GCA's Land of Enchantment Get Together - Update

[Mike Nuzzo]

Gentleman,

As Ran is away from his laptop, he asked I post an update to our planned activities.  The details that I'll leave for his forthcoming post will be about the round table discussion on "How to improve Golf Club Atlas".  I hope many would be interested in attending.  Stay tuned.

Baxter will be posting some details as to his planned discussion.  Please provide some feedback with other items you'd be interesed in learning about.  The discussion timing will depend on number of attendants.  We will be planning a dinner Saturday in town also.

Event Dates:
Friday, September 19th ... TBD
Saturday, Sept. 20th - Black Mesa (2x) - Spann Presentation
Sunday, Sept. 21st - Paa-Ko Ridge (GCA Roundtable)
Monday, Sept. 22nd - Pinon Hills

Accomodations in Santa Fe:
Radisson Santa Fe - 1 mile from downtown. http://www.radisson.com/santafenm .  We have 30 rooms reserved under "Golf Club Atlas".  The rates are $129 per room, per night.  Please wait until the end of this week to reserve.  Thank you.  Accomodations in Farmington to follow shortly.

Currently we have tee times for 32!
If you plan on attending please let me know asap as we would need to get additional tee times, which will get tough as we get closer.

Black Mesa Golf Club - Saturday the 20th.  7:30 & 1:30 tee times.  $75 will get us around twice with a cart (if you prefer).

Paa-Ko Ridge Golf Club - Sunday the 21st.  A.M. Start.  They have graciously provided us with their weekday rate of $57.  That includes cart, range balls, logo divot tool and a bottle of water, and Tax.

Pinon Hills Golf Course - Monday the 22nd.  it's like $25

At this point Friday is the only venue yet to be determined.  I had planned on visiting the UNM "championship" course, but unfortunately they are booked.  So my first suggestion would be Marty Sanchez Links de Santa Fe, just outside of Santa Fe.  There is a very fine par 3, 9 hole course, called the Great 28 (one par 4).  It would be a fine meeting place if everyone couldn't arrive in time for a full 18.  Although Baxter and I will be playing the "regulation" 18 there prior.  There are also several other strong choices, of which Mr. Ward has made quite clear (see earlier threads).  This can be a group decision?

The following list is of planned attendants only (not tenative ones).  Transportation is up to the individuals, hopefully you'll be able to share a few cars, or fit in Dan King's Magic Bus!  

Ran Morrisset - Southern Pines, NC (Yes Monday)
Mike Nuzzo - Memorial, Houston, TX (Yes Monday)
Baxter Spann - Woodlands, Houston, TX (Yes Monday)
Craig Edgmand - OK (no monday)
Michael Whitaker - SC (Yes Monday)
Steve Lang (2) - Woodlands, Houston, TX
John Bernhardt - Oakbourne, LA (Sunday-Monday[tues at Black Mesa])
John Vander Borght - Oakmont, PA (Yes Monday)
Richard Daley - Wild Horse, Green Bay, WS (Yes Monday)
Bill McBride - Pensacola, FL (no monday)
George Pazin - Pittsburgh, PA
Ben Dewar - Toronto, Canada
David Silk - Boston, MA (Yes monday)
Lou Duran - Dallas, TX
Jonathan Cummings - Bethesda, MD

Brad Swanson - Denver, CO (no monday)
Doug Wright - Denver, CO
Mike Nordstrom - Pinon Hills, Farmington, NM (Yes Monday)
Adam Clayman - Pinon Hills, Farmington, NM (Yes Monday)
Tom Huckaby - Norcal (no monday)
Kevin Fredrickson  - Norcal (no monday)
Ed Getka - Socal
Don Mahaffey - Canyon, TX
Paul Hermsmeyer (2) - NE (Yes monday)
Jason Hinez - NE (no monday)

Looking forward to the gathering.
Cheers

P.S.
Other threads of note:
Original outing thread -
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=107
Black Mesa Thread -
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=97
Paa-Ko Ridge Thread -
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=75

[A_Clay_Man]

Since Pinon Hills is on a Monday how many will not be making the short 3 hr. drive to Farmington and/or have to get back to the world before Monday?

