The River Course at Keystone

Nice course with pretty views. Play every year for the past 16 with a group from out of town. Made a tee time 3 months ago only to be called today, 5 days before that they are cancelling our tee time because they oversold a tournament. No sorry, no make up tee time. Can’t find a tee time for 8 with 5 days to go so no Saturday golf because of there disorganization and complete lack of customer service.

Beware, your tee time is meaningless and they just don’t care. Won’t be back, too many other courses that are just as nice in this world that treat people better.

Due to COVID only Keystone’s River Course was open this season and it will close for winter Oct 4. I’ll play again that day.
Ranch Course did not open but was maintained daily so it should be in great shape next year.
Keystones conditions were the best of Summit County this year. I played them all.
Looking forward to playing both courses again next year.

I made tee times 10 days in advance. They quoted me $200 for two players on a week day. The day of play we had a “no receipt” phone pay. Upon getting home, 400 miles away, I see the charge was near doubled! The course was NOT in great shape compared to Eagle Vail and others we played. PLUS, over charged exorbitant green fees. Their staff was not very courteous.

The sweeping mountain views on this course make it worth the money regardless of the golf. It is a fun course to play but the views will distract you. One of the most beautiful places I have been. Due to Covid there were no drinks available at the clubhouse but the beverage cart made its rounds. Unfortunately the beverage cart was insanely overpriced. $31 for 4 Coors Lights is outrageous. Also, the carts were governed to the point that making it up some of the huge hills became next to impossible even for the 150 single rider in our group. I understand why they do it but it makes the carts almost unusable.

Overall a great experience and one of my favorite rounds I have ever played.

Unfortunately we had rain for 6 holes and our cart broke down, but we had fun anyway.
I went into the pro shop to buy a new hat. It was on sale and the employee would not believe me so I took him over to the sign. He still overcharged me from what the sign said and told me it was because of the high resort tax. That made no sense because there was still tax no matter what. I had to argue with him that he overcharged me and he started talking down to me and be-littling me like I was the stupid one. It still bothers me the way he treated me when he was in the wrong for over charging me. The other employees at the resort were all super friendly.

The course is beautiful, scenic and very challenging from the back tees. Everything including the weather was perfect, very helpful staff and the course was in excellent condition. I highly recommend if you enjoy beautiful scenery & a challenging course!

Best round I’ve played all year, and best scenery. The only complaint I have is that the greens are a little hard, but still fun.

This course is incredible. The first tee is a sight to behold where you feel like you are just teeing off of a cliff. All of the elevation changes make club selection challenging, but also make you feel like Superman when you hit the longest drive of your life. Greens were fast, but held the ball well. Highly recommend!

The course is tremendous, set in the Rockies near Keystone Resort. The greeting by Kyle and Blake was first rate. Pro shop staff was top of the line. Price was good. The warm up area was well maintained and stocked with balls. The course was in excellent condition considering the time of year. Some greens showed the impact of a bad winter. Time will heal the greens. Although we played in 4:15, considering we were a foursome behind two twosomes, I considered the pace of play unacceptable. We waited on every shot for a vast majority of the round. The lead twosome grew to a threesome at the turn. Pace got slower. As an example, I timed the lead threesome on the 16th green, 5 + minutes from the time they walked onto the green until they left the green. We did not see a marshal after the 7th hole.

It's been a super year for Keystone. And the conditions are still great with aspens turning golden and greens and fairways still in great shape. It snowed a bit last night but conditions should be good again next week.

After playing the Keystone Ranch Course in the morning of Aug 21 during the eclipse our 2 foursomes moved to the River Course for a nice, quick lunch then headed out for a fun afternoon of high altitude golf. The course is in super condition and my buddies always enjoy the extreme altitude changes on the back nine.

The Keystone Resort provides the ultimate in Colorado year round outdoors activities. A traveler wanting a great variety in winter sports or summer golf, biking, hiking, sailing, rafting, etc. can't go wrong by booking a trip to beautiful Keystone, Colorado.

Keystone has two spectacular 18 hole courses with two separate clubhouses: The River Course at Keystone and Keystone Ranch Course. Both are in the best condition I've ever seen this summer. This review is on The River Course. I played this course again this year with my Colorado Golf Binge group and the conditions of the fairways and tee boxes were great. We played 5 great Colorado courses last week at The River Course at Keystone Resort was voted as the favorite for several in our group largely due to the beautiful vistas and the exciting elevation drops.

