Joining the Vietnam Mile Hile Club

Mark Bibby Jackson visits Vietnam’s central highlands hill station and has a right royal experience on the greens of the Dalat Palace.

“I’m not sure there’s a prettier setting for golf than Dalat,” said Dave Beman, the former professional golfer who was the Commissioner of the US PGA Tour for 25 years. Beman rated the greens at the

Mark Bibby Jackson visits Vietnam’s central highlands hill station and has a right royal experience on the greens of the Dalat Palace.

“I’m not sure there’s a prettier setting for golf than Dalat,” said Dave Beman, the former professional golfer who was the Commissioner of the US PGA Tour for 25 years. Beman rated the greens at the Dalat Palace Golf Club “as good as you’re ever going to find.”

My green was the par-five sixth.

With water to the left, pine trees all along the right, and a myopic peninsular green that is scenic and scary in equal proportions, the second longest hole on the course is regarded as the course’s signature hole. It also proved to be my crowning glory.

Having nailed my drive straight down the fairway and fly-hacked my second on 50 metres or so, I drove my third onto the edge of the green, chipped to a few feet and holed my par putt before drawing breath. It was only then that my caddy, Minh, informed me that this was the hardest hole on the course, otherwise no doubt I would have choked on the putt.

What I forgot to mention was that my first drive landed in the water, only to be scooped out by Minh. Indeed, overall my Palace experience had more to do with the omnipresent water than the verdant greens. Fortunately Minh proved as expert in scooping errant balls from lakes as she was on advising me which club to use, and thus we managed to complete the round without having to send back for golf ball reinforcements.

In between my hacks and Minh’s scoops, strolling around Vietnam’s oldest golf course was a memorable experience.

Some 5,000 feet (or 1 mile) above sea level, the temperate climate that first drew travellers to the hill station provides ideal conditions for a round of golf, as well as being a welcome respite from the heat of the country’s largest city, Ho Chi Minh City.

A chain of demanding golf holes, the course twists through a landscape of bougainvillea, red salvia, impatiens, mimosa and hydrangeas. Both its challenge and beauty is recognised by Golf Digest (USA), which four times running has put the layout at the top of its biennial Planet Golf survey of Vietnam. This is a colourful course that befits the town famed for its annual flower festival.

The course is also steeped in history. Although reputed to date back to 1922, when the French architect, Ernest Hebrard, laid out the master urban plan for the still fledgling hill station, 1931 would appear a more likely date for the opening of the St Andrews of Vietnam, according to Jim Sullivan of Mandarin Media, who has carried out extensive research on the history of the course.

Around 1930, golf course architectural firm, Colt & Alison, listed the “Ville de Dalat” in “Indo China” as one of the courses in their worldwide portfolio, according to Sullivan. By 1933, the course was definitely open for play. Literature of the time lists golf as one option available to guests at the Grand Hotel de Dalat.

Quite how involved Bao Dai was in the design of the course is another moot point. Born in 1913, Vietnam’s last emperor spent much of his youth in France, not returning to Vietnam until 1932, by which time the course had almost certainly opened.

What is not in dispute is Bao Dai’s love of the sport of kings. Dalat’s popularity as a royal holiday resort was predominantly due to the big game, now by and large extinct, found in the forests around Dalat. However, while not hunting Bao Dai took the opportunity to take in some golf. His clubs are on display in his former villa near the end of Dalat’s Trieu Viet Vuong Street.

After Bao Dai’s abdication in 1945, the course fell into disrepair. Those now playing the course have a debt of gratitude to Dao Huy Hach, a doctor and keen golfer, who was largely responsible for restoring the course in the 50s and 60s, according to Sullivan. He also added a ninth hole. The remaining nine holes were part of further renovations that took place in the 90s.

Despite the impending Vietnam War, Billy Casper played a round in Dalat in early 1966, a few months before beating Arnold Palmer to win the U.S. Open. Indeed golf was played at the course throughout the war, with Dr. Hach teeing off his final round in 1974.

