Great Golf Courses At 14 Ski Resorts For A Perfect Summer Escape

Summer officially began at 4:24 EDT this morning and today will feature the longest daylight of the year. That means we are about as far away from ski season as we can get, but there is still a great reason to pack your bags and head to a ski resort—for golf. Many North American ski resorts have excellent golf, and it tends to be in gorgeous, natural mountain settings with epic scenery. But there are several other reasons to consider visiting one of the best golf courses at a ski resort, including surprisingly great values.

Great Golf Courses At U.S. Ski Resorts

Why Ski Resort Golf?

Nature, scenery and natural beauty are a big part of the equation. But the real secret is that unlike standalone golf courses or resorts that need to squeeze every last dollar out of guests to stay in business, golf at ski resorts is usually ancillary to the core business, helps them subsidize year round staff and overhead, and in many cases is a relative bargain for its quality.

Lodging at ski resorts is also off-season in summer, meaning sometimes hefty discounts versus many non-ski golf resorts where summer is high season. There are almost always a variety of restaurants onsite and lots of extracurricular activities, from mountain biking and hiking to fly fishing and world-class tennis to scenic gondola and chairlift rides, and in one memorable case, a unique aerial “skybridge” attraction. Some of the bigger resorts even have dedicated golf schools and academies.

"Some of my favorite resort golf in America is found at ski resorts,” leading golf travel expert Jason Scott Deegan told me. Deegan, longtime managing editor of GolfPass.com and before that, for NBC’s Golf Channel digital, has played more than 1,200 courses in 28 countries. “The hills and mountains of Colorado, northern Michigan and the area surrounding Lake Tahoe in California are some of the country's most beautiful places. Playing golf in these types of environments amplifies the experience."

Why Not Ski Resort Golf?

There are two caveats: First, some places are golf resorts with skiing rather than ski resorts with golf, skewing more summer centric, and at these the value proposition no longer comes into play, since summer remains peak season. Still, a couple of these spots, like Nemacolin Resort, Red Sky Ranch and Crystal Springs, made my list anyway because the golf and resort amenities are so great.

But the biggest problem that keeps almost all the biggest and most famous names in American ski resorts off this list is the often low quality of “afterthought” courses. In many cases, especially in the 1980s, as the focus of the ski business transitioned from selling lift tickets to selling real estate, big resorts realized that they “had to” have golf to stay relevant outside ski season. Because golf was a later addition to many ski resorts, and considered a mere amenity, many mountain courses are poorly designed or on ill-chosen sites, especially those that run across the slopes rather than up, down or in valleys. This tends to produce crazy and unpredictable bounces and lower quality golf. Some are laid out along resort access roads, which defeats the purpose of gorgeous scenery.

There are a surprisingly high number of weak ski resort courses, and many better golf operations tend to be at smaller market ski hills, so my focus is on the best golf courses at ski resorts, regardless of the size of the ski operations.

Top Ski Resorts With Multiple Great Golf Courses

There are around 15,000 golf courses in the United States, but according to Golfpass.com, only about 800 golf resorts and of these, only 38 with golf and skiing (though I think this misses a few smaller ski operations). But this list gets much, much shorter when you look for ski resorts with more than one course, and only a tiny handful have more than two. It takes more than one course in my book to be a legitimate destination golf resort worth a special trip, and these are the ski resorts with multiple best golf courses.

Keystone, CO

If you want to feel like a big hitter, head to Keystone. At around 9300 feet, both its courses are among the very highest in the U.S and the highest on this list, with the ball traveling noticeably further in the thinner air. You’ll feel super-powered off the tee, but club selection may become your superhero weakness.

A core member of Vail Resorts’ Epic Pass program, Keystone is a famously family friendly resort that is one of the closest to Denver and by far the biggest U.S. ski area on the A-List—especially after a major bowl expansion just a few years ago. I wrote about the upgraded Keystone ski resort here at Forbes, and now it is back in the news with the opening last month of Kindred, its first ever luxury hotel, a big ski-in/out addition at its main base area that is one of then biggest hotel happenings in the industry—and now a great new place to stay for a first class golf trip.

What’s not new is the longstanding reputation for two of the best public access courses in the Rockies, Keystone Ranch by Robert Trent Jones, Jr, and the River Course by Hurdzan & Fry. Golf Digest says, “Keystone Ranch is one of the best courses in Colorado” and Colorado Avid Golfer magazine recently wrote a story titled “Keystone is a Golfer’s Delight” and noted that “Keystone’s two golf courses present the perfect pair of beauty and adventure in a cool mountain climate.” I’ve played them both and this is absolutely spot on. As a bonus, Keystone Ranch has long been the signature fine dining restaurant at the resort and is worth a special trip, while all guests in resort lodging can benefit from discounted stay and play packages.

Sun Valley, ID

Having just celebrated its 80th birthday, Sun Valley was the nation’s first destination ski resort, and as such, much of the golf was built on ultra-prime real estate at the base of the slopes, something that would likely never happen to such prime ski-in/out real estate today. Trail Creek is a classic Robert Trent Jones, Sr. design that crosses its namesake creek seven times, with omnipresent mountain views. The oldest course, Elkhorn, is a father son effort with the front nine by Jones, Sr. and the back by his son Robert Trent Jones II. White Clouds is the newest, a modern—and stunning—full sized 9-hole course set high up on slopes opposite the ski resort, with drop dead panoramic views, one of the top 9-hole layouts I have ever played.

Sun Valley is a world-class luxury resort with a lot of history, a lot of amenities, a wide variety of lodging including luxury, and the adjacent town of Ketchum full of great shops, restaurants and bars. Unlike many ski towns it has a vibrant year round community that makes it feel more special in summer. It is yet another place where you can enjoy summer in the footsteps of longtime local resident Ernest Hemingway, and I have written in more detail about Sun Valley and its charms here at Forbes.

Sugarloaf, Maine

Golfpass.com has it at number two among all golf and ski resorts of every size, just behind massive Boyne, despite having only one course. But that one course, Sugarloaf Golf Club, is also one of the few publics in the Northeast to have made Golf Digest’s Top 100, a Robert Trent Jones II classic with drop dead views on nearly every hole, carved from a gorgeous wilderness teeming with moose and other wildlife. I recently featured Sugarloaf and the next two on this list, Jay Peak and Sunday River, as New England’s best here at Forbes, so check that out for much more detail.

Sunday River, Maine

This sister resort to Sugarloaf also has a Robert Trent Jones II layout and a lot of similarities, though it is less challenging and more player friendly. The Sunday River course is a much more amenitized resort with a lot of lodging and dining options, and again you can read much more about it in the link above under Sugarloaf.