Club Rio Rancho, CLOSED 2016

Detailed description of Club Rio Rancho, CLOSED 2016

Club Rio Rancho, previously a private 27 hole golf course named Chamisa Hills Country Club, is a Semi-Private, 18 hole golf facility located in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Chamisa Hills had three, 9-hole courses all designed by different architects. The nine hole courses were The North Course, The East Course, and The West Course. They could be combined to form 3 different 18-hole golf courses, N/W, N/E, and E/W.

Chamisa Hills Golf first opened for play in 1970 with the opening of The East nine and The West Nine. The East Nine was designed by Gene Sarazen. The West Nine was designed by Desmond Muirhead. In 1988 Lee Trevino constructed the North nine.

The architects developed three quite different but equally challenging nines. In doing so, they succeed by creating 27-holes of championship golf that high and low handicappers alike could enjoy. Shot placement is extremely crucial as deciduous trees are strategically placed throughout the course.

Care was taken during the development of the Golf and Country Club community to maintain property lines that would not interfere with the play on this classic course layout. The fairways feature primarily Bluegrass, and the greens consist of Seaside Bent.

The North Nine was closed in 2013, leaving the original Sarazen designed East Nine and the Muirhead designed West Nine.

The plan is to sell the North Nine to Pulte Homes for residential housing development. The sales price is for a reported 3 million dollars. According to course owner Jhett Browne, the money would be used to service the debt and put The course on a sound economic footing so that it could remain a course for years to come.

The course closed at the end of December 2016.