The clubhouse, a Le Touquet style villa with Tudor details is one of hundreds of villas built in Dalat by the French throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Sadly relatively few still remain.

Those that do, provide an interesting excursion away from the course. Easily the outstanding property is the Dalat Palace Hotel which, unlike the golf course, does date back to 1922. This historic property, originally called the Lang Bian Palace, soon became the centre of western colonial society in the central highlands.

Featuring 38 luxury rooms, the Palace boasted the most modern amenities of the time, as well as an orchestra, tennis courts, and a private fruit and vegetable garden, providing foreign ingredients such as the strawberries, which are still grown in Dalat to this day.

Along with the golf course, a cinema was built by the 1930s, and there were frequent jazz concerts. Meals in the hotel restaurant were simple but reflected its European origins. As a final stamp of culinary authenticity, hotel guidelines stipulated that butter, and never grease, should be used for cooking.

The hotel’s Le Rabelais Restaurant still resonates with the grandeur of the time when Bao Dai would hold banquets there. Replete with four poster beds and open fire places in the bedrooms, and iron clawfoot bath tubs and fawcets in the en suite bathrooms, you get the sense that nothing has changed since Bao Dai bid adieu to the Palace.

Since May, both the Dalat Palace Golf Course and Hotel have come under new ownership. A new clubhouse with spa, Jacuzzi and modern pro-shop, as well as a golfing academy are planned for 2011/12. Providing the facilities and catering that modern golfers demand, the danger is that the charm of the past might become lost in the stampede for modernity. The Vietnam Open is the prize on offer.

The new owners state that the old clubhouse will remain, although stripped of its original function, and the character of the course will be preserved. As for the hotel, modern touches, such as improved meeting facilities, shower cubicles and swimming pool will help push the Palace into the current century hopefully without losing the essence of the one just past.

In a 2007 interview, Casper said that “Dalat was a special place.” Beman might have been guilty of hyperbole in describing the greens as the best he’s ever putted, but both the golf course and hotel are beyond compare within the region. With changes in the wind, now might just be a good time to visit the timeless twin Dalat Palaces, before modern times catch up with them.

The author is much indebted to Jim Sullivan and Scott Resch for their research on the history of the Dalat Palace Golf Club.

For more information about the Dalat Palace Golf Club, visit: www.dalatpalace.vn and for the Dalat Palace Hotel, visit: www.dalatpalacegolf.vn

“as good as you’re ever going to find.”

My green was the par-five sixth.

With water to the left, pine trees all along the right, and a myopic peninsular green that is scenic and scary in equal proportions, the second longest hole on the course is regarded as the course’s signature hole. It also proved to be my crowning glory.

Having nailed my drive straight down the fairway and fly-hacked my second on 50 metres or so, I drove my third onto the edge of the green, chipped to a few feet and holed my par putt before drawing breath. It was only then that my caddy, Minh, informed me that this was the hardest hole on the course, otherwise no doubt I would have choked on the putt.

What I forgot to mention was that my first drive landed in the water, only to be scooped out by Minh. Indeed, overall my Palace experience had more to do with the omnipresent water than the verdant greens. Fortunately Minh proved as expert in scooping errant balls from lakes as she was on advising me which club to use, and thus we managed to complete the round without having to send back for golf ball reinforcements.

In between my hacks and Minh’s scoops, strolling around Vietnam’s oldest golf course was a memorable experience.

Some 5,000 feet (or 1 mile) above sea level, the temperate climate that first drew travellers to the hill station provides ideal conditions for a round of golf, as well as being a welcome respite from the heat of the country’s largest city, Ho Chi Minh City.

A chain of demanding golf holes, the course twists through a landscape of bougainvillea, red salvia, impatiens, mimosa and hydrangeas. Both its challenge and beauty is recognised by Golf Digest (USA), which four times running has put the layout at the top of its biennial Planet Golf survey of Vietnam. This is a colourful course that befits the town famed for its annual flower festival.