The River Course at Keystone hosted our son's pre-wedding golf tourney in 2012 and everything was spectacular. Many of our players said that the River Course, the staff's service and that round of golf was the best golf experience they'd ever had.

Keystone River Course opened in 2000 and has received numerous awards including three consecutive Silver Medals as one of America's Best Golf Resorts by Golf Magazine 2002-2007. Golf Digest ranked it as one of American's Top 75 Golf Resorts. It always ranks high in Colorado resorts and especially a favorite for women due to the friendly forward tees and the beauty of the normally snow-capped mountains towering over the lush green Snake River Valley.

The River Course is all about excitement, beauty and challenging shot-making. Five tee boxes on every hole allow you to pick your poison. The front nine opens with a gorgeous view of the Snake River valley and upcoming holes with a 551 yard par five off a high tee launching pad. You'll wonder if your golf cart will survive 18 holes after that drive up to the first tee. It will! After your tee shot settles to the lush fairway well short of the snow-capped peaks of the Continental Divide and Keystone and Arapahoe Basin ski areas you will work your way through the valley and the front nine. Holes 5 and 6 are exciting target golf holes through a marshland often home to grazing elk and deer. #7 is a beautiful but tricky par 3 over the Snake River. After a long downhill par 3 ninth hole you'll pass the clubhouse and practice area and up into the hills of the back nine.

Hole #16 is the wildest tee shot on the course. It's a 500 yard downhill, dogleg left par 4 with a 200' elevation drop. #17 is a drive and a wedge to a challenging elevated green. The finishing hole provides a wonderful view of Lake Dillon, Buffalo Mountain and the Gore Range. This 520 yard par 5 is now ranked as the #18 handicap while the 222 yard par 3 third hole is ranked as the #1 handicap. This seems more logical than automatically slapping the toughest handicap ratings on the par 5's as done on many courses. The River Course at Keystone is certainly a beauty and a wonderful change for a Southerner tired of the summer heat, humidity and of playing flat, dry golf courses. And when you've played the River Course it's time you treated yourself to the Keystone Ranch Course. It's older and quite different from the River Course but also fun and challenging.

Steve Corneillier, GM of Golf, and his large staff do an excellent job of running their two top notch resort courses. Phillip Tobias is PGA Head Golf Pro at The River Course. Tod Anderson is Tournament Coordinator. Jim Banks is Head Pro at the Ranch Course. I've always found all the Keystone staff to be friendly, professional and most helpful.

At times Keystone offers some great Stay and Play packages at great rates at the Inn at Keystone including golf at the Keystone Ranch Course and deals on golf and fly fishing clinics plus nature hikes and more. Check it out on their website www.golfkeystone.com.

There are two courses at Keystone and the River course is real Mountain Golf. There are elevation changes; Three holes must have at least a 150 foot drop. The views are splendid especially in the late spring when the mountains still have snow.
Off the course, there is a putting green and driving range. There is a restaurant which serves all meals. They have a patio do enjoy the scenery. If somebody doesn't golf, there is plenty to do at the mountain-hiking, bike trails, etc. If they drive in town there is even more-including outlet shopping.
I will say that in the summer this place gets crowded. You can be looking at a 4.5 to 5 hour round. That would be the one drawback-the facilities can get quite full. If you can play here in shoulder seasons do so; cheaper and pace of play is 3.5-4 hours during the week. They do keep the conditioning up well here, although the spring does tend to be iffy due to the length of winter here. I would also say that the pricing in the summer is quite steep-this is a mountain resort, but I don't think that this course is worth over $100.
As for the course itself, this is very good mountain golf. Having written that, it is not walkable and if you could walk it, I doubt that it would add to the enjoyment of the round. Elevation changes both up an downhill. Most notably on the 16th which is a downhill par 4 which, due to over a 200 foot drop, can be drivable. The other large drops are on the par 5 first and par 5 18th. A good drive can lead to going for it in two. The other two par 5s are quite good. The second par 5 on the front nine features the river and choice off the tee is paramount to success. The par 3s are a good set and go in different directions; one of them is very uphill. They also have some water hazards in play on two of them. The par 4s are good and I really like the risk/reward factor on the 6th hole. The rest are solid and require a variety of shots. They also offer a variety of lengths; shortest one is uphill and risk reward (17th).
If you are looking for golf in the mountains, this is probably my favorite. The course is solid, the scenery beautiful, elevation changes are a lot of fun-especially the three big drops and shoulder season is a value. If price is not a factor, then come here any time. Regardless of the time of year, you will get a true mountain golf experience.

first time I have played a mountain course in Colorado and the views were all that could be expected. Dramatic elevation changes (although the 16th hole is over the top with the tiers and the cart path going through the middle) and views of the mountains and lake. No complaints here.

