Santangelo said over a cocktail or five, they are “Bringing Las Vegas entertainment to the beauty of Vietnam.”
Massage, Karaoke and Golf The next morning saw the arrival of the big event, or let’s say, the big man. Norman. Ushered out to the property’s helipad, an entourage of press, management, golf course designers and PR staff waited in the grueling sun for the helicopter to arrive. “You won’t get a chance to shake his hand,” we were told. “He wants to get straight out on the course. He’s only got until 3pm this afternoon.” And thus he landed with us, the welcoming party, crowding round like a babble of mosquitoes attracted to the smell and taste of his blood. In fairness, Norman acquitted himself amazingly well, with decorum and a workmanlike attitude throughout the whole
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day. Later when we joined him walking sand dunes on the course-to-be, his strength and determination was commented on time and time again. He inspected the whole 18 holes in the heat of the searing sun without breaking a sweat, his white, tennis-court attire remaining perfectly starched. He would often re-walk areas for a second or even third look. He also had an uncanny ability to avoid the attentions of two nearby photographers, veering subtly out of their path as they attempted to get face-on shots. The golf course, as we were told the night before, had been named ‘The Bluffs, Ho Tram’, a name which Norman himself is said to love. As the course general manager, Ben Styles, explained, “Loads of courses in this region have the name Dunes. We wanted to do something a bit different. A bluff is a windy steep piece of land by the sea.” And of course, then there’s all that bluffing in games like poker, a fitting
reference to the Vegas-like attentions of the resort close by. But from walking the dunes one thing became clear. With so much sand, changing the land’s topography and replacing the natural vegetation would cause mayhem. The vegetation holds the sand in place, and prevents the wind from blowing it over the fairways and greens. All meaning that out of necessity, the environment remained the biggest concern. Norman put his own thoughts to both the course and the environment in a press conference later in the day. “I was pretty much awestruck when I came in 2007 to 2008,” he started. “We rarely get the chance to work with a property as magnificent as this… Because of the topography, the setting and the wind that blows around here, it is going to be a wonderful setting. “I am the Chairman of the Environmental