PAA-Ko Ridge Golf Club - New Mexico, U.S.A.

Paa-Ko Ridge is a public course of exquisite beauty set in the eastern foothills of the Sandia Mountains above Albuquerque, just off New Mexico's scenic, winding Highway 14, named the Turquoise Trail after the turquoise mines that once flourished in the area. There are ruins of ancient Anasazi Indian dwellings nearby, and Paa-Ko takes its name from the Anasazi "root of the cottonwood tree." The course features stunning elevation changes and carries to broad, bluegrass fairways garlanded with pinon pines, cedars, prickly pear, and barrel cacti, with views of the Estancia Valley below. Golf course architect Ken Dye and his partner Baxter Spann have made their reputations creating courses that flow effortlessly through the mesas and mesquite of New Mexico's high mountain desert.

Black Mesa Golf Club - New Mexico, U.S.A.

Black Mesa Golf Club is a stunning course that streams through the New Mexican high desert on the Santa Clara Pueblo 30 minutes north of Santa Fe. Opened in 2003, Black Mesa was designed by Baxter Spann of the firm of Finger Dye Spann, whose partner Ken Dye is responsible for two other New Mexico gems, Pinon Hilis and Paa-Ko Ridge. Spann did not try to alter the terrain, but instead fitted swirling fairways and dollops of green between crowns of sandstone and rocky gullies cut by ancient arroyos. Spann created big pin wheeling bunkers and oversized greens in the natural depressions that are surrounded by wiry wild grasses and juniper bushes.