Our Definitive Guide to Golf: Vietnam

April 2, 2024 By Ronan O'Connell

Asian golf tourism long focused on Thailand, Malaysia and Japan, but now Vietnam has just been named this continent’s best golf destination for the seventh year in a row. That title, granted at the 2023 World Golf Awards, reflects Vietnam’s massive variety and quality of courses and the dramatic landscapes into which they are built.

Vietnam has almost 100 links, woodlands and championship layouts woven through mountainsides, rainforests, riverfronts, valleys, quarries and beaches. Many of its finest courses are nearby Silversea ports of Ho Chi Minh City, Halong Bay, Danang, Nha Trang and Hue.

Map Wikimedia Commons courtesy UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

Halong Bay

Silversea guests can admire the picturesque Tuan Chau Golf Club (pictured at top) as their ship docks at Halong Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage site famed for thousands of karst peaks that jut from its crystalline waters. Tuan Chau, just a mile north of the cruise port, is rated as one of Vietnam’s top 10 courses.

Fronting the ocean, with Halong Bay’s islands in the background, Tuan Chau owns sublime and distinctive scenery. This 18-hole course, measuring 7,338 yards, rewards powerful striking. Yet a delicate touch is required to escape its many pot bunkers and master its sloping, speedy greens.

Meanwhile, its links-style layout brings the wind into play and encourages golfers to pursue a low-ball flight. Players can warm up for their round at Tuan Chau’s modern, two-story driving range, flanked by putting and chipping practice areas.

If “golf tragics,” which GolfDom.com defines as those who “derive his or her self-esteem from their performance on course,” are keen to squeeze in a second round during their stay at Halong Bay, they can take a 25-minute taxi ride northeast from the cruise port to FLC Halong Bay Golf Club. This 18-hole championship course, built into a forested hillside, offers sprawling sea views. At 6,092 yards, it is much shorter than Tuan Chau but compensates for that with an intricate and challenging layout.

Da Nang

Ba Na Hills, whose setting and course are sublime/Pohto courtesy Ba Na Hills

Modern Da Nang city and its ancient neighbor Hoi An have blossomed into Vietnam’s prime golfing region. This stretch of the central coast, where sublime beaches give way to a jungled, hilly interior, brims with elite layouts.

Within 40 miles of Silversea’s port at Da Nang are Montgomerie Links, BRG Da Nang, Hoiana Shores Golf Club,Vinpearl GolfNamHoi An, and the leader of the pack, Ba Na Hills.

Ba Na Hills is laced through the verdant mountains east of Da Nang, and its lofty perch offers cooler temperatures and distractingly pretty vistas. It also ensures golfers must navigate tricky changes in elevation, which means some holes play downhill, some uphill.

Nha Trang

Hugging a clean, three-mile-long beach, Nha Trang is a large, modern city popular with domestic tourists and dotted with high-rise condominiums and hotels. After docking here, Silversea passengers can easily reach several high-quality courses, including Vinpearl Golf Club Nha Trang, Diamond Bay Golf Course and KN Golf Links.

A 10-minute boat ride from Nha Trang lands golfers on lush Hon Tre Island, where luxury resorts, a theme park and Vinpearl golf resort are clustered. The 18-hole layout, designed by IMG Worldwide, the golf architects behind more than 100 courses across the planet, curves around a series of lakes and is known for its slick greens.

Back on the mainland, Diamond Bay is an 18-hole championship layout stretched over 7,244 yards. It is positioned between the ocean to its east and green peaks to the west, and its photogenic course is characterized by enormous bunkers and ever-present water hazards.

Diamond Bay course sparkles./Photo courtesy Diamond Bay

About 15 miles south from Da Nang, KN Golf Links provides a fresh challenge. Devoid of the groves of trees that abound at Diamond Bay, its wide-open layout, designed by legendary Australian golfer Greg Norman, makes wind a greater factor.

Hue

Laguna Lang Co.’s Vietnam course/Photo courtesy Laguna Lang Co.

Hue was once the Royal capital of Vietnam, so it brims with heritage attractions, none more dazzling than the Imperial City, its colossal citadel. From a tourism perspective, however, Hue is overshadowed by nearby Da Nang and Hoi An, which receive far more foreign visitors and have a greater array of golf facilities.

Hue’s sole course of note, however, is the brilliant Laguna Lang Co, 20 miles southeast. This 18-hole championship course is strung along tranquil Bai Bien Canh Duong beach. Its 6,770-yard layout is laden with water hazards and embellished by rice fields, dense forests and memorable sea views.

All this scenery pours through the 20-foot-tall windows of Laguna Lang Co.’s ritzy Golf Cafe, where players can taste classic such Vietnamese dishes as pho noodle soup and braised scad fish.

Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City is a heaving metropolis of about 10 million people, where historic sights are increasingly complemented by modern delights. Beyond the city’s ever-expanding downtown area, packed with five-star hotels, rooftop bars, and upmarket shopping malls, a dozen or so golf courses are scattered through its greener, quieter outskirts.

Among the best: Vietnam Golf & Country Club, Song Be Golf Resort, Long Thanh Golf Club, Taekwang Jeongsan Country Club and West Lakes Golf Club. For ease of access, however, the only good-quality course within the central area of this city is Tan Son Nhat Golf Club.

This colossal facility, alongside the international airport, boasts 36 holes. Skyscrapers form a unique backdrop as golfers tackle the deceptively difficult layout, laden with bunkers, menacing greens and the persistent, looming danger of water.