The heart of Rainmakers is the masterpiece of a championship golf course created by Robert Trent Jones II, one of the most celebrated architects in the golf world. Carved into high mountain walls with meandering arroyos and natural rock outcroppings to frame a panoramic 18-hole journey, it is acclaimed as one of the finest courses to play in the Southwest. Indeed, Golf Digest named it one of the Top 10 Private Courses in 2009. Equally significant, it is the only course in New Mexico to earn the coveted Audubon Signature Sanctuary status.

The golf course weaves through acres of protected lands, which is appropriate for a community equally bound by reverence for the game and the natural world that supports it. We wake up with the sun and stay up late to chase daylight down our fairways. With each hole at Rainmakers offering four to six sets of tee boxes and stunning scenery, Rainmakers is simply astonishing golf.

It is 7,110 yards, a certainly playable distance for low handicappers, thanks in part to being set at more than 7,000 feet in elevation. Elk, deer, bobcats, and even black bears are also common visitors. And the resident elk herd is healthy enough that the course has even implemented a local rule that allows golfers to improve their lie should any shot come to rest inside an elk track.

“We developed the golf course with the utmost sensitivity to protecting and enhancing the natural splendor of the site. Our success was confirmed by Audubon International, which named Rainmakers as the first Signature Sanctuary course in New Mexico.” —Robert Trent Jones II