ASIA: Sir Nick Faldo Opens Royal Long An Golf & Villas Vietnam
Sir Nick Faldo attended the Grand Opening of Royal Long An Golf & Villas, his newest design to officially open 18 of what will be a 27-hole design in southern Vietnam just 50 Km from Ho Chi Minh City in the Long An Province.
The 18-hole Par 72 golf course comes in at 7,233 yards from the back tees and 5,424 yards from the forward tees to ensure the newest golf addition to Long An province can attract new golfers to the course and the game. With a full driving range and short-game facility and the club house now fully operational, Royal Long An is quickly becoming a new golf destination for residence of Ho Chi Minh looking to escape the city.
A vast integrated lake system was designed to capture storm and rainwater for irrigation while also ensuring the course would be elevated to ensure playable surfaces year-round. With lakes and bunkering being the courses main defences, additional trees are being added to bolster the landscape as the site was a true blank slate.
Sir Nick Faldo said “finally seeing the course maturing is always a rewarding milestone, it takes tremendous vison to deliver a golf course on sites like this, seeing the forest through the trees is a unique ability when you have design challenges, some sites simply have golf holes, and you just need to find them, other sites have nothing, and you have to create playable golf. I like both styles of design they test your creativity in different ways.”
The third nine holes currently in the final stages of detailed design, with construction expected to start in 2024, is shaping up to be a tougher test than the first 18 holes, incorporating more water the final course will be a true test of accuracy and course strategy.
The Royal Long An Golf & Villas began construction just prior to the closure of international travel in 2020 and presented a unique challenge to Faldo and his design team, how to continue design and construction of the course from a remote isolated location.
“I have been coming to Vietnam since the mid 90’s, building golf course and hosting Faldo Series events in different provinces all aimed at expanding the game I love, taking the game of golf to new regions has be a passion of mine for decades, Royal Long An in Long An province is just a continuation of that dream” said Sir Nick, Vietnam has been a hot spot for golf development in recent years, the country is the Home of Sir Nick Faldo’s “Faldo Series Asia Grand Final” his global junior golf development league aim to provide girls and boys equal opportunity through the game of golf.
“I hope to see a Faldo Series qualifier here one day, this is a perfect venue for a Faldo Futures or Faldo Juniors event with boys and girls competing for an opportunity to reach a national, reginal and global level of golf” Faldo continued.
