Dalat Entertainment | Dalat sport

Dalat Palace Golf Club

A French architect imagined this layout in 1922, but it took stimulation from the country’s most prominent golf supporter (Bao Dai, the last emperor of Vietnam) to spur its ultimate construction later in the decade

Today, it’s the top-rated course in Vietnam — for its classic design chops, for the incredible rise and fall of its terrain and for its flawless bentgrass conditions. Indeed, Dalat Palace is one of the few bentgrass layouts in SE Asia, thanks to Dalat’s cooler, 1,500m-high climate.

The course itself, measuring 7,009 yards (6,409 meters) from the tips, is an uninterrupted string of inventive, demanding golf holes. Its twists and undulations are breathtaking and the landscaped outlying areas are a flower maven’s delight, with bougainvillea, red salvia, impatiens, mimosa and hydrangeas.

The course was abandoned after WWII and revived in 1959. In early 1966, several months before he beat Arnold Palmer to win the U.S. Open at San Francisco’s Olympic Club, Billy Casper played the course on a tour of Vietnam organized by the U.S. State Department. The course was abandoned again in 1975, after the reunification of Vietnam, and initiated its second comeback in 1993 with a multi-million dollar restoration and expansion by a group of American investors.

Through four consecutive surveys (2001, 2003, 2005 & 2007), Golf Digest has hailed the Dalat Palace GC as the top course in Vietnam in its world renown Planet Golf Survey. Asian Golf Monthly, in its 2007 survey, recognized the course as one of the top-10 in all Asia. The club is also a member of the Finest Golf Clubs of The World (London).

A full practice facility complements the golf course, with an open 290-yard driving range, a putting green and practice bunkers.

Ocean Dunes Golf Club

Ocean Dunes Golf Club opened in 1996 and immediately set the standard in Southeast Asia for links golf. Laid out by Masters and British Open champion Nick Faldo, Ocean Dunes winds through a pleasing obstacle course of windswept dunes and shimmering water hazards, with coastal breezes shaping its character day-by-day.

“Ocean Dunes is an outstanding natural site with the sand dunes, sea breezes, beach vegetation and sea views,” Faldo explains. “We let the dunes determine the routing and the arid look of the course. It has the feel and the playability of early Scottish seaside courses — in a tropical climate.”

The Bermuda grass fairways are generous, as befits a resort track, but the dunes, bunkering and vegetation — buffeted by coastal winds — bring strategy to every hole. There’s an authentic links quality to half a dozen holes at ODGC (where the wind always blows); a tree-lined stretch on the back nine feels like Pinehurst; and the strategic front nine, with its myriad water hazards, looks and plays like a first-class Florida track.

From the 6,746-yard tips, this par-72 design will test the best. From the forward tees, Ocean Dunes is simply a tropical delight. Players value the course for its balance and variety, for its superb conditioning, and for the challenge of going up against the region’s famed solar winds.

The 18 holes are routed adjacent to the Novotel Ocean Dunes Resort, but the golf club welcomes non-hotel play. The clubhouse and its knowledgeable staff tend to a full pro shop, bar and restaurant. Rental clubs are available.

In its 2007 Planet Golf Survey, Golf Digest called out Ocean Dunes as the #2 course in the country. (The #1 course is the club’s sister course in Dalat.) The famed 9th, a breathtaking par-3 in the dunes, was selected one of "The Best 500 Holes in The World" by Golf Magazine. It's also a member in good standing of the "Finest Golf Clubs of the World". Asian Golf Monthly magazine identified the course as one of the top-10 resort courses in Asia.