NANK’S LINKS MACRO GOLF, A Spiritual Union With The Land

Craig recalls a Pro tour golfer’s sincere question: “How’d you decide where to plant everything?”

Long before Craig Nankervis, Art Major, retired from teaching including 19 years in 29 Palms and Yucca Mesa, he had begun to focus some of his creativity and passion upon a piece of wild desert among the open spaces of the Morongo Basin.

With roots in the area since 1954, based on a dated photo of his Grandparents at their area cabin, then situated where the hospital now stands providing a different type of health care, Craig maintains a lifelong love affair with the region. A love shared by his bride Cheryl, who led the Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce for 20 years and today quietly, though effectively, supports his passion project. Ahh, but hers is a different story.

As with many of the area’s best destinations, the drive is approximately 10 minutes from the all connecting Hwy 62, punctuated by a couple minutes up a definitely dirt road banked so high on both sides that in a small car it feels like driving alongside ruddy snow banks. That impression is quickly erased by a noble Joshua Tree standing guard over the turnoff to “Nank’s Links”.

The interior property road is graveled, lined with rock pilings and art elements throughout. It’s a meandering, entertaining and convenient loop by his home, alongside the course, around to the combination pro shop/gift shop/historical museum/photo op/ bar then by the poker room, before it returns back to the entrance/exit. It is on this loop that you get your first glimpse of Craig’s homage to golf, art, humor, and the
rugged beauty of the high desert.

There is an awkward level of anticipation when a globe traveling golfer approaches for the first time a course with NO GRASS! Among regional golfers the course is renowned as a private/secret curated path through the desert…working with and around desert life long established. A desert respected and always reverently granted the right of way. The honor of an invitation is also tempered with an uncomfortable ignorance, “Uh, do I take dirt divots?

But a few scattered pennies (from heaven?) glistening among the gravely parking area seem like lucky, smiling faces, welcoming a first timer. The walk from parking to the first tee seems a tribute to the Ballybunion Old Course in Ireland, often heralded as the finest links course in the world. There, your first shot can stray into the Killehenny graveyard, and at Nank’s Links you are greeted with a body half emerging from a coffin, followed by signs warning of Rattlers.

Course Owner/Designer Craig, son Mike, friends Mike, Robert, Randy and longtime local golf professional and course record holder Mark Elliot, PGA, are quick with their orientation. Midget tees or tufts of rubber turf are provided from which to hit each shot. If a ball lands in or even near enough a living plant/shrub or tree, complete relief is granted to avoid damage to the flora. They move quickly, as if not wanting to wear out their welcome on the wild land.

There are no warm-ups, no driving range, no practice putting green. There is no “green”. The putting surfaces are pre-existing open areas of slightly groomed and very brown dirt. Uncommon, though dirt or sand “greens” have historically been a part of the game. They putt surprisingly well, though a firm stroke on short putts is recommended.

Indeed, 37 years ago upon securing the 5-acre parcel, the original Nank’s design was exclusively a dirt putting course referred to as Nank’s Micro Golf. It provided years of fun and hijinks until as Craig says, “putters became golfers” and the good time putting course gave way to the more serious design.

There are 5 putting greens on the course, two of them double greens a/la St. Andrews, with 9 different dirt tee boxes, featuring holes from 58 to 162 yards. There have been 3 hole in 1’s, including one by our host.

But the soul of the course is native plants in their rugged natural surroundings, witnesses to a blessed frolic on a sunny day. Our shots fly over creosote, ocotillo and yucca. We carefully, politely, walk narrow naturally occurring paths among cholla, buckwheat and chaparral as dozens of towering Joshua’s, all well out of harm’s way, also enjoy the pleasant breeze.

For those of you who don’t play the “game”, believe it or not, golf is a mystical endeavor. But then, any work of art is…

“The chief object of every golf architect or greenkeeper worth his salt is to imitate the beauties of natures so closely as to make his work indistinguishable from nature itself.” Alister MacKenzie

All photos by Sandra Goodin

Ray Rodriguez, Principal for Joshua Tree Voice, has been a successful businessman and restaurateur in the desert for over 30 years as well as a lifetime community and civic leader.