Rainmakers Golf Course

Overview: Rainmakers Golf Course in Alto is a Robert Trent Jones II design set in the high mountains of southern New Mexico. The routing is carved into a rugged landscape of arroyos, rock outcrops and steep mountain walls, with the surrounding terrain doing as much visual work as the fairways and greens. The course’s character comes from the contrast between shaped playing surfaces and the raw, elevated setting around them. Rather than presenting a uniform resort landscape, Rainmakers uses the site’s changes in elevation and exposed geology to create a round that unfolds through a distinctly alpine form of desert golf.

History: The course opened in 2008 as part of the Rainmakers Resort and Club project. Robert Trent Jones II’s design brief was closely tied to conservation and water stewardship, important themes in a region where the high-desert environment is both beautiful and fragile. The course was planned around the mountain setting and the existing character of the land, with the resort and club taking their name from a local story about a shaman associated with managing water.

Did You Know? Rainmakers is associated with a protected wildlife habitat covering about 135 acres, an unusually large conservation element to mention alongside a golf course. Its name refers to a twelfth-century shaman who was believed to manage water for the community. That story gives the course a stronger cultural and environmental context than a simple resort label would suggest.