New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M. closed the Gene Torres Golf Course two years ago, but plans to refurbish the fairways and greens, and make upgrades to the clubhouse area. Housing developments are also planned on vacant swaths of land connected to the course. Projections suggest a healthy golf course with steady foot traffic will generate up to $500,000 a year before expenses.
The Gene Torres Golf Course in Las Vegas, N.M. has been closed for two years, but the New Mexico Highlands University leaders say their plans for the links-style course includes refurbished fairways and greens, upgrades to the clubhouse area and planned housing developments on vacant swaths of land connected to the course, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
The Board of Regents on April 22 unanimously approved a measure that will reopen its nine-hole golf course less than a month from now under a joint partnership of the university, city government and the county, the New Mexican reported.
“This is a big achievement of community entities brought together for one common goal,” said NMHU Regent Bill Garcia. “It’s been a long time coming.”
Garcia said NMHU will attempt to lure residents and educational professionals to Las Vegas with real estate in the area, the New Mexican reported. The university has been hit hard in recent years by dwindling student enrollment and, according to the latest census data, a 7 percent drop in population within San Miguel County.
“It is the university’s land and it’ll be up to us to develop it,” Garcia said. “Of course, if we do develop it, the city and county will benefit from the tax dollars that are generated, as well as infrastructure to promote bringing people to Las Vegas that we need in the professions and in our faculty, as well.”
Getting the golf course up and running is an important first step, the New Mexican reported.
“I couldn’t be happier about where we are right now,” said NMHU President Sam Minner during the meeting, which was held virtually at the same time several Las Vegas residents were dealing with mandatory evacuations due to nearby fires. “This will be a beautiful and wonderful thing to have this kind of collaboration in the community, the county, the city and Highlands. I’m very confident this can be successful, that it’s going to happen.”
The course opened in 1958 and underwent an ambitious redesign in 2008, the New Mexican reported. Financial troubles became a way of life for the course in the last decade. Garcia said it operated with annual shortfall of $200,000 as recently as 2020.
The three-entity agreement calls for the university, the city and San Miguel County to contribute $70,000 each of the next two years to offset that deficit, the New Mexican reported. Smaller $10,000 pledges from Las Vegas City Schools and the West Las Vegas School District are in the works, the regents reported.
Projections suggest a healthy golf course with steady foot traffic will generate up to $500,000 a year before expenses, such as maintenance, irrigation and staffing, the New Mexican reported. Procuring carts has proven to be a big obstacle, thanks to breaks in the supply chain and demands across the industry.
The partnership of school, city and county will each send one representative to sit on a management committee to run the course, the New Mexican reported. NMHU will issue a request for proposal to find a golf pro and course manager, a dual position that will be filled before the target opening of May 19. The regents say the course may not be ready by that date, but will be up and running by no later than June 1.
Course fees have not been set, but Garcia said they’ll likely mirror those that were in place before the facility was shuttered two years ago, the New Mexican reported. A nine-hole round, he said, would remain in the neighborhood of $25.
Since the course was closed, NMHU has used a skeleton crew to maintain the fairways, the New Mexican reported. The greens and rough have fallen into disrepair but the regents are confident the course will be ready four weeks from now.
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