[Mike Hendren]

Mike, thank you for putting this together.  In my GCA freshman year I have already participated in the King's Putter with fabulous extra-curricular activity  been to America's heartland   and am scheduled to head across the pond in October.  No need to press my luck, though the opportunity to meet Golf's Most Beloved is tempting.  

This post is for the site's newbies.  Based upon my experiences this year, I strongly suggest you attend one of these get-togethers, even if you've never made the acquaintance of anybody in the treehouse.  The golf is great and the venues are interesting, but the fellowship is superb.  I would describe the mood as collegial, with plenty of fun, laughter and education.  You will likely be thanked for attending.  Just do it.

Regards,

Mike

[THuckaby2]

Concur with the esteemed Mr. Hendren - having been to and organized a few UNOFFICIAL gatherings myself, I can attest that these get togethers are darn fun, although we'll see what an OFFICIAL gathering such as this holds in store...

 

Adam - it's 99% certain that I shall have to get back to the fake world Sun night, as much as it will kill me to miss Pinon Hills, a course I've been wanting to play for many years.  Oh well.

TH

[Steve Lang]

Adam..
I don't realistically expect we'll be able to make it to Farmington on Monday, but you never know..  We'll play it by ear.. if nothing is pressing I'd certainly rather play than work!

Mike..
Looking forward to it all, Sheila and I are planning to play some from the "white tees".. as we've been doing for the last couple of months, where she can now break 90 on a good day.  Is there a clear differentiation of handicaps in the group to help establish some playing orders or some competitions.. best ball anyone?

[Mike Nuzzo]

Mr. Lang -
I've added the scorecard image to the Black Mesa thread or go to http://www.blackmesagolfclub.com

Paa-Ko Ridge
http://www.paakoridge.com/courseinfo/scorecard.asp
The ratings/slope aren't listed and are as follows...
Black - 75.2/138
Blue 73.1/134
Green 70.8/130
Brown (men) 68.6/122
Gray (men) 66.2/119
Brown (women) 74.6/141
Gray (women) 71.8/134

Pinon Hills:
http://www.farmington.nm.us/depts/parks/golf/phills.html

[Bill_McBride]

Adam or Mike Nuzzo,
I am planning to play Saturday at Black Mesa so will stay in Santa Fe Friday night.  Sunday I'm playing at Paa-Ko so plan to move down to Albuquerque after golf Saturday.  Can't make Pinon Hills on Monday (leaving early Tuesday a.m.), so plan to play Santa Ana Monday and stay on in ABQ.  Does that sound like the best plan?  It looks like a good distance from Santa Fe to Paa-Ko; is it closer from ABQ to Paa-Ko?
Thanks.

[THuckaby2]

My plan for this would be pretty much the same as Bill's - that is, get in Fri night, play Sat-Sun, fly home Sun night.  Any thoughts on where to fly into/out of and a realistic time for flight out would be very much appreciated.  When it comes to NM I am geographically illiterate.

Thanks!

TH

[George Pazin]

I'd like to tack on a trip to Don Mahaffey's course in Texas & Tom D's new one at Texas Tech on either end of the trip. Please email or message me if you're interested in joining me & if you have a preference on which end of the trip to add this.

g@sgscreenprinting.com

[Michael Whitaker]

I'm flying into ABQ late Thursday afternoon.
I'd like to be included in a game on Friday.
Saturday, Sunday, & Monday as scheduled.
Flying out of ABQ on Tues morning.

I could use some info on travel time between the various destinations:

How far from to ABQ to Santa Fe hotel? How far from Santa Fe to Farmington? Etc...

Any way we could coordinate the sharing of rental vehicles?

[Mike Nuzzo]

Bill-
Great that you're coming, but I'd hate for you to miss Saturday evenings festivities in Santa Fe.  Which will include dinner and a presentation (at this point, depending on # of participants).  Don't forget we're going to be playing 36 on Sat (starting early).  The times at Paa-Ko will start a little later, accordingly.  It's obviously everyones choice.
My return trip from Pinon to ABQ isn't firmed up yet.

