The oldest par-3 course in Colorado is Emerald Greens Golf Club, opened in 1965 — one of 12 par-3 courses in the state.
Ranked against Colorado's other par-3 courses, not against its regulation golf. Each list counts only the courses that publish that figure, so the totals differ between them. Slope and course rating measure difficulty, not quality.
Oldest
— all 12 courses with an opening year
| # | Course | Oldest |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emerald Greens Golf Club | opened 1965 |
| 2 | Southglenn Country Club | opened 1966 |
| 3 | J F Kennedy Golf Center Par 3 Course | opened 1967 |
| 4 | Foothills Golf Course Par 3 Course | opened 1971 |
| 5 | Greenway Park Golf Course | opened 1973 |
| 5 | Ranch at Roaring Fork Golf Course | opened 1973 |
| 7 | Willow Creek Golf Club at Eagle Vail | opened 1975 |
| 8 | Harvard Gulch Golf Course | opened 1982 |
| 9 | Centre Hills Golf Course | opened 1990 |
| 10 | Cattail Creek Golf Course | opened 1991 |
| 11 | Short at Cordillera Golf Course | opened 1997 |
| 12 | Commonground Golf Course Junior Par 3 Course | opened 2009 |
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 12 courses with a coordinate we could sample
| # | Course | Highest above sea level |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Short at Cordillera Golf Course | 8,075 ft |
| 2 | Willow Creek Golf Club at Eagle Vail | 7,643 ft |
| 3 | Ranch at Roaring Fork Golf Course | 6,247 ft |
| 4 | Southglenn Country Club | 5,593 ft |
| 5 | Foothills Golf Course Par 3 Course | 5,525 ft |
| 6 | J F Kennedy Golf Center Par 3 Course | 5,497 ft |
| 7 | Commonground Golf Course Junior Par 3 Course | 5,454 ft |
| 8 | Emerald Greens Golf Club | 5,448 ft |
| 9 | Centre Hills Golf Course | 5,447 ft |
| 10 | Greenway Park Golf Course | 5,378 ft |
| 11 | Harvard Gulch Golf Course | 5,322 ft |
| 12 | Cattail Creek Golf Course | 5,055 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.
How long a par-3 hole actually plays
Every hole on the 12 published par-3 scorecards in Colorado, in 25-yard bands. One tee set per course — the longest that publishes a card — so a course with six rated sets counts once rather than six times.
| Hole length (yards) | Holes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25–49 | 4 | 3.7% | |
| 50–74 | 19 | 17.6% | |
| 75–99 | 11 | 10.2% | |
| 100–124 | 22 | 20.4% | |
| 125–149 | 24 | 22.2% | |
| 150–174 | 19 | 17.6% | |
| 175–199 | 4 | 3.7% | |
| 200–224 | 5 | 4.6% |