Northern NM has had a relatively wet winter so I took advantage of some warm weather and played Marty Sanchez Links de Santa Fe. The greens were incredibly stressed last winter - they don’t water during the winter due to consistent sub-freezing overnight lows - but they were healthy and green and smooth, albeit pretty slow, today. The rest of the grounds were lush and very firm. It was a great day.
The #3-7 stretch is really fun golf and the best sustained scoring opportunity. The course’s best green complexes are almost all in this group of holes.
#3, 550 yards
(Brag time: hit a good drive and a bullet 3i that ran 50-60 yards to the back edge to set up a bird)
#4, 200 yards
Classic longish downhill par 3 with everything sloping to the left hazard. My ball, a yellow Maxfli in case you haven’t heard, is tastefully pin high on the right fringe.
#5, 360 yards
Approach is to a beautifully framed green protected by a huge bunker right and hidden fall offs left and long.
#6, 340 yards
Risk/reward par four: had a 260 carry over the left fairway bunker with an easy route to the green if you pull it off. I didn’t take it on today.
#7, 145 yards
Short par three with some G-rated Short template vibes and a gorgeous backdrop of the Santa Fe mountains.
(Brag time #2: this looked like it might go in. Settled for a 2.)
Winter is always my favorite golf season here, especially when there has been some decent precipitation (iffy) and the daily forecast cooperates (it usually does). I played this stretch in 2 under but made three annoying doubles to shoot one over my course handicap on the day (78). I really need to commit to playing the tips next time because even though I hit just two drivers on the par fours, it was still a wedge fest. The jump is 500 yards but it’s time to give it a shot.
Still mad the Strapped Boys didn’t play here.