Taos Country Club

Overview: Taos Country Club in Ranchos de Taos is a semi-private 18-hole course set among silver-green sagebrush, arroyos and the wide desert scenery of northern New Mexico. Jep Wille’s design uses gently rolling terrain rather than relying on dramatic manufactured landforms, and the four sets of tees make the 7,302-yard back layout more adaptable than its length first suggests. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains provide a strong visual horizon, while the open ground around the fairways keeps wind, lies and distance control in the conversation. It is a course that expresses the Taos landscape in a direct, understated way.

History: Taos Country Club emerged in the early 1990s as a Jep Wille design created specifically for the high-desert setting south of Taos. Course listings place the current layout’s opening in 1993, and the club has since become one of the area’s established 18-hole golf destinations. Wille’s work is notable for using the natural desert topography as part of the test, with the course’s identity coming from the relationship between manicured playing surfaces and the surrounding sagebrush country.

Did You Know? Taos Country Club offers four sets of tees across the same 18-hole routing, a practical detail that helps explain how the course can serve different playing styles while still reaching 7,302 yards from the back markers. The local Taos tourism guide also distinguishes it as the area’s full 18-hole course, separate from the nearby nine-hole Valle Escondido layout.