Want to play the best public-access golf courses in each state?
Fresh for 2023, we present the Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for the top public-access layouts in each state, as judged by our nationwide network of raters.
Read More →
For the first time since 2018, one of senior amateur golf’s premier competitions is set to return to New Mexico.
The U.S. Senior Challenge, a 54-hole tournament pitting four-person teams from states against each other, will be held at The Canyon Club at Four Hills, starting with a practice round on Monday and competitive rounds Tuesday through Thursday. The event was last hosted in New Mexico at Paako Ridge Golf Club in Sandia Park.
Read More →
The New Mexico landscape offers a very different vegetation type than this list’s many links or parkland-style courses. Arroyos, rocky outcrops, pinion, and ponderosa trees intertwine with the bluegrass fairways and bentgrass greens, which are kept in superb condition.
Read More →
Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of top residential golf courses in the United States.
The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final, cumulative rating. Then each course is ranked against other courses in the region.
Read More →
Less than a half-hour drive from Albuquerque, this 27-hole layout has been ranked as New Mexico’s top public course and is situated about 6,500 feet above sea level on the east side of the Sandia Mountains. Designed by Ken Dye (no relation to Pete), this scenic course’s scorecard actually lists the holes from 1 through 27.
Read More →
Paako Ridge, designed by Ken Dye in 2000 and expanded to 27 holes in 2005, is the top-rated Golfweek’s Best public-access golf course in New Mexico, providing players a perfect opportunity to blast long drives across a high desert layout.
Read More →
Here are the top-ranked courses for 2021-2022, as scored in our seven scoring criteria by Golf Digest’s course-ranking panelists.
Read More →
Before I played Paako Ridge, it was a complete mystery to me. It’s between Albuquerque and Santa Fe and has very little cell service at high altitude. But as soon as you arrive, you know why you came. Paako Ridge is a stunner. It’s a fun course. It’s challenging but gettable. The altitude makes everything fly farther so you feel like Tiger off the tee. Mountains and elevation changes just make golf better. Paako gets it right.
In the foothills of the Sandia Mountains, Paako Ridge combines three nine-hole courses to create an unending series of challenges.
For every great course that made GOLF’s 2020-21 ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the U.S., dozens of more must-plays were left on the outside looking in — including at least a handful in your home state.
The setting for Paako Ridge, 30 miles east of Albuquerque and 7,000 feet above sea level, doesn’t have quite the same “wow” factor of Black Mesa perhaps, but don’t take that to mean it’s ordinary. Instead of emerald strips funneling between brown, grey, and sand-colored rock formations, Paako is much greener, the same beautifully kept fairways running between pines and cottonwood trees.
Great public golf can be found in every corner of the United States. Our new 2021 ranking of America's 100 Greatest Public Courses will help lead the way
Jon Schmenk of Norby Golf Course Design has, alongside Duininck Golf, completed the second phase of tee renovations at Paako Ridge Golf Club in Sandia Park, New Mexico.
Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2021 list of the top 200 Modern Courses, built in or after 1960 in the United States.
With all that we have gone through this year, I was eagerly looking forward to my time at Paako Ridge golf club in Sandia Park NM- about 40 miles east of Albuquerque. Paa-Ko is a place that combines the beauty of the southwest with the challenge of a great golf course.
The best view awaits you when you reach the Sandia Peak Tramway at 10,378 feet. North America’s longest aerial tram carries you down the mountain on the Albuquerque side through deep canyons and forested, rocky terrain.
We’re always ready for a golf road trip, right? But, to New Mexico? Really? Why drive 1,200 miles from Alabama to find more golf? Well, Paako Ridge Golf Club in Albuquerque. That’s why.
If you’re longing for a golf trip but aren’t quite ready to risk the airport in an ongoing pandemic, we’ve got good news: There’s almost certainly bucket-list golf courses within a day’s drive.
California, Arizona and even Nevada steal much of the attention when it comes to desert golf courses, but New Mexico shouldn’t be overlooked by golfers looking to send balls sailing across vast, dry environments.
If you’re looking for only the best in public-access golf, we’ve got you covered with this list of the top 100 Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in the United States, as judged by our nationwide network of raters.
Golfweek’s Best list of top 200 Modern courses, built in or after 1960. The members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria.
A who’s who of golf course architects designed these courses, which showcase the best Mother Nature has to offer. Names like C.B. MacDonald, Alistair Mackenzie, Donald Ross, A.W. Tillinghast and Perry Maxwell represent golf’s Golden Age. Modern-day artists include Tom Fazio (who designed seven courses on this list, the most by far), Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, Robert Trent Jones Sr., Tom Doak and others.
Here is a state-by-state list of the best golf courses you can play across the United States as selected by Golfweek’s Raters. Courses are listed by preference.
Here is a state-by-state list of the best golf courses you can play across the United States as selected by Golfweek’s Raters. Courses are listed by preference.
AMERICA'S BEST COURSES - Every year, Golfweek’s elite team of course raters, which currently boasts more than 850 evaluators, surveys more than 3,600 courses – grading each nominated course on the basis of Golfweek’s 10 strict standards of evaluation. Collectively, these knowledgeable raters have turned in more than 75,000 votes to compile Golfweek’s Best courses lists.
The Gurus' favorite courses in the Land of Enchantment.
This is Gurus list of the top 100 golf courses we've played. What makes a course great is one of the great debates in this fantastic game. The criteria that the Gurus value most include conditioning, fun/wow factor, setting/visuals, architectural merits, and variety.
AMERICA'S BEST COURSES - Every year, Golfweek’s elite team of course raters, which currently boasts more than 850 evaluators, surveys more than 3,600 courses – grading each nominated course on the basis of Golfweek’s 10 strict standards of evaluation. Collectively, these knowledgeable raters have turned in more than 75,000 votes to compile Golfweek’s Best courses lists.
Welcome to Golfweek’s annual Best. Each spring, we publish three key lists that are the foundation of our course-ratings program: Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses, Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses and Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play.
We rank the top venues in New Mexico (2019-'20)