Tom-
ABQ
I fly Southwest.
Sunday's round at Paa-Ko should start around 9-10am.  Should finish by 3.  Followed by a potential round table session.  ABQ is about 30 minutes from Paa-Ko.

George-
Mabye Dan will keep on rollin'.  Keep me abreast of your plans.

Mike-
About an hour from ABQ to Santa Fe (north).  30 min from Santa Fe to Black Mesa (north).  A little under an hour taking rte. 14 (a neat little road) from Santa Fe to Paa-Ko (south).  Adam says a short 3 hour drive to Farmington (from either local).

Cheers

[THuckaby2]

Miguel - perfecto - muchas gracias.

Tomas

[A_Clay_Man]

I will try to be more exact on travel times. As Mike says there is short cut (45min-1 hr straight shot) to Paa Ko from santa fe (14?), versus all freeway, where you'd need to go all the way around abq to the I-40 then climb the Sandia mtns. from the south. From Paa-ko to Farmington I'd guess over 3 hrs. I might suggest going west on the I-40 to hwy 371 (Bisti hwy) pronounced biss-stye. According to one of our resident photog's the Bisti hwy is a photographers dream. The other route is the 550 which is rich in topographical and geological interest too and is a straight shot up to the four corners from Bernallio which is 20 mins north of the I-40 and 35 mins south of sante fe.

[A_Clay_Man]

Vertibrae and joints notwithstanding, Texas tech and paulo duro(?) leading up to Saturday? say Wednesday, thursday? Anyone? Magic bus?

[Jonathan Cummings]

Mike - count me in.

Jonathan Cummings
Bethesda, MD

[A_Clay_Man]

Mike- Please confirm Paul hermsmeyer as a twosome.

Ok here are some other things to think about:

Equiptment: Some of you may want to bring your travelling clubs, especially if you have some New $$ stuff. The reason being that if you should hit a wayward shot and find the native areas, the likelyhood of having some form of rock in your swing is great. At Pinon, we play a rock rule, but It is still recommended to anyone who spent serious bling to bring an older set.

more to follow

[RJ_Daley]

How about bringing an old extra 8-9 iron rescue club, and bend the rules if that excedes 14 bag limit?

I am still interested in driving and staying a couple days in Nebraska, and moving south on hwy 83 to Don's course and Texas TEch, before heading to this series of official events.  I'd even be interested in leaving Farmington for Delta and Redlands Mesa before heading back to the midwest.  

An alternative would be to fly into Lubbock, rent a car, do the Texas two step, drive to NM and do all that, drop the car there and go home.  That leaving the potential for one or two other guys to do the same thing and share the car rental and rooms.  

Any interested in either joining me and sharing driving on the odyssee of  NE, TX, NM, CO, NE again; or the fly and drive TX, NM thing, let me know.  

[Bill_McBride]

Mike Nuzzo, thanks for the heads up about Saturday evening dinner and program, I have changed ABQ arrival to Sunday evening after Paa-Ko.  Should be fun!

[Mike Nuzzo]

Bill
Thank you for asking, it gave me the opportunity me to clarify.

RJ
That's sounding pretty good, keep us posted.

Adam and all,
Black Mesa's native areas are quite fine, and not too damaging.
During last trip to Black Mesa, I pounded a few out of the stuff without fear of harming my MP-33s.  As for Paa-Ko it's a little tougher to get your balls back in play, as it's quite dense.  But you really shouldn't be there.
I've never seen Pinion, would we need to bring a spare putter too?

[A_Clay_Man]

Mike- Very funny. For those that don't know, Mike has posted the signature hole at PH. Currently playing as the sixth hole this par 3 is the one with nine tee boxes. From the golds it plays 236 yds from the mesa visible in the picture on the extreme left side. You can just make out the green grass on this smaller sized mesa. Back in the day there were wooden steps leading up to this isolated mesa. Now, there is a cart path up the hill. Needless to say, the new look is nowhere, compared to days of old. Mario Ulibarri gave an extensive talk on just this hole, back several years ago at the gcsaa convention. The wash is played as a waste area and a few years ago after a record rainfall, Alan came to work only to find all that sand down around 30th street.