The course was in average condition, especially considering the cost of $150 for the round. The greens were ok, but the sand that they have on them can make the putts bumpy at times. Our group was told that the greens would be firm, which was true. But if that is as intended, the fairway leading up should be as well. Instead, the fairways were very soggy. So playing to the green would have the ball bounce hard, but short would have the ball stick and even plug at times. This was not an issue in the fairway, so it was not due to rain, but instead would indicate that this area was over-watered instead.

Also disappointing was the golf carts which were old and had trouble making it up many of the slopes. Also, the lack of GPS on the carts makes it harder to keep up with the prescribed pace of play.

Which brings me to my main complaint, pace of play and the marshals instructions. We were told that we were expected to finish in 4:30 for the round, which is normally no issue on a normal course for me (around a 10 HC). But right off the start, the course has a photographer on the 1st tee taking group and individual pictures which puts you behind 5 minutes. Then the marshals were there by the 3rd hole saying we were 5 minutes behind schedule. They were nice, but there was no group pushing us from behind, and we had two high HC players in our foursome (they lost at least 15-20 balls each). Our group kept pace from there on out maintaining the 5 minutes behind schedule with three more reminders from the marshals with no group pushing us. This is not your normal muni course with tee boxes right by greens. There are drives between holes of up to 3-4 minutes and elevation changes with the carts barely making it up the hills. That, along with stopping and buying beverages from the on course carts twice and stopping for a brat at the turn, and we were still at 5 minutes behind schedule coming to the 18th tee. This is where the photographer from hole 1 was waiting to sell the pics for $20 each. This was a 5 minute delay again, and after we teed off, a marshal was waiting on the drive down to the fairway to say that we were on the tee for 10 minutes. This is on the 18th hole where they were selling pictures and hit our shots immediately after talking to her, with no groups waiting or pushing us. I might be over reacting, but this seems ridiculous to me. As it was, the high HCers were already barely looking for errant shots as they felt pressure from the marshals to speed up. I brought this up with the course pro, Phillip, after the round and he pretty much blew me off with a sorry, but that is the way it is.

Our group paid a combined $600 for a great view that we had trouble enjoying, an average course, below average carts, and poor service. Cannot recommend going to Keystone for golf.

Like any mountain course the weather can be a factor. This particular day the weather was an outstanding fall 75 degrees with a slight breezes. There are seveval elevated tees which provides wonderful vistas and gives the course a unique advantage over most others. The fairways were well maintained, but the greens were like concretre and would not hold anything, so adjustments were necessary to have a scorers chance. Over all the experience was outstanding. My only complaint is the cart staff were not the most welcoming or even friendly.

Very very nice. Greens may be sandy but course is beautiful and memorable.

hole 16 was goofy
they should provide bottled water
one player in our foursome died of altitude sickness on the 15 th hole
putting is very tough on these sanded greens!
great views!!!

I have played this course several times, I love the beauty and the challenge. However, I feel it is overpriced for what you get. The golf carts are old and not in the greatest shape. The bunkers were inconsistent. The greens had just been top-dressed, so they were bumpy but fast. Driving range was extremely wet!! Overall, I would rate the conditions as fair because I expect more for this price point. There was trash on the counter in the pro shop and the guy next to me paid $100 less than I did. I know there are various discounts but the club should work with people that come on a consistent basis and offer some discount.

This is one of my favorite courses to play. I love the elevated tee boxes and the beautiful view of the mountains. The staff and other players are very warm and welcoming. It's a great and fun experience.

We started as a foursome, my wife and I, and another pair added to make us a foursome. Then, after the front nine, we noticed the group ahead of us had 3 carts, and 5 players. The pair which was added to our group decided to drive around them. This did not work so well, as they ran into another 5 some, so they just played as a twosome, adding another group in front of us. We stopped the on course attendant, who told us the 5-somes, 6-somes were not a problem, that the hold up was a group in front of them. Unbelievable at an expensive course. ($150+/person). The on-course attendant was argumentative and defensive, as he was aware of the situation and did nothing about it. By the time we were done, the groups behind us had combined to an 8-some. Will never go back.