Santa Ana Golf Club

Santa Ana Golf Club is a 27-hole public facility on Santa Ana Pueblo tribal land, 20 minutes north of Albuquerque, 35 minutes south of Santa Fe, and genuinely unusual among American public golf operations for its tribal ownership structure. Ken Killian and Ken Green designed the course across 270 acres of Pueblo land, opening in 1991 with three 9-hole loops (Cheena, Star, and Tamaya) that can be combined into three different 18-hole experiences. The New York Times has called Santa Ana 'one of America's three best true links-style golf courses', an extraordinary accolade that reflects the course's high-desert open terrain, natural fescue rough, and emphasis on firm-and-fast ground-game golf. The design philosophy rewards accuracy over power; carefully placed bunkers, water hazards, and rolling terrain make smart strategy the scoring path rather than raw distance. For the Santa Fe trip visitor, Santa Ana is the essential non-mountain-course round that shows off New Mexico's high-desert golf character, and the Pueblo ownership story adds genuine meaning to the round.