Two Albuquerque West Side courses long viewed as the scruffiest in the Metro Area have begun to shine once again.
Ladera Golf Course and Chamisa Hills Country Club, once written off as better suited to growing weeds than grass, have made comebacks so startling it’s worth seeing yourself.
Here is a link to Chamisa Hills Country Club website . Ladera’s phone number is (505) 836-4446.
Ladera, especially, was a tragic tale, its fairways indistinguishable from surrounding desert. Chamisa, thanks to a heavy reliance on effluent, had even more serious soil-chemistry problems. Weeds flourished but grass wouldn’t.
Poor soil chemistry at Chamisa and Ladera remains a longer-term issue, but the point of this report is: The fairways at both courses are back. If you put the ball in the fairway you’ll find a fair lie in grass; if you put it off the fairway, you may or may not.
And that’s the point at any course, isn’t it? Bad shots should be punished, whether by deep blue-grass rough or hardpan.
On the business side, Chamisa owner Harry Apadaca continues to grow the club’s membership through smokin’ hot membership deals, and Director of Golf Erik Harp and his golf-shop staff are building a reputation for friendliness found at only a few Albuquerque courses.
At Ladera, Steve Higgins and Molly Gallegos, two top city maintenance people, are working overtime to prove that Ladera deserves a $1.5 million upgrade to its leaky 30-year-old irrigation system — which could happen if Albuquerque voters approve a package of park bonds in October.
If Ladera continues to shine between now and October and makes a quantum leap forward after the irrigation upgrade next year — that success story could lead to water-saving irrigation improvements for the city’s other three municipal courses over the next few years.
Tags: Local Golf Courses by admin
No Comments »
