EMERALD IN THE ROUGH...

Usually, a golf professional will be pretty familiar with most of the golf courses within 150 miles of his area, and, in smaller sections, like the Sun Country PGA, he’ll be familiar with many or most in his PGA Section. Whether for good or not, word of mouth is a powerful means of advertisement, which is why I decided to try some new courses in our section that I had not played. It is not unusual for me to hear comments about other golf courses from golfers who travel the state or the USA and rare is the week in which I do not hear comments about other courses, whether it’ll be about the beauty, location, difficulty, conditions, and/or services. I just came back from my yearly fall golf vacation, which I usually take during our local school district’s fall break. This time, instead of going outside the Sun Country Section, I made it a point of only playing courses that our golfers have played or might play sometime; public, private and resort. Our vacation plans included New Mexico Tech G.C. (public, Socorro NM and one of the top 5 public courses in New Mexico), Inn of the Mountain Gods (resort, Mescalero NM), Lone Star G.C. (public, El Paso NM), Butterfield Trail Golf Club (resort, El Paso, TX - Picture Bottom Right of Hole #10), Coronado C.C. (private, El Paso, TX), Santa Teresa C.C.(semi-private, Santa Teresa, NM), Sonoma Ranch G.C. (retirement community, daily fee, semi-private, Las Cruces, NM) and Sierra del Rio Golf Club (daily fee & resort, Elephant Butte, NM - Picture Top Left, Hole #16). Because of weather conditions at the very beginning of the trip that forced changes in our itinerary, we ended up missing Inn of the Mountain Gods and Lone Star… Darn it! I had not had the pleasure of playing Sonoma Ranch or Butterfield Trails G.C. (a new Tom Fazio course close to El Paso’s International Airport that is breathtaking). Both of these lived up to the expectations that we had heard; both different, both serve a different type of golfer, both are very nice and very well kept. In both cases, you would expect that these two large cities would host such nice courses. However, Sierra Del Rio, in Elephant Butte, maximum population 10,000 (including Truth or Consequences), has to be one of the biggest surprises I have ever experienced. I first saw the course 10 years ago when I took my youngest daughter to a junior event there, not long after nine new holes had been added. At the time, it was called Oasis. As with Riverview in Farmington or Concho Valley C.C. in Arizona, you could clearly differentiate the “old nine” from the “new nine”. Nothing wrong with it in either of the courses, but it gave you the sense that you were playing two different half courses in the same round. A couple of years later, I played a pro-am there, and it was the last time I visited Oasis. Shortly after, the sad news reached all corners of the state: ownership had decided to call it quits and close the course… Well friends, it’s not closed any more!! Under new ownership, former Sun Country PGA Professional of the Year (among many of his achievements), Guy Wimberly (who is as gracious host as you can have) was called out of retirement to be Director of Golf; he hired two local young men to head the golf operations, Victor Torres, now a PGA Member and Head Professional, and Miguel Batista, an assistant professional enrolled in the PGM Program. Shortly after, golf course architect Dick Phelps was called to action. Within 12 months or so, the old Oasis course was revived, remodeled and turned into one of the most challenging and finest courses in our section. Millions of cubic yards of dirt were moved and reshaped, tee boxes added and/or leveled and/or remodeled (and isolated), greens were reshaped, drains were built, contours were added to fairways and bunkers, more bunkers were added. If you were one who played the course before it’s transformation, you might be able to recognize some of the old holes as the layout stayed basically the same (though the clubhouse was moved about ½ mile); nothing else resembles the old course, not the “old new nine” nor the “old old nine”. The new course can play from 5,500 yards to a very challenging 7,300 yards with a par of 72 and a Slope rating of 145… which as they say, is for “big men” only. Their final step was to give this new created image, this truly new course, a new name, and the name was changed to Sierra Del Rio, which for now, is probably the least known of our Sun Country jewels, a bright green emerald in the desert. Saving the best surprise for last was pure coincidence! Tip: You truly do not have to go outside of the Sun Country Section to play challenging and beautiful golf courses at affordable prices (prices in the Sun Country Section are 40-70% less than comparable premier courses in Arizona). I suggest you include Butterfield Trail in El Paso, Sonoma Ranch in Las Cruces and Sierra Del Rio in Truth or Consequences in your winter play! You won’t regret it!