Laguna Lang Co caddies
of the Year for 2008 in the prestigious
IAGTO Awards, organised by global golf
tourism industry organisation IAGTO,
Vietnam has since twice been honoured
as Golf Destination of the Year for Asia &
Australia, in 2013 and 2016.
CENTRAL VIETNAM GOLF
Among the first things you notice on the
drive from Danang’s airport to the beach
resorts and courses south of the city are
imposing, grey concrete bunkers by the
roadside. A legacy of the Vietnam War,
they were built by the American Army,
who first landed on nearby Red Beach in
1965.
However, it is the tricky sand bunkers on
the Danang area’s four golf courses that
will grab golfers’ attention more. Not
to mention the delightful and helpful
caddies – you only find female caddies in
Vietnam – resplendent in their colourful
uniforms and topped by matching caps or
traditional, conical straw hats.
The country’s fourth-largest city is now its
epicentre for golf, underlined by the Golf
Montgomerie Links 12th hole
Coast Vietnam brand the area markets
itself as. Like many courses in Vietnam, all
four in the region boast famous designer
names. The Montgomerie Links, by
Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie, opened
in 2009 and was soon followed by Aussie
Greg Norman’s Danang Golf Club course
in 2010. My first visit to Vietnam was for
the official opening of the Nick Faldo-
designed Laguna Lang Co course in 2013,
and I visited again in April 2016 to play Ba
Na Hills, former world number one Luke
Donald’s first design and managed by IMG,
shortly after it opened.
Returning in May 2017 to attend the Asia
Golf Tourism Convention in Danang, Ba
Na Hills has now matured into a majestic
and stunning layout set among the lower
slopes of forested mountains just inland
of the city. Before teeing off, my fellow
convention attendees and I are treated
to an impromptu flashmob dance by the
maroon-clad caddies. Not a sight I am
used to seeing at my local muni course in
Southend!
Volume 3 • Issue 39
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