillera Golf Course | opened 1997 |
| 8 | Valley at Cordillera Golf Course | opened 1997 |
| 10 | Roaring Fork Club | opened 1999 |
| 11 | Eagle Ranch Golf Club | opened 2001 |
| 11 | Summit at Cordillera Summit Course | opened 2001 |
| 13 | Red Sky Golf Club Fazio Course | opened 2002 |
| 14 | Red Sky Golf Club Norman Course | opened 2003 |
The year the course opened, as published. Ranked oldest first. An opening year is not a design credit and not a renovation date — a course that opened in 1921 and was rebuilt in 1998 still opened in 1921.
Highest above sea level
— all 14 courses with a coordinate we could sample
| # | Course | Highest above sea level |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Summit at Cordillera Summit Course | 9,023 ft |
| 2 | Vail Golf Club | 8,233 ft |
| 3 | Sonnenalp Resort of Vail | 8,156 ft |
| 4 | Short at Cordillera Golf Course | 8,075 ft |
| 5 | Beaver Creek Golf Club | 7,980 ft |
| 6 | Eaglevail Golf Club | 7,706 ft |
| 7 | Red Sky Golf Club Fazio Course | 7,657 ft |
| 7 | Red Sky Golf Club Norman Course | 7,657 ft |
| 9 | Willow Creek Golf Club at Eagle Vail | 7,643 ft |
| 10 | Valley at Cordillera Golf Course | 7,398 ft |
| 11 | Country Club of the Rockies | 7,379 ft |
| 12 | Eagle Springs Golf Club | 7,037 ft |
| 13 | Roaring Fork Club | 6,670 ft |
| 14 | Eagle Ranch Golf Club | 6,664 ft |
Height above sea level at the course’s own published coordinate, sampled from the USGS 3DEP elevation model. THIS IS A FIGURE WE DERIVED, not one the course publishes — anybody can re-query the same public dataset at the same coordinate and get the same number, but no scorecard states it. Because every course carries a coordinate, this is the only board here whose field is nearly the whole database rather than the courses that publish a particular figure. Elevation changes how far a ball carries; it says nothing about whether a course is good.