Officially opened by its designer, 6-time Major winner Sir Nick Faldo, in March of 2013, the Laguna Lang Co golf course is situated on the East Sea coastline...
Officially opened by its designer, 6-time Major winner Sir Nick Faldo, in March of 2013, the Laguna Lang Co golf course is situated on the East Sea coastline...
Officially opened by its designer, 6-time Major winner Sir Nick Faldo, in March of 2013, the Laguna Lãng Cô course is situated on the East Sea coastline, midway between the former imperial capital of Hue and Vietnam’s third largest city, Danang.
This golf facility marks another milestone in the development of the Central Coast region as a major tourism destination and it forms the sporting centerpiece at an upmarket resort that includes Banyan Tree and Angsana branded hotels and other accommodation options.
The 26th worldwide design project completed by its esteemed designer, Laguna Lãng Cô nestles between mountain and sea on a wonderfully sandy strip of dune land, with some commentators calling it Faldo’s boldest and best creation so far.
The following edited extract by Paul Jansen is from Volume Six of Golf Architecture: A Worldwide Perspective. Reproduced with kind permission. To obtain a copy of the book, email Paul Daley at fswing@bigpond.net.au.
“The resort is nestled somewhat privately between sharp, rugged mountains and white, sandy beaches. A hidden gem, if ever one existed. The extent of Laguna’s isolation instantly registered on our initial site inspection (as) we parked off-site and then traipsed through jungle and rice paddy fields to reach the proposed golf course site. Just a few months prior, it was only accessible by boat. We really did feel like explorers conquering undiscovered land.
What we discovered was something special. The site had great variety, interest and it possessed a distinct character. Additionally, we were enthused by the prospect of working on sand; and there was an abundance of water everywhere. I had certainly never seen a site of such variety of features before; the only problem being that so many of the features were hidden in jungle, or were simply inaccessible.
To everyone’s delight, the sand dines – which represented about half of the golf site – had an abundance of movement. Indeed, not unlike what you would find on some of the world’s great links. We felt compelled to continue the rugged theme throughout the golf course, as well as mimicking some of the movement found in the existing dunes and surrounding mountains. We also sought to create a course that embodied certain links-like characteristics.
One of the key goals was to ensure that the golf course remained sustainable, and we aimed to achieve this through a number of methods. All landscaped areas were planted using native scrub and grass, propagated or directly planted from areas on-site. Zoysia Matrella, which accounts for around thirty hectares of the site, requires the least amount of water, mowing, pesticides and fertilisers when compared to other warm-season grasses.
But perhaps the most interesting and sustainable features are the rice paddy fields bounding the third, fourth, thirteenth and fifteenth holes. Combined, these account for around five hectares of golfing grounds, while all are maintained and harvested by the locals at no cost.”
