If you’re making the New Mexico trek and you have Paako Ridge on your list – and if you are but you don’t, this is a final plea to not skip this course – save it for last. It’s the runaway winner for golf in the state and it’ll leave you wanting to plan a return visit.
Ranked No. 1 among the state’s public-access courses by Golfweek’s Best raters, this layout has 27 holes playing among the forested Sandia Park east of the Sandias. Most of the city of Albuquerque is on the other side of this mountain range, but this side attracts skiers in the winter, either but taking the tram up from the western slope or driving around to this burgeoning community of huge homes and a home-run golf course.
Designed by Ken Dye, it opened in 2000 with 18 holes, now has 27 and offers an 18-hole rate, a daily rate and memberships. It’s only a half-hour drive from Albuquerque, but while you’re here, why not try the all-day rate and get your money’s worth?
The course has generous fairways and sloping greens that roll true. There’s plenty of places to lose your golf ball if you stray from the fairway, and there’s plenty of elevation change to keep it interesting. Get a morning tee time, grab a bite after nine, play some more and perhaps find a snack and a beverage after the second nine, then keep going.
Most of the 27 holes are carved through the oakwoods and pinon trees, with all sorts of sloped lies. Don’t stray from the fairways because this is no desert golf course. If your ball finds the wooded areas, it’s probably gone. But there’s plenty of fairway to hit out here, all mowed in a cross-cut design to provide visually striking targets.
The course manuevers through the terrain, so you’ll find yourself having to flight over an arroyo here or navigate a blind shot there. If the wind is blowing, all the better.
The second requires a stout second shot uphill over an arroyo and past several bunkers fronting the green. Once safely on the putting surface, a back pin will ask for a strong uphill putt on the tiered green.
The first par 3 you come to is the fourth, which has four tiers. The back-left position requires a precise shot to the correct shelf. The green is absolutely huge, but if you’re on the lowest tier, you must pound your golf ball to climb those slopes.
The fifth tee box is one of the highest points on the course, and the tee shot is going to be blind for big hitters. The second and third shots veer right into the dogleg downhill, then the green is elevated. Nothing wrong with running your second shot into the valley fronting the green, but you’re going to want to make sure you know where to hit your third on what will be a blind pitch shot.
There’s water on the ninth hole that could be trouble for some. That same lake is down the right side of 10 but not really in play. There’s water again behind the green on the par-5 15th, another long dogleg right. There’s a rocky ridge behind the lake, offering a nice background.
The tricky par-3 16th also has water, mostly down the left side of the hole. A back left pin will seem doable, but from the back tees it’s 228. However you decide to attack it, this is a really great looking golf hole.
If you decide to venture into the restaurant, you’ll find a menu that’s as vast and varied as the golf course itself. The lunch menu features wild game such as smoked rattlesnake and rabbit sausage, oysters on the half shell, a Korean BBQ chicken sandwich and a green chile cheeseburger. For dinner, the choices include oysters, fried alligator, ribeye steak and grilled elk rack.
There’s no messing around here.