I took the first week of June off and hit up some Phoenix courses with friends (those reviews coming shortly). I left Texas on Memorial Day weekend and ended up working in Phoenix that week. On my drive to Arizona I detoured from the I-20 so that I could check out Rockwind Community Links.

Ever since I moved to Texas, Rockwind has been on my large list of courses to play. The course is a highly-regarded muni that shows up among the best public courses in New Mexico. The facility isn’t far from the Texas state line, although it is still about an hour and a half from Midland-Odessa and Lubbock.

I couldn’t find much about Rockwind’s history, besides the course seems to occupy the same land that Ocotillo Park Golf Course did. I’m not sure when Ocotillo Park closed or if any of its bones remain, but Rockwind opened in 2015. Andy Staples firm (who did some work on Sand Hollow – one of my personal favorites!) did the work on Rockwind. And, they did a heck of a job here as well!

The facility has 27 holes which includes the 18-hole championship course, which I’ll be reviewing here, and a 9-hole par-3 course. I didn’t get to Hobbs early enough to play the par-3 course before the main round, but I did manage to play it after my round here. That will be my next post.

At first glance the championship course doesn’t appear all that special. The terrain is flat, all the holes are tree-lined, and there aren’t any views. In all honesty the course probably looks exactly how you’d imagine a desert parkland type course. However, if you look closely then you’ll find a lot of cool design elements!

For example, a rock wall runs through the course and can come into play if you aren’t careful. Also, there is some clever mounding and bunkers around the greens. There are grass “dragon teeth” mounds on the back nine and bunkers that have a grass island in the middle of them.

I thought the best thing about Rockwind were the crazy green complexes. I played the black tees which are 70.9/126/6616 and most of the challenge comes from the greens. The greens are raised and have all sorts of tiers and slopes to them. If you know where to play your shots the ball can collect towards the hole. The short par-3 10th is one of those holes with an interesting green, as it has tiers on the left and right sides with a valley in the middle.

The proshop charged me the resident rate of $33 and the round was a steal for that price. The fairways were a bit disappointing with many bare/sanded spots but everything else was looking good. I think the area has had so little rain that the fairways just never grew in this year. The bent grass (yippee) greens were smooth and a medium pace.

Rockwind exceeded my expectations and I’m glad I went out of my way to play it. Unless you are a local then only the hardcore golfer will probably venture out to Hobbs to play it, but I certainly think Rockwind is worth a day trip from Midland-Odessa or Lubbock.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):