If the late Marty Sanchez could walk the golf course that has borne his name since its 1998 inception, he’d be the first one to tell you the place needs the kind of tender loving care that only a dedicated greenskeeper can provide.

Before his death from cancer six years prior to the opening of the multimillion-dollar Marty Sanchez Links de Santa Fe, the local golfing icon took a keen interest in the details of manicuring golf ’s rolling green fairways and the cushioned putting surfaces they protect. As his brother, Lee Sanchez, likes to point out, there’s nothing about a course that escaped his brother’s attention.

That’s why, during a recent tour that included a few stops along the links’ Great 28, a number of red flags emerged. A silvery-thread moss infestation has left circular patterns of lumpy growth in the greens. Invisible from a distance, the impressions make any putt an exercise in frustration as soon as the ball makes contact.

Dandelions dot most fairways. A handful of the 56 sand traps have become overgrown with grass and native vegetation. Trees are overgrown and in dire need of trimming. Trash cans often overflow before being tended to. Even a recent plumbing issue in one of the restrooms forced the course to shut down for a day.

“It breaks my heart to see a golf course with my family’s name on it fall into this kind of condition,” Sanchez said as he stared out over the steering wheel of his golf cart. “This is what happens when you do the bare minimum.”

The problem isn’t a lack of desire. In fact, said course superintendent Pat Brockwell, it’s his crew that held the place together well enough to keep it operational over the past year or more. Brockwell said he had a crew of just five full-timers as recently as June 7.

“It should be 14 or 15 people out here every day, at least,” he said. “We can sit here and blame the coronavirus, the economy. We can talk about a lot of things.

What we can’t do is take care of a golf course with a crew this small.”

Brockwell said he is resigning as of June 30, but he declined to say why.

The pandemic certainly played a part, said Melissa McDonald, the acting director of the city’s parks division that oversees the daily operation of the Municipal Recreation Complex, the centerpiece of which is the golf course.

“So, kind of what we’re facing right now is just like the business community. Coming out of COVID’s been slow in terms of getting employees in,” McDonald said, admitting the lack of staffing created a bumpy start for getting the course ready during the winter months.

In short, delays in pushing applicants through the vetting process is driving some would-be workers into other jobs. Brockwell said it can take three to four weeks to find a candidate, do an interview and get a background check through the city before an offer is made. In a time when people need jobs, it’s sometimes too long of a wait.

City Councilor Signe Lindell has served on the oversight board for the MRC and, despite not playing golf until she was in her 50s, sees the links as a valuable asset to Santa Fe and treats it as such. During some of the much-publicized water shortages at the course, she said there were times she went out with the grounds crew and watered greens by hand.

“It’s not a course that has unlimited funding by any means,” she said.

In addressing the lack of staff, she said the federal government changed its policy for how temporary workers could be hired. In short, she said, it makes it more difficult. The city funneled staff from other areas to the MRC last year, but Brockwell said none of them were qualified — or interested — in doing the work the course required.

“We put out ads to hire people and we don’t get any response,” Lindell said. “We’re no different [than restaurants] that can’t get people hired. Let’s be honest: It’s not an easy day’s work out there. It’s hard work. I mean, Pat is an absolute jewel for the city and what he’s done for that course is fantastic because he’s done a lot with a very little.”

Brockwell said the fix is simple. Get the people on-site, and the rest will take care of itself. He said grounds crews typically aerate their putting greens in colder months, allowing for healthier root systems and preventing parasitic infestations like silvery-thread moss. The pandemic cut staffing significantly, leaving Brockwell with a skeleton crew that was never able to aerate the links.

“It takes one guy 30 hours to mow the course, and as soon as you get down mowing it, you have to start all over,” he said. “If you spend all your time mowing you can’t fertilize. If you fertilize, you don’t have time to fill out all the seasonal needs. Trust me, I’m out here every day at 6 in the morning and there’s nothing more I want than to make this place look special. We just don’t have the manpower.”

Once regarded as the standard for New Mexico’s municipal golf courses, the links was regularly ranked among the state’s top destinations by various golf publications. With affordable rates, easy access and unobstructed views of Santa Fe’s surrounding landscape, the course was popular spot for weekend duffers and rising stars, alike.

“This was the crown jewel,” said Links regular Jim Tyo, a Santa Fe resident who has grown frustrated by the course’s steady decline over the past few years. “I mean, we don’t have another option like this. It was a great place, the layout’s good, but the course is an utter mess. You look at 17 and 18 and every fairway — when dusk hits, you see how bad the weeds are.”

Tyo said he has opted to pick up a few rounds at other public courses in the Albuquerque area, a sentiment shared by many.

“If it goes bad, that’s one thing,” Sanchez said. “But when the reason is you can’t get enough people on the payroll to care for it, it’s just sad.”

McDonald said the links gets upward of 40,000 rounds of golf every year, and that total was actually up slightly during the pandemic, since golf was one of the few outdoor sports people could still play. The course did facilitate the COVID-19-safe practices laid down by the state, such as no rakes for the sand traps and no flag removal on the pins.

McDonald said the city is considering doing an assessment of the course to discuss long-term plans that could include privatizing the groundscrew or converting the course into a true links-style layout.

The links pro shop is already run by a private contractor, meaning the only city employees on site are the support staff run by the course superintendent.

“That is an RFP that we anticipate having very soon, in the next fiscal year,” she said.

Until then, it’s basically up to those who work behind the scenes to hold things together, the men and women who do the heavy lifting in order to keep the place clean and operational.

“Those people work hard, man,” Sanchez said. “We just need more of them.”