Isleta Eagle Golf Course

Isleta Eagle Golf Course at Isleta Resort & Casino is one of the Southwest's most ambitious 27-hole public-access facilities, a Bill Phillips design that opened in 1996 as the golf anchor of the Pueblo of Isleta's resort-casino complex just south of Albuquerque. Phillips is the Phoenix-based architect who also co-designed Towa at Buffalo Thunder (Santa Fe) with Hale Irwin, and Isleta Eagle is one of his earlier-career signature Southwest works. The three independent nine-hole tracts are each designed around and named after their primary topographic features: The Lakes Nine (water-forward), Arroyo Nine (desert-wash routing), and Mesa Nine (elevated mesa-topography). Each nine was routed sympathetically around the natural beauty of the Rio Grande bosque corridor, giving the course a resort-like character with distinct playing voices across the three nines. The pueblo-style adobe clubhouse and championship practice range sit at the center of the layout, with spectacular views of all three nines and the Sandia Mountains framing the eastern horizon. Isleta Eagle is nestled at the edge of the spectacular Bosque along the Rio Grande's riverbanks, a genuinely unusual natural setting for a desert-Southwest course. For the Santa Fe / Albuquerque trip visitor, Isleta Eagle pairs naturally with Sandia Golf Club (Scott Miller, 2005), Paa-Ko Ridge (Ken Dye), and Towa at Buffalo Thunder for a three-to-four-round central New Mexico destination-golf package.