Red Hawk Links Style Golf Course NM

New Updated Review

Red Hawk Golf Club Review
Uriel Ortega



Red Hawk Golf Club is the newest golf course in the Las Cruces Area. It was designed by Ken Dye who has designed many well known golf projects around the world. The course covers 200 acres in the natural desert of Southern New Mexico and it features link-style golf designs such as deep rough, large greens and enormous sand traps and water hazards. The course specifically has 5 lakes, 76 bunkers, and the surrounding desert plant life serves as more danger due to the tall rough. Although the course has large open fairways, play can become rather difficult rapidly.The course also features a nice restaurant and full service bar


Practice Facilities

The course also features a spectacular practice facility complete with short game and bunker practice greens, oversize putting greens, and a range which makes it a great place to practice.

Pricing for Practice Balls:
$4 Small Bucket
$7 Large Bucket


Course Rating

Red Hawk Golf Club offers 6 different tee boxes that range from 7505 yards to 5505 yards so anyone can find a comfortable or challenging tee box for their game. The slope rating as determined by the USGA is shown below



Pricing

The prices for this course are quite reasonable, this is the most expensive course in town, but the price includes a cart, as well as wonderful service from the employees at the course. The employees pick up the golf bags and load them on the gas powered cart and they clean off each persons clubs when they return from their round. The course also has various seasonal specials such as family night, couples night and other special promotions.

These promotions can be found here:

http://golflascruces.com/2012-weekly-summer-activities/




The Golf Carts
The golf carts are quite large and are gas powered. They can easily accommodate large staff bags and they feature a built in ball cleaner and club cleaner.



Course App and Animated Flyover

Red Hawk golf club developed a free android and iphone app that can be used as a golf GPS to help golfers with their yardages. They also have an animated course flyover so golfers can see holes in detail and have their plan of attack ready before they play. I find these to be very helpful and I frequently use them before I go play the course.



Course App can be downloaded here:
http://golflascruces.com/download-the-red-hawk-golf-club-app/

Course Animated Flyover Can be found here:
http://www.bestapproachflyovers.com/RHW_redhawk/

Hole By Hole Tips

Hole 1-Par 4:


Hole 2-Par 4



Hole 3-Par 3


Hole 4-Par 4



Hole 5-Par 5



Hole 6-Par 4



Hole 7-Par 3



Hole 8-Par 5



Hole 9-Par 4




The wide open fairways with the thickest rough I've seen and the deepest bunkers I've played made this course extremely difficult.
The fact that this course is nestled in the middle of the treacherous desert makes it both dangerous and peaceful, it's strangely quiet most of the time. Although it is not on the ocean, the high winds and various bodies of water makes it a beautiful links style golf course. This rough is so thick that you seriously have to take a penalty and drop because locating the ball can be extremely hard.

overall I was really impressed by this course and even at $50 a person, I believe it is still worth playing here regularly. Anyone who travels through this area should stop and play at Red hawk!

Pros:
Beautiful course
open fairways
gas carts
free iPod app
Great Practice Facility

Cons:
Deep Deep Rough
Expensive Rates
Long holes
High Winds
Water
Tall wide bunkers

Miscellaneous Photographs of the Course

Dude that course looks friggin' awesome.

Oh, and if that's an expensive course..you're so lucky. Those are great rates.

Those rates are awesome for that course.. Try finding something in California for under $60 with a cart on the weekend. Hard to do unless you go muni, and most of the time Id rather go to the driving range...

That place looks awesome!!

Yeah I was impressed, $50-$60 is nothing and if I walk it's 25 and the monday special is $10 I can't beat that. I found my new monday golf place! It was a really hard course to play the rough was so thick and solid contact was almost impossible!

Steel President said:

Oh, and if that's an expensive course..you're so lucky. Those are great rates.

Click to expand...

Yeah the most I've ever paid here at a course was $60 we have it good down here haha look at me complaining about a $50 green fee!

I've played there a couple of times, and it is TOUGH! The only flat spots are the tee boxes. The short game practice area is great too, I have spent some time there. It is really a nice setup.

Expensive? I pay that for the terrible courses around here. The good ones are 75+.

Man, I can't even play a goattrack for those prices and that course looks amazing. Gonna be in Santa Fe in October, might have to drop down and check it out

Uriel, that is a beautiful course! The old "oasis in the desert" look.

Those rates really aren't bad, pretty normal for around here... Even on the lower side if compared to the fancier places in Dallas.

On a side note, just looked at where you lived - I lived in Cruces as a kid, then Albuquerque in my early 20s.

I was out there over Memorial Day w/e and my dad took me to look at the course. It is very pretty with the mountains/desert backdrops. For that part of the country, $50 is pricey for golf. The cost of living down there is some of the lowest in the US.

