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Central Vietnam Becoming Next Great Golf Destination
The growing interest in central Vietnam’s potential to become the world's next great golf destination was on display last month when the first of two major conferences scheduled for Danang this year took place in and around the budding beach resort. The 6th Asia Golf Tourism Convention (AGTC) attracted a record 600 golf tour operators and golf travel suppliers from 37 countries for a series of seminars, meetings and networking opportunities including a tournament at Ba Na Hills Golf Club, a Luke Donald design that was voted ‘World’s Best New Course’ at the 2016 World Golf Awards. Opened in March 2016, Ba Na Hills is one of four courses in the Danang area to come online in the past decade with a legend of the game attached to it. The others are Greg Norman’s BRG Danang Golf Resort (formerly Danang Golf Club), Nick
Faldo’s Laguna Lang Co and Colin Montgomerie’s Montgomerie Links. A course designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. who conceived U.S. Open venues Chambers Bay and Cordevalle - is currently in development and expected to open in 2019. “This is as strong a foursome of courses as you’ll find anywhere in the world,” said Donald, who designed Ba Na Hills in collaboration with IMG. “Our course is different from the other three in that it’s set inland and at the foot of a spectacular mountain range, but all have stunning features and are championship-caliber.” Danang will attract another large golf audience later this year when the 11th Asia Pacific Golf Summit comes to town for the first time, set for November 14th -16th.
PGA TOUR Releases First Emoji Keyboard App
Top: The par-3 12th hole at Ba Na Hills Golf Club
The PGA TOUR today released PGA TOUR Emojis - a fun iMessage sticker and emoji keyboard pack containing over 20 animated stickers and GIFs, all designed to create a deeper level of social engagement for PGA TOUR fans and players. The PGA TOUR emojis and stickers, which were developed by mobile messaging company Snaps, represent many aspects of a golfer’s lifestyle, illustrating key catchphrases like I'll see you on the 19th hole, Bogey, Who's Your Caddie and 59 Watch. There's also an emoji for various situations or reactions on a golf course including a fist pump and golf clap. A unique feature of this sticker pack is the ability to drag and drop directly into an iMessage conversation. The emojis and sticker pack can be updated with new content anytime through the Snaps platform. "There are over one billion people using iMessage every day,” said Christian Brucculeri, CEO of Snaps and 12
HK GOLFER・JUN 2017
mobile messaging expert. “With this sticker pack, the PGA TOUR has a new way to connect with its fans on the most popular social messaging app.” Available for free, the PGA TOUR Emojis keyboard app is available for download on iOS in the App Store, while Android users can download the app from the Google Play Store. HKGOLFER.COM