On a Saturday morning in mid-September, the Los Alamos County Golf Course will throw open its gates for a long-awaited celebration. The Re-Grand Opening, set for Sept. 12, 2026, from 9 a.m. to noon, is more than a ribbon-cutting on Hole No. 1. It is the public's first full embrace of a course that has been torn apart, rebuilt, and reimagined.
The morning will begin with welcome remarks from the people who shepherded the project, followed by a ceremonial ribbon-cutting on the first tee. From there, the course becomes a playground for everyone, not just golfers. The public can try the first four holes for free, hit balls on the practice range, putt on the putting green, and try the Snag-It game. Bouncy houses will rise on the grass for the kids, while Secret City Cornhole sets out boards for all ages — including a set sized for players under 15. Snacks and refreshments will flow from the 19th Hole, the new sports pub that has taken up residence in the clubhouse.
The celebration is the culmination of a renovation project valued at roughly $6.6 million. The design was led by golf course architects Forrest Richardson and Todd Schoeder, who joined forces in 2022 with a single overriding goal: to return the course to its once "point of pride" status.
The work was extensive. The course was re-routed in places to make room for a new practice facility, drainage and green surfaces were updated, and the driving range's containment netting was upgraded.
The project was completed in stages, with the back nine opening on April 30, 2026. Warranty work continued through the spring, but by summer the full 18 holes were in play.
For those who know the course's history, the renovation is a homecoming of sorts. The Los Alamos County Golf Course was built in 1947 by the Atomic Energy Commission, constructed to help attract workers to the remote Los Alamos National Laboratory, the secretive hilltop outpost where J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team had developed the atomic bomb. The original design is attributed to William H. Tucker Sr., a golf professional who had worked for Willie Dunn in Biarritz, France, before settling in the United States in 1895, where he helped form the original Mount Hope Course at St. Andrews in Yonkers, New York, and built courses alongside the legendary A.W. Tillinghast.
Tucker's original site was abandoned in the mid-1950s, and the course was relocated to its present dramatic setting, winding along two canyons with distant views of forested mountains. It was expanded to 18 holes during the 1960s. At roughly 7,300 feet above sea level, it is New Mexico's second-oldest course and among the highest in the United States, a "true Alpine setting" that Richardson has described as a "remote, hidden gem" in the Land of Enchantment. The course sits just a mile from the Lab's main entrance and has always been open to the public.
The renovation was a long time coming. Over the decades, the layout had suffered from years of tinkering — overcrowding trees and ad hoc design changes that eroded the character of Tucker's original vision. Schoeder and Richardson set out to restore those lost qualities while also adding new ones, embracing simple bunkers and classic features to create a course that feels as if it has been there for 80 years.
The renovation also brought a new chapter to the clubhouse. The 19th Hole Sports Pub opened its doors on Aug. 6, 2026, with a full liquor license. The pub will provide the snacks and refreshments throughout the Re-Grand Opening morning.
The celebration extends into the afternoon with a purpose beyond golf. At 1 p.m., Secret City Cornhole will host a cornhole tournament in the Golf Course Community Room, a four-round round robin followed by a blind draw for a double-elimination tournament on four ACL competition boards. It is a skill-based competition with no betting allowed; league fees go toward equipment maintenance, and leftover funds go to the fundraiser of the month. An Airmail event will also raise money for the cause.
That cause is deeply personal for the Los Alamos community. Secret City Cornhole is fundraising for Austyn Little, a young resident recently diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a disease in which a tumor pressed against her trachea, causing difficulty breathing, wheezing, and coughing. There is a $20 participation fee to enter the tournament, and all funds raised will go directly to supporting Austyn and her family as she continues her fight. The afternoon will feature food and drinks from the 19th Hole.
For a town whose identity is bound up in science, secrecy, and the atomic age, the golf course has always been a place of ordinary joy — a stretch of green where the workers of the Lab could escape the pressures of their work. On Sept. 12, that joy returns in full. The ribbon will be cut, the bouncy houses will inflate, the cornhole bags will fly, and a community will gather on the fairways of a course that has been reborn, ready for the next 75 years.