The course is also steeped in history. Although reputed to date back to 1922, when the French architect, Ernest Hebrard, laid out the master urban plan for the still fledgling hill station, 1931 would appear a more likely date for the opening of the St Andrews of Vietnam, according to Jim Sullivan of Mandarin Media, who has carried out extensive research on the history of the course.

Around 1930, golf course architectural firm, Colt & Alison, listed the “Ville de Dalat” in “Indo China” as one of the courses in their worldwide portfolio, according to Sullivan. By 1933, the course was definitely open for play. Literature of the time lists golf as one option available to guests at the Grand Hotel de Dalat.

Quite how involved Bao Dai was in the design of the course is another moot point. Born in 1913, Vietnam’s last emperor spent much of his youth in France, not returning to Vietnam until 1932, by which time the course had almost certainly opened.

What is not in dispute is Bao Dai’s love of the sport of kings. Dalat’s popularity as a royal holiday resort was predominantly due to the big game, now by and large extinct, found in the forests around Dalat. However, while not hunting Bao Dai took the opportunity to take in some golf. His clubs are on display in his former villa near the end of Dalat’s Trieu Viet Vuong Street.

After Bao Dai’s abdication in 1945, the course fell into disrepair. Those now playing the course have a debt of gratitude to Dao Huy Hach, a doctor and keen golfer, who was largely responsible for restoring the course in the 50s and 60s, according to Sullivan. He also added a ninth hole. The remaining nine holes were part of further renovations that took place in the 90s.

Despite the impending Vietnam War, Billy Casper played a round in Dalat in early 1966, a few months before beating Arnold Palmer to win the U.S. Open. Indeed golf was played at the course throughout the war, with Dr. Hach teeing off his final round in 1974.

The clubhouse, a Le Touquet style villa with Tudor details is one of hundreds of villas built in Dalat by the French throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Sadly relatively few still remain.

Those that do, provide an interesting excursion away from the course. Easily the outstanding property is the Dalat Palace Hotel which, unlike the golf course, does date back to 1922. This historic property, originally called the Lang Bian Palace, soon became the centre of western colonial society in the central highlands.

Featuring 38 luxury rooms, the Palace boasted the most modern amenities of the time, as well as an orchestra, tennis courts, and a private fruit and vegetable garden, providing foreign ingredients such as the strawberries, which are still grown in Dalat to this day.

Along with the golf course, a cinema was built by the 1930s, and there were frequent jazz concerts. Meals in the hotel restaurant were simple but reflected its European origins. As a final stamp of culinary authenticity, hotel guidelines stipulated that butter, and never grease, should be used for cooking.

The hotel’s Le Rabelais Restaurant still resonates with the grandeur of the time when Bao Dai would hold banquets there. Replete with four poster beds and open fire places in the bedrooms, and iron clawfoot bath tubs and fawcets in the en suite bathrooms, you get the sense that nothing has changed since Bao Dai bid adieu to the Palace.

Since May, both the Dalat Palace Golf Course and Hotel have come under new ownership. A new clubhouse with spa, Jacuzzi and modern pro-shop, as well as a golfing academy are planned for 2011/12. Providing the facilities and catering that modern golfers demand, the danger is that the charm of the past might become lost in the stampede for modernity. The Vietnam Open is the prize on offer.

The new owners state that the old clubhouse will remain, although stripped of its original function, and the character of the course will be preserved. As for the hotel, modern touches, such as improved meeting facilities, shower cubicles and swimming pool will help push the Palace into the current century hopefully without losing the essence of the one just past.

In a 2007 interview, Casper said that “Dalat was a special place.” Beman might have been guilty of hyperbole in describing the greens as the best he’s ever putted, but both the golf course and hotel are beyond compare within the region. With changes in the wind, now might just be a good time to visit the timeless twin Dalat Palaces, before modern times catch up with them.

The author is much indebted to Jim Sullivan and Scott Resch for their research on the history of the Dalat Palace Golf Club.

For more information about the Dalat Palace Golf Club, visit: www.dalatpalace.vn and for the Dalat Palace Hotel, visit: www.dalatpalacegolf.vn