Obvious to me that the entire course was routed around this hole. I understand that there were three original routing plans, with minimal differences in the actual holes, mostly dealing with where the entrance to the course was going to be. I'll see if I can get my hands on them.

This originally was the 15th hole. The drama starts on the previous hole with an all arroyo carry on the 347 par 4. Then you play this hole and it really is unique occupying this canyon section all by itself. The tag on this hole is that you don't want to make birdie, for fear of being first to tee off the next. The climb up to the next hole is notorious for making tri-athletes reavaluate their conditioning.

[Mike Nuzzo]

Howdy,
I've been modifying my initial post to list the current participants.  New Mexico got a little bit of ink in Golfweek.  Hopefully Mr. Klein got a little further away from the airport.
Cheers

[Don_Mahaffey]

For those of you who make the trip over to my course (4 hr drive east on I-40 from Alb.) I will host you for golf and lunch if in return you will fill out a short survey about what you see we need to do to improve our operation. Always interested in input from such a knowledgable group. The new Doak course in about 90 minutes south of me. It is definitly worth the trip! Hope to see some of you in Sep. (we do have a large outing booked in the AM on Fri. the 19th)

[A_Clay_Man]

All those interested in Don's offer, may I suggest we meet there on Wednesday. TT Thursday (?)

Friday, I must recommend Twin Warriors. If anyone saw the PGa of America's Championship this weekend on the Golf Channel, the course really does have many elements that we emulate, save for walkability.

Also, I went out last night at 7 pm and played the back nine at Riverside. The similar topography to Sand Hills is accentuated in the setting sun. Tentatively, those treking up to Farmington Sunday, would be remiss not to see this wind swept nine holes with 3 3's 3 4's and 3 5's. A great match play nine with all the par fives reachable for the bigger hitter.

I know it's asking alot, but the front nine at Riverview is a real quandry. My opinion is that the greensites on the front are in need of a different maintenance practice to bring out the crowned greens and surrounds. As it is maintained now, with rough, the ability to play multiple shots is reduced to a serious of flops rather than rolls.

[Bill_McBride]

I'm getting ready to go out of the country for a couple of weeks so called the Radisson Santa Fe to confirm my hotel room for September.  The sales department has just notified the reservations department of the group booking which Mike Nuzzo has arranged, so it is now officially okay to book rooms there at the $129 rate.  Should be beautiful up there in late September.

[Matt_Ward]

Just had the opportunity the other day to play Paa-Ko Ridge again (4th time) and I have to say hats-off to the club for the fine turf conditions and repeat how superb the Ken Dye design truly is. I played there last September and the course was quite wet and very much different than what I had experienced during my initial visit back in '01. The situation has clearly improved and the magic of Paa-Ko is certainly there in a big way.

My only issue is the quirkiness of the par-3 4th, but that's a small aside to the totality of the course. The key at Paa-Ko IMHO is to drive the ball quite well (distance and accuracy) and to score well on the demanding par-3's.

I did not have the layout among my personal top 50 when that thread appeared a few weeks ago but I would say the course certainly has the "juice" to be a part of that grouping now.

Also, played Twin Warriors yesterday and the course was playing extremely feisty as a testing wind of 20-25 mph was blowing and the course was still in the same shape that the club pro's played when their PGA National event was played there last week.

Twin Warriors doesn't have the design elegance / versatility of Paa-Ko, but you must bring your game ready to play. At TW the tee game is a must and with the rough averaging 4-5 inches in many spots you can't for a moment begin to spray the ball around. The putting surfaces were also quite firm and fast and if you drifted just a bit in concentration you would be paying a steep price.

The folks going on the NM trip I'm sure will enjoy themselves with these layouts and the others planned. I'm off to Black Mesa today to see the course for a third time and will report back with an update.

P.S. I said this before -- you can take the top 5-6 public layouts in NM and they will compete ahead of most other states in that particular category with the exception of certain selected states that have a very deep public offering.