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Golf in New Mexico – Incredible Golfing New Mexico Style
If you’re heading to Carlsbad Caverns or the chic galleries of Santa Fe, golf in New Mexico, once a word-of-mouth secret among avid golfers, is a secret no longer.
There are four distinct destinations for golf in New Mexico, each boasting a cluster of high-quality, low-cost courses with great scenery and shot values.
Golfing in New Mexico’s North
Golf in New Mexico’s Northern section: Taos Country Club, Black Mesa Golf Club near Espanola and Marty Sanchez Links de Santa Fe are all modified desert-links courses winding across the high plateau. East of Taos is Angel Fire Golf Club, a mountain course. South of Santa Fe is Pueblo de Cochiti Golf Course, a Robert Trent Jones Jr. design.
Central New Mexico golfing
Golf in New Mexico’s Central area: Paa-Ko Ridge Golf Club east of Albuquerque, Twin Warriors Golf Club and Santa Ana Golf Club, as well as Sandia Golf Club, all north of town, offer resort golf, with Paa-Ko being the crown jewel of the bunch. The University of New Mexico Championship Golf Course, a hilly test and frequent venue of NCAA events, is just a 7-iron from the Albuquerque airport rental-car center. Only seven minutes south on Interstate 25 is the 27-hole Isleta Eagle Golf Course, part of the Isleta Casino & Resort.
Golf in New Mexico’s Southeast section
Golf in New Mexico’s Southeast section: Lincoln County, N.M., is where Billy
the Kid did most of his gun-toting and Ruidoso lies in the heart of the Kid’s old stomping grounds. Nearby are the Links at Sierra Blanca, Rainmakers, Cree Meadows and the Inn of the Mountain Gods, a Ted Robinson design. All are mountain courses rising and falling through Ponderosa pines. In Roswell, where two aliens bought it in a 1947 space-ship crash, play the Spring River and New Mexico Military Institute golf courses. In Carlsbad, you’ll Lake Carlsbad Golf Course, a low-cost muni gem.
South New Mexico Golfing
Golf in New Mexico’s Southern section: Between Las Cruces and Socorro, N.M., lie a handful of true bargains, starting with New Mexico Tech Golf Course, a tight parkland layout in Socorro. Farther south on Interstate 25 in Elephant Butte, N.M., Sierra del Rio Golf Course follows the folds of the Sonorran Desert. In Las Cruces are New Mexico State University and Sonoma Ranch Golf Club. In nearby El Paso, Texas, is Butterfield Trail, the only Tom Fazio design for hundreds of miles in all directions.
Out of the way but worth the drive if you want to explore golf in New Mexico elsewhere: Pinon Hills Golf Course in Farmington, N.M., in the Four Corners area; Silver City Golf Course in the Southwest New Mexico; and Coyote del Malpais Golf Course along Interstate 40 in Grants, N.M.
Buffalo Thunder launches Deals for Service-industry Workers
Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino, parent property of Towa Golf Resort, has launched a new “Sin Night,” a Monday night promotion to honor New Mexico’s service industry.
“We invite New Mexico’s hospitality-industry workers to join us at Buffalo Thunder,” said Paul Aragon, Pojoaque Puebklo’s director of hospitality. “For those individuals working in local restaurants, bars, spas, hotels, shops, museums, tour companies, or any other segment of the hospitality business, we’ll be offering a 25 percent discount.”
The service industry will be offered a 25 percent discount off of food at the Red Sage and Turquoise Trail and weekly drink promotions at Red Sage and Blue Tower. The Sin City Monday night events will include karaoke contests at Blue Tower where winners will receive cash prizes.
Buffalo Thunder is 15 minutes north of Santa Fe on U.S. 285.
USGA, R&A Announce Amendments to Rules of Golf Decisions
Following the two-year review cycle with the USGA, The R&A has announced 30 new Decisions, 49 revised Decisions and one withdrawn Decision for the 2010-2011 edition of Decisions on the Rules of Golf. The changes will take effect on Jan. 1, 2010.
To see the changes for yourself click on Rules of Golf
The changes cover everything from whether you can wrap a towel around your leg to prevent injury from cactus needles during a stroke to whether your caddie can use his shadow to help indicate the line of play of a putt. They also cover the increasing likelihood that a player might adjust an adjustable club or putter during a round.
British Open Tweaks Eligibility, Adopts New Groove Rules
A new exemption category has been introduced for the 2010 Open to recognize Tom Watson’s almost-win in the 2009 event.
Condition F(4) exempts from qualifying any past Open Champions who finished in the top 10 and ties in any of the previous five Open Championships, thus effectively providing them with a five-year exemption into the Championship.
“We have introduced this exemption as a direct response to seeing two of our great Open Champions, both in their 50s, challenging to win our championship these last two years,” said Peter Dawson, chief executive of The R&A, which runs the British Open.
“We rightly reduced the age of exemption for past champions from 65 to 60 two years ago and our intention was never to remove players still at the top of their game from competing in The Open.”
The change comes in reaction to past Open winner Tom Watson’s nearly mythical bid to win the 2009 British Open, which Watson, 59, lost in a playoff to Stewart Cink. Another past Open winner, Greg Norman, 53, challenged Padraig Harrington in the 2008 Open.
Additionally, another change means that competitors at The Open; International Final Qualifying – Australasia, Asia, America and Europe; and at Local Final Qualifying will be subject to the new clubface groove regulations as per Decision 4-1/1 of Decisions on the Rules of Golf.
The change brings the R&A into line with the USGA, which adopted the same prohibition against wide, sharp-edged clubface grooves for its top events starting in 2010. The two organizations jointly administer the “Rules of Golf” and conforming equipment list.
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