The latest ranking of the Top 100 Golf Courses in the World serves as the ultimate global golf bucket list. Most members of our World Top 100 Panel are seasoned golfers, each playing 20-30 of these courses annually while travelling extensively over decades to form their opinions on others. We recognise that opinions vary—even among our panel members. Rankings are subjective, and there are undoubtedly 50 or more courses in the UK and USA alone that could easily fit onto this list. Links Golf Pilgrimages The rankings
California, United States
New Jersey, United States
Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
New York, United States
New York, United States
Top 20 Golf Courses of Vietnam 2017 We extend then re-rank our Vietnamese listings Vietnam’s golfing success story shows absolutely no signs of slowing down, either at national or regional level. At the International Association of Golf Tour Operators Awards Ceremony in Tenerife at the end of last year, Vietnam was voted 2016 Golf Destination of the Year for Asia & Australasia and at this year’s corresponding event which was held last week in Mallorca, Laguna Golf Lang Co was recognised as IAGTO’s 2017 Golf Resort of the Year outside the United States and Europe. For certain, the golfing landscape has been totally transformed since the country opened its doors to foreign visitors less than twenty-five years ago, with the introduction of the nation’s first modern course at the Kings’ Island Resort in 1993. Now, there are now approximately forty courses dotted around the regions, with plans to potentially build another sixty under a national plan that aims to champion golf as a major tourist attraction. It’s been estimated that even if only 1% of the seven million foreign visitors to Vietnam last year (many of them from Korea, Japan and China) travelled just to play golf, that represents 70,000 people paying green fees and accommodation – amounting to a serious level of annual income from what’s probably still regarded by many as a niche market of elite sporting outsiders. In this latest edition of our Vietnamese chart, we’ve doubled the number of ranked courses. We started with a Top 10 six years ago so this is the third revision of a listing that has now been expanded to a Top 20. For that increase in coverage, we're grateful to Masa Nishijima, our international consultant, and a variety of other correspondents in Asia, especially Kimi Hoshiyama, who keep us abreast of golfing developments in that part of the golfing world. It’s fair to say there’s a degree of volatility in the new national chart, with only two courses remaining in the same position as last time, two making upward moves and ten new entries. Greg Norman’s Bluffs Ho Tram Strip entered our rankings at number 1 two years ago and it retains that spot at the top of our latest revised listings. Another member of our international team, David Davies, played here recently and said in his review: ”the course is set in huge sand dunes and takes the player on a wild rise through, up and over these dunes running along the coast of this resort paradise.” David loved the layout but, for him, “it’s a complete experience, great golf, beyond wonderful service in an idealistic setting full of the exotic Vietnamese culture.” The only other non-mover in our chart is the course at the aforementioned Laguna Golf Lang Co resort, which is a US $200 million development by the Banyan Tree Group nestling between the mountains and the shoreline of the East Sea on a sandy strip of dune land to the north of Danang. Designed by Nick Faldo, the course is the first in the country to feature Zoysia fairways and TifEagle greens on a par 71 layout that can be stretched to 6,961 yards for competitive play. The first of only two courses to move upward in our new Top 20 is the 18-hole layout at BRG Da Nang Golf Resort, rising two places to the runner-up position at number 2, and this move largely reverses a fall of three places from the number 1 position in our last chart for 2015. Known as DaNang Golf Club, the Dunes course is a Greg Norman design where, according to a recent reviewer, the location “is perfect for golf with a sand base and plenty of undulations and the layout takes great advantage of these. It’s visually stunning; well-kept by an obvious army of staff… and the design is a great mix of short and long holes.” The other course to make a modest climb in the right direction is Vinpearl - Nha Trang (up one to number 9), one of four golf facilities operated by Vinpearl Golf, the golf management arm of the property developer Vingroup. Designed by IMG, the course lies offshore on the island of Hon Tre and it’s accessed from the mainland by ferry, speedboat or via a spectacular cable car system that crosses Nha Trang Bay. A trio of newcomers enter our new chart enter as a Top 10 ensemble, some way ahead of the other seven new entries. The Ocean course at the new FLC Quy Nhon Beach & Golf Resort (new at number 4) is a Nicklaus Design course that has just opened for play at a new coastal golf complex located three hundred kilometres south of Da Nang. It’s soon to be joined at the same venue by the Schmidt & Curley-designed Mountain course, which has almost reached completion. Combined, the two 18-hole layouts at this very attractive resort will ensure that this particular FLC development becomes one of the country’s top 36-hole attractions. Luke Donald’s first course design at Ba Na Hills Golf Club (new at number 5) is another new layout that will go a long way to cementing Da Nang’s emerging status as the foremost golf destination in Vietnam. Already endowed with three top class seaside courses that lie just a short drive from the nation’s third largest city centre, Da