GURGAON, India (Feb. 20, 2020) – Hoiana Shores Golf Club was named “Best New Golf Course” for 2019 at the Asia-Pacific Golf Awards, held here in November at the DLF Golf & Country Club. The new Robert Trent Jones II-designed links, hewn from a seaside dune scape outside Hoi An, Vietnam, has been welcoming golfers since Sept. 23 for Preview Play in support of local charities, but early returns have been swift and definitive.
“We are truly honored to be recognized in this and other categories,” said Ben Styles, Vice President of Golf at Hoiana Integrated Resort, the US$4 billion development poised to open early next year on Vietnam’s Central Coast, just south of Danang. “It was a thrill to be here in India — to soak up the gala atmosphere and place this, our very first trophy, in a cabinet that we suspect will quickly fill up in the coming years.”
The team from Hoiana Shores GC was in fact recognized in several other categories during Wednesday’s Asia-Pacific Golf Awards. Chairman of the Board at Hoiana, Mr. Don Lam, was honored with 2019 Asia’s Most Powerful People in Golf and the Apex Award for Environment Leadership in Golf. Hoiana Shores GC was constructed in full accordance with the strict sustainability principles laid out by the U.K.-based GEO Foundation. According to GEO Executive Director Sam Thomas, there are no other golf developments in Southeast Asia so far along the sustainability path.
“It was important for us to lead the way here in Vietnam, such a booming development market when it comes to golf courses,” Mr. Lam noted. “Hoiana wants to lead the way and show that golf courses can be built sustainably and environmentally friendly. I’m grateful to the Asia Pacific Golf Group for such a prestigious award and we shall continue our sustainability efforts across our entire resort here at Hoiana, where the environment will always be a top priority.”
The 2019 list of Asia’s Most Powerful People on Golf also included Mr. Alvin Chau, Chairman of Suncity Group Holdings Limited and shareholder in the Hoiana project. Mr. Alvin Chau was bestowed the 2019 Apex Award, significant of extraordinary vision in the field of golf development, as well.
“As a golfer myself, we wanted to create a course located right on the beach that looked out over the East Sea to the Cham Islands. We wanted to create something that stayed in visitors’ minds long after they had returned home — something that might bring them back to Vietnam again,” Mr. Chau said. “As the first facility at Hoiana to welcome guests, we are proud of the team that created this masterpiece. It’s a great first step and should signal to the world what lies in store here over the next few months.”
Hoiana Shores Golf Club has elicited such immediate, fulsome praise in part because it looks and plays unlike any other course in Asia. Treeless and fashioned from a windswept sea of sand, the front nine offers glimpses of the ocean as holes weave their way through the dune scape.
“The front nine accustoms golfers to the cadence of links strategy, the bounce and roll of the turf, the multiple shot options and the use of undulation and shapes to open up the green surfaces,” Styles explained. “Upon making the turn, golfers get their first interaction with the ocean and a sign of what lays ahead.”
Hoiana Shores Golf Club was built with the ethos in mind to bring a new level of the game to Vietnam and the region, allowing golfers to experience pure, traditional links golf the way it’s been played centuries.
“These awards last night are a testament to the team here at Hoiana; however, they are just the start for our Integrated Resort that is surely going to have the world talking,” said Steve Wolstenholme, Group C.O.O of Hoiana.
Hoiana Shores Golf Club is part of the larger Hoiana Integrated Resort, the new lifestyle destination in Vietnam. Once open, Hoiana will offer not only one of Asia’ most compelling golf experiences, but also refined hospitality experience with over 1,000 hotel rooms under Rosewood Hoi An, New World Hoiana Hotel & Residences, KHOS Hoiana & Hoiana Hotel & Suites and the substantial entertainment and gaming facilities.
