Just got back from ABQ/Santa Fe on Sunday, and will do my best not to beat a dead horse.
For what it's worth, I would like to know of another area that offers a 100 mile radius of such solid, affordable public courses.
We played the usual suspects, in this order:
Sandia-18
Paa-Ko-36
UNM-18
Twin-30
Black Mesa-36 (The treehouse was right, it was not nearly enough)
Black Mesa's reputation being what it is, I decided to save it for last. In theory this was a good idea because nothing that followed would be a let down, and a bad idea because some in the group were beat, sunburned, and getting over altitude sickness (one from Lafayette, LA who incidentally spent his Sunday in the hospital).
In brief:
Sandia was actually a suprise although not earth shaking. Some fun short par fours and better than expected green contouring.
Paa Ko featured some beautiful vistas and interesting holes, but seemed somewhat repetitive, especially the long par threes (the only exception being #4). In addition, due to the previous night's rainfall, it was plug city everywhere.
UNM South was a brutal beating, easily the most difficult of the trip. It seemed like every par four approach was long and uphill.
Twin was in great shape, had some fun holes but also had the most flat, boring set of greens when compared to the others. Oddly enough, my favorite holes all featured blind tee shots.
Black Mesa was head, shoulders, knees and toes above the rest. What made the place stand out from the rest was the width of the playing corridors. For UNM, Sandia, Twin, and Paa-Ko the corridors were wide enough but had 15-20 yards of rough on either side of the fairway. At Black Mesa, if you actually hit it on grass, there was always an opportunity to pull off an approach to the green. The greens had more character than anything else we played, and the vistas were easily as good if not better than the others. The whole place just oozed golf without any other trappings. It was very natural and in no way contrived. My only gripe is about the bathroom. One sit down turlet burl and seven men stuffed with last night's green chile makes for an uncomfortable first tee experience.
Many thanks to Mr. Pat Brockwell who took time out of his day to play the back nine with us. He opened our eyes to the many avenues of play that the course provides (He ushered my father around like a sherpa). He also took the time to delight us with tales of Black Mesa over lunch. It was the highlight of the trip for both me and my dad.