Nang now boasts the former world number 1’s mountain layout as an alternatively styled course to complement the other three waterside tracks. The Lake course at Sky Lake Resort & Golf Club (new at number 6) is one of two scenic 18-hole courses designed by a Korean architect at a Korean-owned golf complex that’s laid out on rolling terrain close to Hanoi. The private Lake layout debuted in 2012, with the public Sky course following two years later at an impressive IMG-managed facility. We’re aware of several courses that have just opened or are currently under development and perhaps one or two of these will appear in the next version of our Vietnamese rankings. The BRG Legend Hill Resort to the north of Hanoi was unveiled last year and its Nicklaus Design course was developed with two putting surfaces for every hole. This is not a variation of the Japanese double green system that uses different seasonal grasses. Instead, the greens are sited at varying yardages from the tee, so alternative strategies need to be employed relative to the length of tee shot on each hole. Nicklaus Design also built a new course on the coast at the FLC Samson resort, where the Ma River empties into the East Sea at the Gulf of Tonkin. The holes have been set out on reclaimed land that was once used for fish farming and a seriously large volume of soil had to be shifted to create contours for the fairways before they were fashioned with Dynasty Paspalum grass. Architects Brian Curley and Lee Schmidt have also been busy on another of developer FLC’s projects at Ha Long Bay, 155 kilometres from the Chinese border at Mong Cai, and the same design company has just started work on the first two 18-hole layouts for an ultra-ambitious ten-course project within a massive 2,000-hectare site near Dong Hoi, some 360 kilometers north of Da Nang on the shores of the East Sea. Rank/ To view further details of the Top 20 Golf Courses in Vietnam click the link. We’re always keen to know what you think when we re-rank our national listings so if you’d like to correspond with us regarding our newly enlarged Vietnam Top 20 then by all means feel free to click the “Respond to this article” link at the top or at the bottom of this page to share your opinion. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses
Top 10 Golf Courses of Vietnam 2015 Big name golf course architects vie for dominance in Vietnam Vietnam, officially recognised by The International Association of Golf Tour Operators as "Undiscovered Golf Destination of the Year" in 2008, shows little sign of scaling down its golf development. In a country where there was only a couple of golf courses in use a couple of decades ago, there are now dozens of new layouts in operation and on the drawing board. Big name course architects are attracting much of the limelight, with the design companies of Greg Norman, Nick Faldo and Colin Montgomerie all jockeying for position when it comes to unveiling top-end courses, and we’ve now adjusted our Vietnamese Top 10 rankings in an attempt to keep up with what’s going on in a very fast moving golfing environment. Our top ranked course for 2015 in Vietnam is the sensational new Bluffs Ho Tram Strip layout, a Greg Norman design that opened in 2014 to much critical acclaim in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. Fairways have been expertly routed around towering seaside sand dunes, offering golfers a wonderful links-like golf experience. The Great White Shark’s other headline design, the Dunes course at Danang Golf Club, drops three places to number 4 in our new national chart. It’s still the only 18-hole layout available at Danang’s China Beach resort, but Greg Norman’s contracted to double the golfing complement with a new Heritage 18-hole layout. Sir Nick Faldo’s fantastic new Laguna Lang Co course makes its first appearance in our Vietnam Top 10 chart at number 3. Located on the East Sea coastline, between the old imperial capital of Hue and the nation’s third largest city Danang, the layout forms the golfing centrepiece of an upmarket residential development. Colin Montgomerie completes the triumvirate of modern golfing greats who now ply their trade in Vietnam as headline golf architects, but unfortunately for Monty, his Montgomerie Links layout, situated adjacent to the Danang Golf Club property, falls three spots to number 5 in our latest Vietnam rankings. IMG is another big architectural firm in the region and two of its courses feature in our new chart. Squeezing in at number 10, Vinpearl – Nha Trang is set out on Hon Tre Island, a former penal colony, with every hole enjoying glorious views of Nha Trang Bay. At the other end of our Vietnamese listings, the 18-hole layout at Dalat Palace moves up one place to an impressive number 2 position. Golfplan (who designed Long Thanh in 2003, Dragon Phoenix in 2007 and Sea Links in 2008) and Pacific Coast Design (with their Kings’ Island (Mountainview) in 2004, Heron Lake in 2007 and Do Son Seaside Golf Resort in 2010) are two long-established firms that have worked extensively in Vietnam in recent years. Brett Mogg of Nelson & Haworth, a relative newcomer to the country, tells us their first 18-hole layout at Longbien Tan Son Nhat Golf Club is due to open next month or in January 2015 with a second 18-hole course to follow by the middle of 2015. Another of the company’s new courses at Longbien Gia Lam Golf Club in Hanoi is now open with a further 9 holes scheduled for play by the end of next year. Click the link to view the complete detailed list of Vietnam’s Top 10 courses Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses of the World Thanks to Masa Nishijima (our International Consultant) for helping to assemble our new Vietnamese Top 10.
