Albuquerque Golf  

Overall:

Accommodations:

Golf:

Night Life:

Value:

Albuquerque, NM

Hotel: Sandia Resort & Casino

Courses:

Paa-Ko Ridge Golf Club - Paa-Ko Ridge Course

University of New Mexico-Championship Course

Review

Wiz: If a tumble weed comes to rest on your ball, what is the ruling?  This is a very real scenario at Black Mesa Golf course.  Imagine a scene from a 60’s western, then throw a golf course in between the desert mountains.  Beautiful, desolate and a must play.  I half expected to see Clint Eastwood ride out ride out from behind the bluffs with my ball. "This belong to you punk?" I know I mixed a little Dirty Harry with Pale Rider but, work with me. 

Wiz: Upon first inspection, I thought the Sandia casino was great.  I settled into a table and prepared to take down the house.  Parched from the desert air, I was more than ready for my favorite libation when Betty White pulled up next to me pushing a library cart to take my order. "Grey Goose and tonic please" I spouted gleefully. “We only serve coffee and water at the tables.  You can only have alcohol at the bar.” I guess the theory is that all of the walking back and forth to the bar to keep your liver well hydrated will make you sweat out the alcohol before you get back to the table.  

It seems like all Indian casinos have peculiar drinking rules.  I suspect it stems from the days of the Wild West when the Injuns (…oops Native Americans) used to get liquored up on firewater and shoot up the town with their Winchesters.  Perhaps if they had to walk to the bar for a drink and then back to their rifle, there would have been less trouble. 

10kk: It is awfully hard to break the house when the strongest thing served is black coffee.  I am no gambler; however, I have on occasion won five or six hundred bucks playing cards.  One of the best parts of sitting @ a Black Jack table is free booze and the chance to win a couple a bucks, Sandia doesn't score well in either category.  The tables were not great and the Jack was not within easy reach.  Overall, the hotel was fine, beautiful mountain views and a good value.  However, if you don't like being greeted by the smell of smoke every morning and having your clothes reek the entire day then maybe the Indian Casino experience isn't for you.  Perhaps the staff's need to send "smoke signals" for wake up calls was a contributing factor, or maybe it was a packed house full of locals loosing money while smoking the "peace pipe".  

After an early round, we decided to take a ride on the longest "tram" in America.

Wiz: A trip on the tramway to the top of Sandia Peak is rewarded with great views and a watering hole at the summit. It is substantially colder at the top and snow can be plentiful so dress accordingly.  Be sure to be at the tram station in time for the return trip to the bottom or you may miss your ride back to the hotel. 

10kk: What The Wiz doesn't tell you is that if one of your golfing buddies feels the need to  return to the tables, he may want to make sure that everyone he brought is in the car before he leaves a snowy mountain in New Mexico.  Budget Bob has a phrase and a lifestyle "Stop and smell the roses"-this equates to always take time to enjoy what you are doing-don't rush.  Buzz Kill's motto, "what's next?", is the polar opposite.

The ride to  the top of Mt. Sandia was breathtaking.  Dangling from a cable hundreds of feet in the air makes you hope the engineer who designed it didn't have a hangover the day his professor covered load capacity.

The other highlight is the bar on the mountain top.  While BB and I were smelling the roses and knocking back a couple of cold ones, the 5:15 tram left the Mountain top.  Buzz Kill and Wiz were perched in the front of the gondola like the hood ornament on a Buick while Bob is telling me to "relax, another comes back up the mountain @ 5:45".  "We will catch that one."  Bear in mind that at the top of a snow covered mountain in New Mexico, cell phone service is less reliable than a '79 Yugo so there was no way to comfirm that our group would be waiting for us at the bottom.  As we reached the bottom of the mountain, some 30 minutes later, we discovered that our buddies had flown the coop.  With a convenient Mexican bar nearby and Budget Bob beginning to boil, I thought the best way to cool down was a couple of "Blood Orange Margaritas". Well, the more more cooling down we did the madder BB got. By the time our wayward crew returned, our 'Blood" meter was reaching critical levels.  The fun trip to see the breathtaking New Mexican sunset turned into a big $#ssing contest.  The other guys trying to teach a lesson on punctuality and us realizing that life is short, so  savor every drop.  After dinner and several apologies, we all had a good laugh and agreed on a new golf buddy rule. 

"No man left behind"- especially when you are in New Mexico in the dead of winter. 

Wiz: Overall, fabulous hotel, fabulous courses, a bit of driving involved for this itinerary but, well worth it. Our usually reliable money saving “book in the shoulder season” rule can back fire on you here. We had to scramble to stay ahead of a late season snow storm and I froze my twig and berries off at UNM. 

10kk: The University of New Mexico has a great course, however you may want to consider playing when it isn't 25 degrees and blowing snow. A great  experience, but one I don't need to repeat.

Wiz: You miss running around like a pod of Walruses with frozen snot stalactites dangling from your nose? 

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