Top Weekend Getaways
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| Fellow golf lovers will be green with envy when they discover you've played Sonoma Ranch Golf Course and other scenic courses in New Mexico's second largest city. |
Golfer’s Delight
Location: Las Cruces
What to bring: sunscreen, Hawaiian shirt, wrist splint
Las Cruces’s putting grounds boast 350 days of sunshine a year, a statistic well known to the city’s snowbirds and retirees, and making it a great year-round golf destination.
To take full advantage of New Mexico’s golfing mecca, book the “Stay & Play” packages offered by three top-notch hotels. At the conveniently located Hampton Inn & Suites, two golfers get a night’s lodging, breakfast, and 18 holes at the New Mexico State University Golf Course (from $139). This course, host to three NCAA National Championships, features traditional and desert environments framed by the craggy Organ Mountains to the east and the Mesilla Valley to the west. Anyone can reserve tee times a week in advance, by phone or online.
After a morning round at NMSU, pop in to the nearby Boba Café and enjoy creative twists on your favorite salads, sandwiches, and soups, with beer and wine served all day. The sweet-potato fries are famously good, while the chatty, laid-back atmosphere promises leisurely people watching.
Views also abound at the Sonoma Ranch Golf Course, where designer Cal Olson has created a longish course strewn with bunkers and undulating bent-grass greens of varying difficulty. Rated 3.5 out of 4 stars by Golf Digest, this challenging course has five tee boxes, giving all handicaps a fair shot. Staybridge Suites offers packages that include lodging in a spacious suite, breakfast, and a round of golf for two, three, or four golfers (from $169).
You can play at both NMSU and Sonoma if you stay at the elegant Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces, where a night’s lodging, breakfast, and two rounds of golf for two at either course runs $270. Or you can go solo at the semiprivate Las Cruces Country Club, a traditional 18-hole course that calls itself “the friendliest golf course in New Mexico.”
Wherever you stay and play, unwind after the back nine in the village of Mesilla, where sundown finds tourists trolling the Plaza for the best margarita. A quiet, jazzy atmosphere and excellent pasta dishes can be found at Lorenzo’s de Mesilla, known for its fresh-baked bread, to be munched liberally with wine. Or if your score was as low as they go, consider a New Mexican feast as fiery as your game at the unabashedly touristy La Posta de Mesilla, well loved by residents and visitors alike. The chirpy tropical atmosphere includes live fish and birds in the lobby, plus a huge selection of tequilas and mescals that should help put any teetotaling competitors back in the hunt.
