Eastern clubhouse panorama including nine green and first hole
In the statistical evaluation of factors that draw golfers to the course, good quality putting surfaces, nice carts, good GPS units and service far outweigh golf course architecture to the average golfer. When seeking places to play golf, there is quite often affordability that brings the player to a course and if it has enough other qualities, the golfer comes back. Unfortunately the quality of the architecture combining strategies, variety, and challenge fall far behind on such surveys to good playing conditions, beauty and even the service from the cart girl.
It is the rarest of all when spectacular beauty and spectacular architecture come together with affordability as they do at Black Mesa in Espanola, New Mexico. Designed by Baxter Spann of Finger Dye Spann Associates and opened in 2003, Black Mesa is built on a classically beautiful piece of land with pleasant elevation changes, wonderful scenic backdrops and clever utilization of natural features in this otherworldly setting. The routing uses that land luxuriously such that one never notes any hint of crowding nor any sense of force to lay the golf onto the land. Short and long holes are melded to the land and never does the golfer feel as if he or she is playing a hole merely as a thoroughfare to get them to some scenic reward on a remote part of the property.
The golf course is set so far back from the highway so that it is only a ribbon in the distance barely to be glimpsed. Wonderful landforms and elevations yield a constantly changing landscape with many clever holes. One feels at many a juncture that they are alone in the wild. In my repeated plays of the golf, I increasingly became convinced that Black Mesa is one of the most notable modern golf courses in the USA. I personally like to designate a distinction between Classical Designs and Modern ones. This is comfortable as there is a natural separation on several counts – a dearth of truly quality designs from about the time of the Great Depression until the resurgence of golf that happened in the mid twentieth century. There was the coalescence of all the factors of the 1960’s into the 1970’s – television coverage of golf, Arnold Palmer as a hero and household name, not just a golfer as well as changes evolving in golf course design, construction and maintenance. Golf was cool for the first time and it was for everyman – Mr. Palmer made it so – a real working-class hero.
No small credit for this period of architectural revival goes to Pete and Alice Dye. Golf Course Architecture really started to change as Dye started to hit the landscape with his bulldozer and ironically without much in the way of written or drawn plans. In this modern era of golf course architecture, GolfWeek Magazine has seen to recognize a top 100 modern designs as well as a Top 100 classical, using 1960 as a hard and fast line of division for the two. Black Mesa cleanly fits into the top 20-25 modern designs for me. Those are the ones of indisputable merit – the distinctly superior designs that make up the rock-solid base of that one hundred. The next eighty or so can to a great degree be plucked from a list of 200-400 really good modern courses which differ very little in their level of quality but don’t quite stand up head and shoulders apart. This is the high-quality fruit from the crop of the modern architect: a great bushel basket of high quality courses that are well-designed, well-constructed and well-maintained differing only in perhaps one’s personal tastes. Your top 100 and mine are likely to differ, but also to include this elite group.
At Black Mesa I was reminded at many a spot of the modern gem that is the Kingsley Club in Michigan and oddly enough I was struck by a strong evocation of linksland forms that are seen in seaside golf most notably how the par 5 third hole transported me to Kingsbarns near St. Andrews in Scotland. It is a par 5 of true merit, measuring 603 yards from the tips and a stout 495 from the front tees. The fairway landing area is wide enough to allow a fairly free swing at the tee ball, but then one must practice increasingly greater precision approaching the green. Visually from the tee, save the water view I was struck with a strong déjà-vu for Kingsbarns – the lay of the land, the angles created, the placement of hazards and the surrounding landforms.
First Hole
Tee shot on one with hill hiding fairway
Starting with the very first tee shot Black Mesa hits you with classic and links characteristics. A bit intimidating for the first-timer and the golfer unfamiliar with these concepts a semi blind shot is required from the first tee. The carry is much smaller and more forgiving than one first thinks and a driver is hardly required, the professional hits a six-iron from the blue tees and certainly a 200 yard shot is plenty. If you do hit a driver it is too much for most players and you might go through the fairway into a bunker or rough. If you miss left you can see it land and if you miss right it is much wider than it appears; all in all a tricky but still forgiving shot. The green as with most at Black Mesa is rumply and sloped and provides a stern challenge for the sloppy shot that only just finds the green, but birdies abound.
