(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) Oct. 15, 2011 — Oceans of sand, oceans of water – opposites like Hawaii and New Mexico are much alike: Vast stretches of sameness broken up by islands of sanctuary, which sometimes include fairways, rough and greens.
True in Hawaii. True in New Mexico. If you’re going on holiday to the mainland, why not visit Hawaii’s spiritual brother, where settlers first tried to conquer, then reached accommodation with, Native Americans who now own and operate some of the best golf courses in the Southwest United States.
I have lived in New Mexico for 30 years and am regularly amazed at how few people who anything about my state.
The roadrunner, the state bird? “I thought that was a cartoon,” a visiting travel writer says. “There’s one now, look, over there!” I say, pointing. “I thought that was a chicken,” she says.
Billy the Kid? “Texas outlaw.” Wrong. The Kid did his killing in Lincoln County, N.M., as a hired gun in a war between two feuding ranches.
Roswell aliens? “They crashed. It was covered up by the government.” Yes and no. Crashed and covered up, but it was a secret weather balloon. No green men.
“You need a passport to go there.” Nope. It’s a been state since 1912, although if Albuquerque and the stockpile of nuclear weapons at Kirtland Air Force Base ever seceded from the Union, Albuquerque would rank as the world’s second nuclear power.
Nukes, aliens, cartoon birds – and great golf. Add great weather each May through November, and you’re looking at a righteous and affordable golf getaway, one Joe Passov of GOLF magazine, once said deserved the “Area 51 Award” because it’s such a well-kept secret.
Here are some great golf offerings in Northern New Mexico’s high desert and mountains. You can fly from Los Angeles to Santa Fe on American Airlines, but most people fly into Albuquerque and drive north:
Paa-Ko Ridge Golf Course, Albuquerque. Play it. Love it. Ranked No. 34 on Golf Digest’s “Top 100 You Can Play.” Mountains. Immaculate. Virtually no hole visible from another. A must-play. Packages available through the Albuquerque Marriott or Golf on the Santa Fe Trail.
Marty Sanchez Links de Santa Fe, a gem of a desert-links muni. Stay downtown at the Hotel Chimayo or Hotel St. Francis and walk to restaurants, museums and galleries. Maybe fly home with a $20,000 Navajo rug bought with all the money you saved on Marty’s $42.50 peak rate with cart.
The Club at Las Campanas. Two Jack Nicklaus courses. Superb views. Members only, but this part is hush-hush: the concierge at the Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi, just off the Santa Fe Plaza, can get you on this Lyle Anderson beauty. Seven-hundred-twenty homeowners and 48 horses live at Las Campanas. After playing there, you’ll want to live there, too.
North of Santa Fe is Towa Golf Course at the Hilton Santa Fe Golf Resort & Spa at Buffalo Thunder. It offers a $189 stay-and-play packages for Towa’s fun layout carved into the desert landscape that Georgia O’Keeffe loved to paint.
Farther north is Black Mesa Golf Club, another Indian-owned course that the critics just rave about. Listen to Golf Digest’s Ron Whitten:
“The fairways of Black Mesa hug the natural slopes and ridgelines of its foothills location. Its recessed bunkers are positioned where wind and erosion might well have carved them out, and its greens seem effortlessly positioned in canyons, on rocky shelves, and alongside dry washes.”
If that ain’t love, I don’t know what is. Black Mesa, also on Golf Digest’s “Top 100 You Can Play,” offers $169 stay-and-play packages through the Santa Claran Hotel in Espanola, N.M.
If you’re in New Mexico for more than just a few days, take the scenic drive north through Taos to Angel Fire, a mountain ski town in winter and a Ponderosa Pines golf getaway in summer. Stay at the Angel Fire Resort Hotel.
Be forewarned: Angel Fire is high, 8,400 feet high, only 2,000 feet lower than the summit of Haleakala. But the good news is that your drives go for freakin’ ever.
Here are some other things to do in New Mexico:
Other things to do in Northern New Mexico: White-water raft on the Rio Grande near Taos; fly-fish near Angel Fire; ride a narrow-gauge tourist train in Chama, N.M.; prowl the galleries along Santa Fe’s Canyon Road.
Where to eat: Dinner at the Old House Restaurant in the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe, breakfast on eggs with green chile at Tia Sophia’s on San Francisco Street.
And here’s a good New Mexico golf-travel planning site.
– Dan Vukelich
Dan Vukelich, a member of the Golf Travel Writers of America, is the editor of New Mexico Golf News.com, an online news source about golf in New Mexico. Reach him at dan@newmexicogolfnews.com