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- Golf in Southern New Mexico - swinging both ways
Golf in Southern New Mexico - swinging both ways
- By Mary Bishop
- Published 01/9/2003
- Of Interest
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Mary Bishop
Mary Bishop recently moved to Las Cruces from New England, where she was a freelance writer for a suburban newspaper and an editor/proofreader. She was a member of the Boston Writers' Union and wrote a screenplay that was placed with Woofenill Works, an agency in New York City. Waiting to sell that script, she prudently kept her day job (high school English teacher). Now she's retired and devoting her time to golf, chile and enjoying the scenes and sunshine of the Southwest.
View all articles by Mary BishopFor golfers in Southern New Mexico, there's some good news and some bad news. Sometimes an aspect of the game swings both ways. For example:
Wind
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If it's coming at him as he turns the corner and heads for the clubhouse, he can find himself squinting and wiping grit out of his eye, shoving the tee into the ground sideways just to keep the ball from blowing away before he has a chance to hit it. The arc of a club head changes dramatically when the player is leaning at a 45 degree pitch just to keep from falling over.
Altitude
A ball hit straight goes farther in the thin air, making more par-five greens accessible on a second shot.
A ball sliced or hooked also goes further in the thin air, setting up interesting excursions into the arroyos and cactus plants, looking for lost balls and tarantulas.
Birds
Roadrunners and quail get used to having peop
Ducks at artificial water hazards ignore the balls raining down around their heads and provide lots of sticky fertilizer pellets.
Sunshine
The chances of getting rained out are virtually nil. The quality of light gets surreal in the late afternoon, with sunsets to die for.
The chances of getting a farmer's tan (face, neck, forearms) are virtually certain. Those who have been out here playing for years in visors look particularly haggard from the cheeks down.
Apparel
Ladies' groups have been known to attend golf fashion shows and turn out for their foursomes in color-coordinated outfits and matching caps, particularly on festive occasions like St. Patrick's Day or the semi-annual Firecracker Scramble. Gentlemen, especially newcomers, may drift into the Rodney Dangerfield style of attire.
A lean-and-mean cowboy golfer in faded blue jeans, carrying his own clubs in a beat-up bag, can play through with a courteous tip of his hat, and no one minds a bit.
Cost
For anyone who has paid greens fees recently in California, Maine or Myrtle Beach, golf in Southern New Mexico is one of the world's great bargains, like going back in time to a better day.
Crowds
For anyone who has been herded onto a public course in the East, with tee-times scheduled like a cattle call, Southern New Mexico golf courses are the wide open spaces. What golfers here consider a crowded course, hackers in most parts of the country would call luxuriously private and deserted. Maybe that's why it's called the desert?
Democracy
The word to the commoner at private clubs in most parts of the country is, no-way. You do not belong, and you will not belong in your lifetime, ever. And you couldn't afford it even if we would let you in, which we won't.
The word to the commoner here is, welcome!