Full fairway in view
Generous landing area
Green contours and runs-off
Second Hole
The second hole, a medium length par 4 has a superior architectural feature – a deep green, nearly 45 yards deep benched right up against a small hillside that creates massive amounts of strategy. Once again, a little blindness is in play in that the safe and preferred line off the tee is to the left where the golfer plays over the brow of a low hill to a partially concealed fairway. The highly visible and apparently safe fairway to the right presents an obstructed view of a majority of the green and accessibility is limited unless the player plays a faded approach shot to the elevated greensite with a false front and false back! The green is rather large especially for a medium length hole but the penalty is often severe for a miss. Hitting the green it can be difficult to read. Reward is given for thoughtful play starting at the tee considering the pin of the day and proper attack angles. The deeper the pin, the greater the demand is on the player.
Third hole
The third hole gives a magnificent links evocation and can play massively at over six hundred yards. Most golfers will attack it from the mid 500 yard mark and it is anything but a routine two-shotter from there even at altitude. Once again the green and its approach thought out green to tee leads to the most effective plan for the day, effective strategic flexibility. The fairway is forgiving enough to not handcuff the player from a strong tee shot but punishing enough for the thoughtless long driver.
A thin ribbon of fairway leads directly to the left side of the green and allows a very skilled shot to run onto the green without the need for an entirely aerial approach for the long hitter. A completely natural area perhaps 60 yards deep protects and demands an aerial approach for the short third if one plays a three shot strategy. Ridges parallel to the line of approach require a precise attack, but some forgiveness is allowed and is sometimes necessary in the form of a kickup at the rear of the green to nuzzle your approach close to the pin. Help is there if you look for it and play wisely.
Fourth Hole
Visually spectacular, the fourth hole required almost nine feet of fill to raise the green to its current height. The green is almost four clubs front to back and a crosswind coupled with severe contours can make the player's life difficult if the tee shot is not precise. Multiple tees create a range of almost thirty degrees difference in angles into the greens. Several chipping areas left and right prevent desert recovery shots. The first of four spectacular short holes requires precision of the highest order. A Dell-inspired par 3, the green is rather complex and would continue to be fun for players of all abilities over time with a myriad of dizzying pin placements. Loosely from front right to back left runs an irregular spine, but that just begins to describe the green. Several collection and chipping areas keeps the errant shot out of the desert and allows the player many options. Add to the mix an angular spread of over 30 degrees in teeing grounds and I think you are likely never to feel as though you are playing the same hole twice. How many par threes can inspire such a description. Scenic as well as challenging, merely the first of a series of delightful and challenging par threes is the fourth hole.
Fifth Hole
The Fifth hole from the back tee measures an impressive 496 yards with little fairway in view. A generous landing area is there, but you have to learn it from repeated plays or trust it from the yardage guide. One is afforded a fine view of the green in the distance and also two flashed-up bunkers in the fairway left. Much of the carry to the fairway is blind from the back. As you move forward more of the fairway and less of the green is visible. The longer more visible carry from the back tee pad affords the better approach. Hitting the right side of the fairway from the other teeing grounds allow the most visibility of this suitably large green. Wind direction and velocity will make the tee shot vary from day to day even form the same tee marker. A relatively long shot even for the longest hitters will be required for this hole hard against a hill left which affects what your golf ball will do once on the ground, the aerial route in not enough except for positions on the far right portions of the green. Aerial-only golf is not enough here as it is on much of this course, you must plan what your ball will do on the ground.
Certainly the longer hitter has an advantage on this hole from virtually any teeing ground. The run-up shot is accepted and encouraged for a majority of pin positions aiding the shorter hitter.
Sixth Hole
The second par 5 on the front is a snake of a hole, both in shape and in the hidden dangers that await the player. The fairway can be found tight against the hill to the left and a guiding bunker at the corner of the rock outcropping can give the player some comfort in guidance; however the right side of the fairway, although longer to reach can give better visibility of what is to come. Loosely following an S-shape the hole can provide a virtually unlimited number of potential play routes. Significant elevation changes and left-to right slopes make the second and third shots very thought provoking. Slope and a plethora of bunkers will punish the left-to right shaped second shot not well-placed.
With experience, the player knows that the left side of the approach has a hill and a chute-like contour available to crate a running option on two for the long hitter. Most will play this hole in three shots trying to reach a garden spot 90 yards out as far left as one can manage to approach most pin positions. As with most well-designed strategic holes, the day’s pin position will determine that day’s best approach spots.
A large well-contoured green will provide a wide array of challenging pin positions. Par will win many a match.