Alonzo addresses golfers’ concerns
By Molly Ann Howell
Managing Editor
Responding to constituent pressure, Councilor Sarah Piano, Dist. 3, recently called Parks Director Vincent Alonzo before the city council during their March 10 regular meeting to explain why Fox Run Golf Course remains closed despite unseasonably warm winter temperatures.
While residents pointed to 70-degree days as a reason to play, Alonzo insisted the course isn’t ready.
“How anybody in their right minds could think we should put anybody on those greens is beyond me,” Alonzo said, visibly frustrated. “I guarantee you, we won’t have nothing left [if we allow people on them now].”
The primary obstacle is water—and the lack of it.
Mayor Marc DePauli backed Alonzo, describing the dormant winter grass as “fragile” and requiring time to turn green.
City Manager Frank Chiapetti added that despite warm daytime highs, nighttime freezes still lock the ground, making the turf too vulnerable for foot traffic.
Gallup’s unique climate complicates the issue. Unlike other New Mexico cities, Gallup faces 50-degree temperature fluctuations.
Chiapetti recalled his own high school golf days practicing on wrestling mats in the gym.
“We’d go out to our first tournaments and say, ‘What’s the green stuff on the ground?’” he said with a chuckle.
Alonzo told the council that nothing has changed since he came in front of the council in August and presented the plan for the golf course for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
During the August meeting, Alonzo explained that the golf course had seen “a lot of wear” on the back nine ever since it reopened in 2023.
He and golf course superintendent Erik Yazzie created a schedule for the 2025 season in which one half of the course is open for golfers for about five to six weeks, while the other half is worked on.
Alonzo said the golf course will follow the same schedule for the 2026 season.
Yazzie explained in a 2025 interview with the Sun that opening the entire course means people would be walking all over it, ultimately damaging the grass.
“People don’t follow directions well, or like to follow the rules,” Yazzie said. “There’s ropes that generally tell people ‘Ok, don’t pass these ropes’ that’s why they’re there, but people drive over them all the time. We know for a fact that if we go to work on these areas we can’t guarantee that people will leave them alone.”
Closing the holes to the public gives Yazzie the opportunity to work on improving the grass. The first step to grass germination is planting the seed. Once Yazzie has done that, the grass requires constant moisture. The soil needs to be kept consistently moist, but not waterlogged. Yazzie and his staff water the grass daily, keeping the top two inches of soil moist.
In 2023, Alonzo forecasted that it would take approximately five years to fully operationalize the golf course after it was closed for the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Now, they’re three years into the five-year plan, and Alonzo said water remains the main problem.
“We still don’t have the water supply that we need,” Alonzo said. “It requires a lot of smart water management, so until we can get all the water that we need we’re just going to concentrate on maintaining what we have and being able to put enough water out there to keep what we have alive.”
Ideally, the golf course needs about 500,000 gallons of water per night to sustain itself. However, due to the current conditions at the wastewater treatment plant, the golf course currently receives only about 300,000 per night.
Besides wondering when the golf course would reopen, Alonzo alluded to the idea that people were questioning what he and his staff were doing all day if they weren’t fixing up the golf course.
He told the council that if anyone had questions about what his staff does, to direct them to him.
Alonzo became emotional when talking about the problems at the golf course during the meeting, so much so that Councilor Ron Molina, Dist. 4, asked him what had him so upset.
“I sound upset because I am,” Alonzo said. “It just really ticks me off when people question what we do and why we do it because we do the best we can with what we got.”
Molina backed Alonzo and any decision he made regarding the golf course.
“If Vince says to close the golf course, then we close the golf course. And unless you’ve got somebody here who knows more than Vince, let us know, but Vince is our guy,” he said.
No one spoke up in response to Molina.
Fox Run Golf Course is scheduled to open to the public April 14. Similar to previous seasons, it will remain closed on Mondays for maintenance.
Alonzo said his staff will open all 18 holes of the course for tournaments, as long as weather and course conditions allow.
