1006VietnamAsGoodAsItGets

GOLF TRAVEL

As Good as it Gets

Boasting some of the purest golfing terrain that Asia has to offer, two of Vietnam’s newest courses are set to make a name for themselves on the international stage, says Alex Jenkins

A Player’s Guide

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM HARACK/MANDARIN MEDIA ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY CLAIRE WILEY

Eleventh Heaven: The par-three eleventh on the Dunes Course at Danang Golf Club is one of finest par threes anywhere.

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Sand and Sea: The Dunes' stunning parfour eighteenth (below) is a fitting conclusion to a brilliant test of golf; a military bunker dating back to the French Indochina War (right) lies beside the sixteenth hole, a beautiful par three.

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orget Kunming. Bali? Not a chance. And you can stop thinking about Phuket. It might come as some surprise to learn that Asia's hottest new golfing destination is Danang. But it's true. Just down the coast from this central Vietnamese port city, amid the dunes of historic China Beach, where the first US combat troops landed in March 1965, lie two recently opened and contrasting courses that are sure to put this former war-torn country on the global golfing map. To mangle a phrase from the era: Charlie don't surf, but he sure will golf. And so should you.

Situated only f ive minutes apart, yet providing totally different golfing landscapes, the Greg Norman-designed Dunes Course at Danang Golf Club and the Montgomerie Links Vietnam - the work, you guessed it, of eighttime European Order of Merit champion Colin Montgomerie - are a short drive from Danang's international airport and a number of hotels and resorts that have sprung up all along this stunning stretch of the coastline in recent times.

And like all truly great courses, they use their natural terrain to the fullest.

DANANG GOLF CLUB, DUNES COURSE HHHHH We at HK Golfer aren't usually prone to hyperbole when it comes to describing courses, but it has to be said that Norman's Dunes is something else. Without doubt the most unique layout in Southeast Asia, the Dunes is a mesmerizing cross between a pure links and a sandbelt track.

Rampaging through massive sand hills and framed

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by sparsely-vegetated scrubland, only the warm ocean breezes remind you that you're in the tropics.

Put it this way, should Kingston Heath and Royal County Down ever settle down and decide to have offspring, this is what their beautiful firstborn would look like. It's jaw-dropping.

Although not even a toddler – the clubhouse won’t open until March 2011 and it only started accepting fee-paying visitors at the end of April - this championship-calibre track is already playing like a much older vintage, which is to say, superbly. While the Great White Shark has been known to put his name to some extremely uncompromising courses (those who have played the Norman Course across the border at Mission Hills will know what I mean), the Dunes is a very different animal. With its artfully rugged bunkering, native grasses and beautifully-constructed greens incorporating swales and runoff areas, the course is a definite test for all. But here's the thing: it's not a brute.

Decked out in a closely-mown strain of Bermuda grass, the course plays hard and fast, making its 7,000-plus yardage far more bearable than the scorecard might suggest. (With the breeze at his back, your average-hitting correspondent tackled the wonderful 437-yard eighteenth with a drive and eight-iron). Stray from the generally wide landing areas and your ball will come to rest in sandy scrub. You might not have a great lie - and nine times out of ten the best advice is to take your medicine and pitch it back to the fairway, rather than try anything too ambitious - but you will always have a shot. You really have to be pretty wild to lose a ball here, which is how golf should be.

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Monty's Signature: Eyepopping bunkering and excellent conditioning characterize the European Ryder Cup captain's first Asian course outside China.

Faldo Joins the Party

Need to Know

The Nick Faldo-designed Laguna Hue, an 18-hole layout about a 45-minute drive from Danang, is set to open its doors in early 2012, thereby adding to the playing options in the immediate area.

Described by the six-time major champion as a “real hidden gem”, the course will incorporate sand dunes, rice-paddy fields, exposed rock formations and dramatic coastline. The course will be Faldo’s second in Vietnam, following Ocean Dunes Golf Club, a four-hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City at Phan Thiet in the south of the country.

Danang Golf Club, Dunes Course Yardage: 7,160. Par: 72.

Designed by Greg Norman.

Green Fees: US$78-98 including caddie and taxes. Cart Fee: US$15 (per person).

