The cart paths twist and turn up and down the steep foothills and traverse though arroyos and up the hill sides on the way to your next shot. Just riding in the cart is a blast – the cart paths are dirt which blends in naturally with the layout and adds lots of character to Black Mesa. In fact, Links Magazine called Black Mesa 'one of the most spectacular courses anywhere' and said 'every hole could be a signature hole.' The contrast of the lush green fairways with the brown desert is stunning and when you add the rugged sandstone foothills, arroyos, unusual rock formations, and mountains in the background it makes every hole a Kodak moment. The fairways follow the natural flow of the land and traverse through the ridges and valleys leading to lush undulating greens situated in a box canyon or beneath rocky ridges. Golf Digest’s “Best New Affordable Golf Courses” - #1Īs you drive up a dusty dirt road to the clubhouse, you may wonder what you're in for - but as soon as you see the terrain and a couple of the holes you'll know you're in for a special treat. Golf Week’s “Top Courses in the United States” - #50

Golf Digest’s “America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses - #44 Golf Magazine’s “Top 100 Courses You Can Play” – 35 th

Some of the awards and accolades Black Mesa has received since opening include:įor the 2015-2016 season Black Mesa was listed #5 in Golf Digest's 'Best Courses in New Mexico' And we weren't the only ones who rated the course as one of the best. The first time we played Black Mesa in 2011 the conditions from tee to cup were near perfect and we rated the course close to a perfect 10. In fact, one golfer we talked to, who was playing his second round for the day, said it’s his favorite course and he likes it better than Pebble Beach - except for Pebble Beach’s three ocean holes! Baxter has created a masterpiece that you need to add to your list of “must plays.”īlack Mesa is about 30 minutes north of Santa Fe and is a very challenging but fair layout that’s a blast to play with stunning desert scenery, fun holes, very challenging but fair, lots of variety, and a layout that you’ll want to play again, and again, and again – it just doesn’t get any better. And if takes two, three or four shots to get out - then, sometimes, watching your ball fall down a steep hill - play can be slow for everyone around.Review & Rating of Black Mesa Golf Club in Espanola New Mexicoĭesigned by Baxter Spann and opened in 2004, Black Mesa Golf Club is a high desert links design that was chiseled out of the desert and meanders up and down the sandstone foothills of the Santa Clara Pueblo. It’s not uncommon to see golfers struggle mightily while trying to get out of a fairway bunker.

And that’s mainly because of the bunkers.”Įspecially for the typical player. One of the things we’ve heard quite a bit, is about the difficulty of the course. “We want a challenging course, and one to be ascetically pleasing.

“If the bunkers are a half-shot penalty now, I want them to be about a quarter-shot penalty when they are grass,” Velarde said. Velarde said that filling in the fairway bunkers with grass will help golfers lower their scores and make for quicker rounds and help lower maintenance costs. There are nearly 160 bunkers on the course, and there will still be around 65 remaining around the greens after the winter project. While visually stunning, Black Mesa can be very difficult for the average player, much of that because of the traps. “The long-range plan is to make the bunkers smoother, so we can get a mower in and so people can play out of them.”

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