ASIA: Golden Sands resort on Vietnam’s east coast ready to open
Golden Sands Golf Resort near Hue, Vietnam, will hold a soft opening of its North course, the first of two Nicklaus Design courses planned for development, in early September.
The course was designed by Jim Wagner, who has since become a partner of Curley-Wagner Golf Design, while at Nicklaus Design as a senior design associate. The resort has been developed by Vietnam’s BRG Group and built along Vinh Xuan beach. BRG has already worked with Nicklaus Design on the Legend Hill, Kings Island, Da Nang Golf Resort and Legend Valley developments in Vietnam.
“The site is a natural sandy parcel located along the sea and featured a variety of natural movement, from extreme flats to chopped up rolling topography with soft elevation change. The site’s most appealing landform was a natural ridge that bisects the property running north-south,” said Wagner. “Despite the site’s sandy character, we did encounter several areas that were holding water just prior to construction. This was unexpected and did impact the design as it forced us to elevate part of the course and divert water into low-lying native areas between holes.
“Although most of the front nine was in extreme low-lying flats and had to be raised, the back nine is a wonderful sequence of holes that takes advantage of natural sand dunes and gently rolling topography with long views of the sea to the east. We did very little earthwork on these holes and that should be apparent when playing the course. The back nine will undoubtedly be one of the more exciting finishing experiences Vietnam golf has to offer.”
