With all that we have gone through this year, I was eagerly looking forward to my time at Paako Ridge golf club in Sandia Park NM-  about 40 miles east of Albuquerque. Paa-Ko is a place that combines the beauty of the southwest with the challenge of a great golf course.

The Ken Dye course is carved into the juniper forests on the east side of the Sandia Mountains. It winds its way through the trees and red rock landscape to present a place that is unlike anything else in the state. I was struck by how amazingly quiet it was. There was no freeway sounds, no aeroplanes flying overhead, and the only thing I heard was the wind making its way through the trees. It was fantastic.

Paako Ridge was built in 2000 and has been consistently ranked as one of the best courses in the state and Golf Advisor rated it #1 in 2017. The course is open March 1st through December 1st but make sure you call ahead; the course is only a short drive to the local ski area and make no mistake they get snow. I also can’t say enough about the staff at this course during my visit.

I not only met the general manager Patrick Fogarty, but many of his grounds crew – they were very kind and very proud of the grounds they worked on. During their morning preparations, I watched them hand rake every bunker. The greens had a team that went to each one, mowed them and then rolled them to perfection.

Paako is not a place you want to just stop by for a quick round; it’s a place to enjoy. Paako Ridge allows you to let go of all of the things we are dealing with in the news and allow yourself time to decompress. It gives you an opportunity to take in the beauty of the southwest and enjoy the game we all love in an amazing setting.

The Albuquerque area sees its biggest tourism during the first full week in October as thousands of people come from all over the world for the International Balloon Fiesta. During this event, they put hundreds of hot air balloons up in the sky, and the colors are amazing. Almost every year it is the most photographed event in the world. Paa-ko ridge would be a great spot if you are coming to town for something like that. If you’re staying in Santé Fe, you can come down highway 14 play a round of golf and then head into the town of Madrid to see some of the spots where movies like Conspiracy, Wild Hogs and the Far Side of Jericho were filmed.

When it came to playing the course it is such a unique layout that you have to take your time and study each hole and think about where you want to place your shot. At 6800 feet above sea level, the ball does go much further, and in some places, a well-hit drive can go through the fairway and into the rough. The rough on this course is sand tree bark and red rocks, not a place you want to hit out of.

The course also offers a wide range of tee boxes to fit any skill level. On two of the holes I played, they had two completely different tee areas. One was a very straight forward par three-shot and the second was a tee box that was about 35 feet above the first and gave you a magnificent view of the hole. The challenge was not to do what I did and take the wrong club and sail it over the green.

The course doesn’t have a ton of water or sand traps that are so deep you need a ladder to get in and out of. What it does have are large greens. At first, that might sound great, but many of the greens have two or three different levels and if your approach shot isn’t on the same one as the hole it is very easy to three-putt or have your ball roll off and onto the fringe.

It’s not a course that won’t give you a chance to play well, but it is a course that will bite you if you are careless. Paako Ridge has hosted US Open senior qualifying and west Texas amateur events so it can hold its own with even the best players.

If anyone is going to make a trip out of the hot, humid weather that many of our great readers live in and get into the dry air of the southwest, then seriously consider this course – I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.