Vietnam's Danang Golf Club opens doors to clubhouse
Vietnam's Danang Golf Club opens doors to clubhouse
VIETNAM - Danang Golf Club, the only course in Vietnam built in the spirit of the world's oldest links, has deepened its connection to the game's history with a clubhouse that's as much a shrine as it is a sanctuary.
Erected over 10 months at a cost of close to US$5 million, the 4,044-square-meter facility opened yesterday with not one space that pays homage to golf's early days, but five - Persimmon cafe, Gutta Percha function room, Niblick bar, Featherie restaurant and Hickories rooftop lounge.
"If you're going to have a course like the Dunes - a course that looks like it was transported from the home of golf - then it only makes sense to stay true to the old-world feel that already exists here," said Howie Roberts, general manager of Danang Golf Club. "Just don't expect to find creaky floor boards or antique furniture - this is KuDeTa cool."
Similarities to the hip Bali beach club - Roberts spent several years running golf clubs in Indonesia - are everywhere apparent in the tri-level clubhouse, the brainchild of award-winning Australian architectural firm Hassell.
Upon entry, guests make their way through a wide corridor flanked left by a spacious, glass-walled pro shop and right by cases of memorabilia honoring Dunes Course designer Greg Norman. Overhead, a deep brown Asian motif provides contrast to the high white ceiling.
From the reception area that marks the end of the hallway, there are five options:
- Bank left into Gutta Percha, a stylish, multi-purpose room with 42-inch plasma TV.
- Pivot right into Niblick, featuring a liquor shelf display with red backlighting that evokes "a posh hotel lobby bar," says Roberts.
- Continue past Niblick into Featherie, a sleek dining venue capable of accommodating up to 140 people at a time.
- Go on through to Persimmon, illuminated during the day by natural light that streams in through the floor-to-ceiling windows; at night that job falls to hanging red and orange silk lanterns synonymous with nearby UNESCO World Heritage town Hoi An.
- Or turn around and venture a few paces to the left toward a stairwell that provides access to the clubhouse's other two levels.
One floor down, golfers encounter three expertly appointed locker rooms. The men's is called the Sandwich Room and the members' is called the Turnberry Room - a nod to the two British Open venues where Norman hoisted the Claret Jug, the prize for winning one of golf's four major championships.
Upstairs, Hickories beckons with an expansive, open-air terrace offering bird's-eye views of the rugged, seaside course, massive practice green and shapely Marble Mountains.
Danang GC members already know their way around, but this is a resort course. Accordingly, mounted placards mark the entrance to all titled rooms and venues, each with a short description of where the name comes from.
"Golf is new here in Vietnam - not everyone can pick Norman out in a picture even," admitted Roberts. "We're game to be part of the education process, though. The plaques are testament to this effort."
The Dunes Course at Danang Golf Club opened on Liberation Day last year, celebrated annually in Vietnam on April 30. Less than eight months later, the track was hailed by GOLF Magazine as one of the top 15 courses to open worldwide in 2010.
Norman's first creation in Vietnam weaves its way through (while seamlessly blending into) rough-hewn sand dunes that trundle down to a stretch of beach Forbes magazine voted one of the world's 10 most luxurious in 2005. In fact, the course's signature hole - the par-3 16th - backs right up against it.
When complete, Danang Golf Club will also feature a comprehensive, technologically sophisticated golf academy; four- and five-star hotels; and multiple residential enclaves totaling up to 300 luxury homes.
VinaCapital Group, Vietnam's leading asset management, investment banking and real estate consulting firm, owns the property.
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