Contact: www.dananggolfclub.com

While any number of holes could have been chosen as the Dunes' signature - a modern-day term that riles with some of the purists out there - that particular honour goes to the sixteenth, a dainty par-three with a green perched just yards from the white-sand beach and crashing waves of the South China Sea. It really is a delightful spot - one that is sure to be photographed time and time again. But my personal favourite is the parfive tenth, a meandering three-shotter flanked by some of the tallest dunes on the course. This is closely followed by the eleventh, a stunninglybunkered par three played from an elevated, windswept tee to a shallow green. Hand on heart, I have never played a finer short hole.

The Dunes isn't perfect - an assortment of rather nondescript holiday villas line a hillside overlooking the par-four seventeenth - but that really is nitpicking somewhat. The economic reality is that every new golf development has to incorporate a real estate component, and thankfully this one is generally very well hidden from the course. Quite frankly, in terms of a pure golfing experience, the Dunes really is as good as it gets in Asia.

Montgomerie Links Vietnam Yardage: 7,063. Par:72.

Designed by Colin Montgomerie.

Green Fees: US$73-93 including taxes.

Cart Fee: US$30 (per cart).

Contact: www.montgomerielinks.com

THE MONTGOMERIE LINKS HHHH

The 2010 European Ryder Cup skipper teamed up with noted architect Brit Stenson at his first Asian course design outside China and the results, while not as dramatic, are nonetheless very impressive indeed.

Far more modern in outlook - despite its firm fairways and the strong onshore winds that blow through, even Monty wouldn't claim this as a true links - the Montgomerie occupies undulating topography bestrewn with attractive casuarinas and features some of the most distinctive bunkering around. Both cavernous and plentiful, perhaps only Augusta National can compete in terms of gleam with the course's startling white-sand pits. The twelfth, a robust par five with a pushed-up green, is littered with seventeen of them and is best played in sunglasses and a fresh application of sunblock.

In all seriousness, the course, which is carpeted throughout in hardy paspalum, has an excellent rhythm to its routing. Beginning in gentle enough fashion with a straightaway par five, the course extends its talons somewhat at

the sixth, where water protects the front and left portions of the green. This is immediately followed by two of the toughest par fours on the course - the exceptionally well-bunkered eighth and the ninth, where only the longest hitters will reach in regulation. As you might expect from a course bearing the Monty name, having a power fade in your arsenal is an advantage on the majority of holes; the exception being thirteenth, arguably the best on the course, where trouble lurks short and right of a green that has been cleverly tucked into the side of a hillside. A stylish clubhouse and superb practice area compliment what is undoubtedly a first-rate venue.

Crucially, both Danang and Montgomerie Links belong to heavy-hitters of Vietnam's financial industry - VinaCapital, the country's leading asset management group, own the former, while IndoChina Capital, Vietnam's most established foreign investment firm, is the power behind the latter. I say crucially because, as with any new development, it's good to know that there's solidity behind the project. In other words, it's good to know that there's sufficient funding to keep the playing surfaces in shape and the mould from the shower stalls. And what's more, the two clubs sensibly take a unified approach to drawing in golfers. While the owners are rivals away from the fairways, each knows that for their own course to succeed, the other has to prosper too. Inbound golfers to Danang aren't going to play just the one course, after all. As a result, green fee rates are matched and the two are looking at working together to formulate marketing strategies.

At the moment, getting to Danang from Hong Kong isn’t an entirely painless affair. The best option is to fly via Hanoi with Vietnam

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Airlines, although the schedules often mean a fairly lengthy layover in the capital’s international airport, a fairly rudimentary hub that isn’t likely to earn any Skytrax awards in the near future.

However, given Danang’s emergence as a fullyfledged tourism destination, not to mention its proximity to the long-popular traditional Vietnamese towns of Hue and Hoi An, rumours abound that Dragonair will resume its nonstop service in the near future. To be within a twohour flight of courses of this quality would obviously be a tremendous boon, so here’s hoping whoever is in charge of routes at the airline is a golfer. The decision then would be a no-brainer.

The Place to Stay Visitors are now spoilt for choice when it comes to accommodations in Danang, but why come all this way and not stay in arguably the finest resort in Vietnam? The Nam Hai (pictured), an oceanfront property just minutes from the two courses, opened in 2006 and has earned rave reviews ever since.

Sprawled over 35 hectares, this splendid spa retreat, which like the Montgomerie Links Vietnam is owned by IndoChina Capital, offers 60 elegant villas and a further 40 pool villas each within landscaped gardens with unobstructed views of the South China Sea and the nearby Cham Islands. If you’re travelling with a loved one, this is the place to stay. Rates from US$600.

Visit www.thenamhai.com.

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