The interesting thing I noticed was the fairway grass, which is a bent/blue hybrid. It's not grainy and basically grows straight up. I didn't get a chance to play. But, hope to next time I'm in LC.

How would you LC/El Paso folks compare this to Painted Dunes? That is a nice track, also.

Very nice looking course. This is a picture I took from when I experienced NM golf for the first time last year. Sandia Golf Club...

staticline said:

How would you LC/El Paso folks compare this to Painted Dunes? That is a nice track, also.

Click to expand...

I enjoy Dunes quite a bit. Red Hawk is quite a bit more difficult in my opinion, and since it is more expensive, it doesn't seem to get as much traffic, so It tends to play faster as long as you are good enough to stay out of trouble! I actually think my 2 favorites in this area are Red Hawk and Butterfield Trail, but they are 2 of the most expensive in the area. I also like the NMSU course, and Sonoma Ranch, but depending on the day both of the last 2 get a lot of use and can be pretty backed up.

Steel President said:

Dude that course looks friggin' awesome.

Click to expand...

Steel President said:

Oh, and if that's an expensive course..you're so lucky. Those are great rates.

Click to expand...

This^^^. I could not agree more Steel President.

spazzdog said:

Uriel, that is a beautiful course! The old "oasis in the desert" look.

Those rates really aren't bad, pretty normal for around here... Even on the lower side if compared to the fancier places in Dallas.

On a side note, just looked at where you lived - I lived in Cruces as a kid, then Albuquerque in my early 20s.

Click to expand...

That's awesome!

Yeah look at us complaining, we got it lucky down here! I can go to an of the courses for around $25 with a student rate it's pretty cool!

I really do think this course is worth playing it's really awesome

I'm going to play here again tonight, it's that fun and I'm going to the $10 with cart family night, it's really an awesome place to play at and it's worth the 30 minute drive into the desert.

I played there this past Wednesday. A beautiful course. I shot 88 from the blues (the white tees on most other courses) not good for me. I played target golf off the tee as bunkers can come into play on most par 4s and 5s. I had trouble on approach shots and around the green. I had more then 1 shot to the green hit a blind downslope. I seemed to miss the greens in worst spot for the pins. The greens are in great shape and some are difficult to read as they can take a completely different look from one side to the other. Not bad, just new to me. The rates are great for the golf course, $30 for a weekday. Thanks Uriel for the tip on Red Hawk.

Kknudson said:

I played there this past Wednesday. A beautiful course. I shot 88 from the blues (the white tees on most other courses) not good for me. I played target golf off the tee as bunkers can come into play on most par 4s and 5s. I had trouble on approach shots and around the green. I had more then 1 shot to the green hit a blind downslope. I seemed to miss the greens in worst spot for the pins. The greens are in great shape and some are difficult to read as they can take a completely different look from one side to the other. Not bad, just new to me. The rates are great for the golf course, $30 for a weekday. Thanks Uriel for the tip on Red Hawk.

Click to expand...

It's really one of the best courses to play in the area, it's really entertaining but it's real hard to play if the distance to the landing areas aren't judged properly and the greens are some of the most treacherous greens I've ever seen. Hitting the wrong area can result in a ball bouncing into the desert, the rough, or off the green entirely.The other thing I've noticed there is that hitting the wrong area on the green leaves a massive slope up or down.

I love this course and it's real worth the drive.

this par 3 is the hardest i've played, i've hit the green and it bounced off into the water or sand or rolled off the back into the water since it's an island green basically

I realized the hard way that a rangefinder is a must on this course!

If Red Hawk was 30 minutes closer to my home, it would be my home course. Fort Bliss, with two 18 hole courses that are in great shape is still Home. I look forward to playing Red Hawk again.

Yeah me too, even their practice facility is one of the best that I've seen in this area, a designated putting area with two huge greens, and a huge designated short game practice are as well as all sorts of bunkers, it's such a great course to practice in but unfortunately there are two other courses that are still closer to me than red hawk so I practice at the other two.

The contraction doesn't help either in that area cause it adds another 5-10 minutes of driving time.


Here is a link to all the hole by hole tips in case anyone ever plays there

http://golflascruces.com/course-tips/

such a pretty course though!

oh my dear Lord... next summer i'm driving to New Mexico with: my wallet, my clubs, a sleeping bag, and a pillow.. that's all there is to it.

Oregon Jack said:

oh my dear Lord... next summer i'm driving to New Mexico with: my wallet, my clubs, a sleeping bag, and a pillow.. that's all there is to it.

Click to expand...

Yeah dude, it's the best golf course around, it's really hard but such a great experience

leiruagetro said:

Yeah dude, it's the best golf course around, it's really hard but such a great experience

Click to expand...

i could use a challenge.. courses around there just look so beautiful... hopefully by then i'll have cured the snap-hook that creeps up one me once and a while, so i won't even have to worry about the snakes..