KN Golf Links Cam Ranh gets Shark’s seal of approval Greg Norman said during his latest visit to Vietnam that KN Golf Links Cam Ranh’s breadth of character will make for an experience unlike any other in the booming golf nation. "The scale and natural topography of the property lends itself beautifully to a great variety of golf holes," Mr. Norman said while playing with the course’s owner — KN Investment Group Chairman Le Van Kiem — and other influential figures in an invitation-only tournament earlier this month. "It plays links because there’s a lot of up and down and natural contouring to the layout, so you get these sensational visuals from tee boxes especially and really cool run-off areas where the ball can roll and turn. It’s a lot of fun already." Scheduled to officially open later this year, KN Golf Links Cam Ranh will be Norman's third course in Vietnam (the other two being: Bluffs Ho Tram Strip and Danang Dunes) and the first in Cam Ranh, a new resort destination taking shape along an 8-kilometer stretch of coastline less than an hour’s flight from Ho Chi Minh City. The span is dominated by spectacular white sand dunes and is within minutes of an international airport that by May will be home to a new, US $163 million terminal. Norman’s 104th creation is located at the southernmost end of that long and gently curving sweep, interrupted only by a ruggedly beautiful headland and where the height of some of the terrain makes for a number of remarkable viewpoints. KN Golf Links Cam Ranh is routed through many of those spots. Two of Norman’s favorites are at the 10th and 15th holes, a pair of par-4s that play downhill toward azure ocean waters and three small islands about 10 kilometers offshore. But what one of the greatest golfers of all time likes most about the 7,165-yard, par-72 layout is its playability. “You can make a course difficult, but you can also make it so people can get around on their own skills,” said Mr. Norman, who was known as The Great White Shark during his playing days and held the No. 1 ranking for a remarkable 331 weeks. “What’s clear to me here, especially after observing a range of players have a go at it, is that anyone can play all 18 holes.” Managed with consultation from IMG, KN Golf Links Cam Ranh is among 31 courses in Vietnam in some stage of development and the third golf facility developed by Mr. Kiem, whose company also owns and operates Long Thanh Golf Club near Ho Chi Minh City and Long Vien Golf Club in Vientiane, Laos. “There is a reason Greg Norman Golf Course Design is recognized as the premier signature golf course design firm in the world,” said Mr. Kiem, who represented Vietnam in golf in the 1999 SEA Games. “His design philosophy of ‘least disturbance’ — whereby he effectively utilizes the surrounding environment while highlighting natural features — has given golfers so many world-class courses. “KN Golf Links Cam Ranh is Mr. Norman’s latest masterpiece, and perhaps his most distinct links-style golf course in Asia, if not the world.” When finished, KN Golf Links Cam Ranh will be the first milestone in the inaugural phase of KN Paradise, an 800-hectare hospitality venture that’s also slated to include a suite of hotels, an array of real estate opportunities and entertainment options, and at least nine more holes designed by Norman. “I could not be more pleased with how this project is coming together,” Mr. Kiem said. “It fills me with pride and I cannot wait for the rest of the world to see it and experience it.”
