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.
