Brauer tabbed for redesign

Las Vegas, N.M. – Following New Mexico state legislature approval, New Mexico Highlands University is proceeding with a reconstruction of its nine-hole golf course and hired golf course architect Jeffrey D. Brauer to redesign it.

The university gave Brauer a mandate to turn the 50-year-old course into a challenging track that will attract native New Mexicans and visitors. Among Brauer’s latest projects, The Quarry at Giants Ridge in Biwabik, Minn., The Wilderness at Fortune Bay in Tower, Minn., and The Legacy Golf Club in Norwalk, Iowa, have all been awarded national honors.

Renamed Gene Torres Golf Course in honor of the university’s recently deceased golf pro, the new course is one of two related projects at New Mexico Highlands. The school also received legislative approval and financing to resurrect a plan to develop a 200-home community on the 165-acre property around the golf course. The development began in the early 1950s but never materialized, according to NMHU director of development George DuFour.

“The university and community need to work together as one,” says DuFour. “We have some good challenges up ahead, but need a good golf course.”

Brauer intends to provide a quality golf course. He says the town and the property aren’t lacking for character.

“Las Vegas is in the mountains, and there are good views around the course,” he says. “The property contains flat flood plain and upper hills, and we will use both, along with existing tree lines, to provide some exciting golf.”

Brauer is designing a traditional, Donald Ross-style layout. Ross is famous for using a site’s topography to its fullest potential.

“We’ve asked Jeff to provide us with a golf course that is going to be a challenge to play,” says DuFour. “We understand that because we are in the high-plain desert and face water restrictions, it will be a challenge. But we’re sure he will provide a fine product where there is now a pretty pitiful one.”

Brauer is no stranger to such tests. He recently undertook a complete redesign of the Creek Course at Indian Creek Golf Course in Carrollton, Texas, and turned it into the seventh-best among Golf Digest’s Best New Affordable Golf Courses for 2004.

Brauer says the contractor, who will be chosen through the request-for-proposal process, should be selected in October.

DuFour says that because the clubhouse is an historic building, no exterior changes can be made, but improvements will be made to dress up the interior and make it compatible to Americans with Disabilities Act regulations.

“Las Vegas has a population of about 20,000 and sits on I-25 outside Santa Fe, so when the ‘snow birds’ come down from the North and East, they stop here,” DuFour says. “Now they will have a place to play golf and spend money within the community. We are in a very good position. Over the next five to seven years we will sell off the housing lots, and there will be our community for golfers.”

Brauer and his firm, GolfScapes, have designed 48 golf courses and remodeled more than 80.