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From our Directory of the most recommended golf courses
Black Mesa Golf Club
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Rating: 3.6
Pace of Play
3
Greens
3
Service
3
Value
3
Design/Layout
5
Black Mesa Golf Club was designed by Baxter Spann and is located 60 miles northwest of Albuquerque, well off I-25 on the Santa Clara Pueblo. It is recognized as one of the top public courses in NM, if not the region. The course is routed over some 1100 acres of sandstone ridges, with nice elevation changes through the scrub brush desert area, and arroyos, using pretty much the lay of the land as it was. 7307 yards, 73.2/142 ratings. Reminded me of Sand Hills, or Machrihanish, where someone found a great piece of land for a golf course, and laid a golf course in. Magic! Must play, reasonably priced.
Published by: nickr
Posted by: BunkerTlk
Dec 20th, 2011
The second course we played on our recent trip to Santa Fe was the Black Mesa Golf Club. This is by far the most beautiful golf course I have ever played and it was in great shape. Stunning views of desert valleys rising to meet the walls of box canyons greeted you on every hole. The dirt cart path climbs up and down the sometimes rocky terrain revealing even more spectacular views highlighting the stark contrast between patches of green marking the golf course and the arid scrub surrounding them. The cart paths themselves added to the fun as they were steep and windy making for an interesting four-wheel golf cart experience. This is a challenging course with much of the challenge coming from the desert itself. Our first taste of how the landscape comes in to play was on the first tee when we couldn’t find the fairway. After finding the pair in front of us, we got our bearings and found a directional flag planted to help us out. The course has several blind tee shots over ridges and mounds that leave you trusting your swing. From the longer tees this can be a bit intimidating. Once on the fairways you have to make sure you leave yourself accurate approach shots or you will be penalized by the heavily guarded greens with deep bunkers. This can be challenging if you leave yourself hitting from a side-hill stance. If you don’t make the fairway this will leave you hitting from desert rough and just trying to get your ball in place for a more manageable 2nd or 3rd shot. Once you make it on the greens, they are characterized by undulating ridges and levels that makes your putts difficult from almost anywhere. They run true, but they are also fast. We played on a Thursday morning, teeing off at 7:00 am. The round took about four hours, but that was due to us trying to find our way around the course, not because we encountered slow play. We arrived early to check out the practice facilities and found a putting green next to a large driving range with balls already set out for you. The range also has a chipping and bunker area for you to test out your deep bunker shots. At the Pro Shop I picked up a yardage book and the carts had a GPS system which turned out to be quite helpful. The price for the round was $82 which is a little high, but after playing the course, it seems like a bargain. The experience was well worth the cost. This course is about a half hour north of Santa Fe, which explains why it didn’t come up when we were searching the Internet for local courses. The staff at Marty Sanchez were kind enough to provide this referral. Another invaluable tool for finding good courses we found was the 2011 Northern New Mexico Golfing publication put out by The Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper. This publication can be found online at www.santafenewmexian/magazines. If you ever yourself in Santa Fe, this course should definitely be on your bucket list. Visit BunkerTalk!
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Posted by: SavPar
Nov 18th, 2010
The course was in great shape. The last three holes are definitely some of the finest finishing holes available. A real challenge of a course for the high handicapper.
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Posted by: nuyakcity
Sep 6th, 2010
Played Black Mesa over the weekend, the course was in pretty good condition. The fairways were in decent shape and had a signs of burnout in some areas and were bald in other areas. The greens were in very good shape for this time of year. The sand traps. Very inconsistent and had tons of rocks in them. Customer Service...awful....we played a 5 hour round (teed of at 6:40...) not once did i see a Ranger on the course. All in all, i was pleasantly surprised with the course, but the sand traps NEED some attention.....
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Posted by: JCoop79
Jul 30th, 2010
Never played here, but I bet I could beat the head pro. Haven't seen him in a while-Hey Tom!!!
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Posted by: Chesley
Jul 25th, 2010
Black Mesa struck me with the same type of eye-opening jolt as the first time I played Pacific dunes. The conjunction of incredible design and setting made up for the fact that I struggled all day. It was very penal in the native areas along along the fairways, and usually cost me a stroke. When I was there, they had just sanded the greens, so they were running a bit slow. We played 36 holes and I look forward to a return
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Posted by: ralphn
Jul 22nd, 2010
Black Mesa is a “must play” course. It’s a wonderful golf experience all around with a routing that's in one word stunning, but fair and fun to play. Beautiful shot values on every hole, each one different and unique. Reasonably priced for the quality of the golf course, and was mostly empty when we played this past Wednesday. .
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Posted by: mutiger97
Jul 7th, 2010
Black Mesa is the clear leader of public access golf in New Mexico, in my mind -- get a bit of wind blowing out there and you'll need every skill imagineable to bring your score within five shots of your handicap - and if it howls you'd better have a Lee Trevino special -- the cut tee shot no higher than six feet off the ground.
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Posted by: EvanH
Jun 22nd, 2010
One of the more interesting golf courses I've ever played. The course actually looked as if it had been layed on the land as it always had been, very natural environment, and stunning scenery, especially late in the day when we played and the sun getting lower in the sky. My wife and I played in just over 3.5 hours, the interesting part was the variety of the tee boxes here for the differnt levels of play. I played from 6,500 yards, she was from 5,800 yards or so, and it seems like we were both playing a different hole. The fairways were very deceiving off the tee, when it looked like you had a tight ribbon of fairway, when you got out there, you found plenty of room. One of the reasons I want to play here again, I was so intimmated on a lot of tee balls. The bunkers were very penal, hard to get up and down out of them, deep, jagged, with long fescue surrounding them, stay away to save a stroke. The greens were as interesting as the rest of the course, sloping, contoured, undulating, and very slick, and were a tough two-putt. Overall, a great golf course and value, nice find and one to drive out of the way for. The clubhouse was functional, the food excellent, and the staff very attentive.
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Posted by: Jim Mullins
Mar 4th, 2010
Black Mesa Golf Club was an impressive course with a creative design. Located half an hour northwest of Santa Fe and half a mile down a rugged dirt road, Black Mesa was a prize piece of golf course architecture tucked between arroyos and sandstone rock formations that rose and fell throughout the course. Because it was barely 50 and windy, the parking lot was empty save for three vehicles whose owners were chatting in the pro shop when I walked in. I paid $25, some sort of winter twilight rate, and set out onto the course. Black Mesa was in full hibernation mode. Patches of snow remained in nooks that the sun had not reached. The greens had grown shaggy and slow. Everything was the same color—the light brown color grass gets in the cold of the winter. Even the crème-colored sandstone walls blended into the scene. The fairway, the rough, the greens meshed together into one expansive sepia-toned world. My choice of wardrobe, an off-white pullover and khaki pants, must have made me nearly invisible without the bright red of my small golf bag.
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Posted by: JeremyN
Nov 7th, 2009
For my money, this is the best course in New Mexico, and one of the best in the nation. It's in an eerie desert landscape (if you like desert scenery, it's so beautiful that it seems like a mirage), and for all of it's difficulties, quite fair.
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