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PHAN THIET, Vietnam (16 December 2011) — Ocean Dunes Golf Club
will extend its 15th anniversary celebration with an attractive new golf
stay-and-play package that will spill over into 2012, the club’s 16thyear.
“The Golf Package” at Ocean Dunes starts from VND 1.65 million (US$75) per
person, extending the same pricing to a companion. The Golf Package includes 18
holes of golf at Ocean Dunes’ celebrated Nick Faldo-designed course, caddie fee,
a twin-share room, and breakfast. This deal is valid through 31 March 2012, and
booking is subject to availability.
“Ocean Dunes debuted in the spring of 1996, when Vietnam’s golf capability was
only just emerging,” said club General Manager Glenn Cassells. “In many
important respects, this club helped lay a foundation for the 30 golf clubs
operating in Vietnam today, and the 70 more that are now planned or under
construction.
“We felt the most appropriate way to celebrate Ocean Dunes’ role in this growth
was to get the course in peak condition — something we’ve been working at for
eight solid months — and offer golfers access to the course and accommodation
for the best possible price. The Golf Package does exactly this. Golf, lodging,
caddie and breakfast for 1.65 million dong is just about the best deal you’ll
find anywhere in Southeast Asia.”
Ocean Dunes was indeed a pioneering golf venture when it opened in 1996:
• It was the first course in Vietnam conceived by one of golf design’s signature
names, Sir Nick Faldo, a 6-time major champion. Today, famous names like Greg
Norman, Colin Montgomerie, Luke Donald and Jack Nicklaus have all lent their
names to new VN golf developments — but Ocean Dunes was the first.
• Ocean Dunes was also the first new course built outside the urban hubs of Ho
Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and so it was first to take advantage of the country’s
long, sandy coastline. Other courses have since followed suit but to this day,
they still fail to match Ocean Dunes’ warm, breezy, seaside ambience.
• Ocean Dunes was the first golf property to feature luxury accommodations on
site, as the Novotel Phan Thiet also debuted in 1996. Despite the introduction
of so many new courses in recent years, Ocean Dunes remains one of the few golf
resorts in Vietnam to offer this amenity, with all its convenience (and its
proximity to Mui Ne, the country’s pre-eminent beach town). The Novotel Phan
Thiet, situated not 100 yards from the first tee at Ocean Dunes, remains an
equal distance from the resort’s private beach on the East Sea.
While Ocean Dunes has been pivotal in ushering in the modern era of Vietnamese
golf expansion, it remains among the country’s very best courses in its own
right. Faldo’s design is home to the Vietnam Open Championship, the only course
to ever hold the event (the next installment is scheduled for March 2012). It is
also regular host, each August, of the Faldo Series Asia, one of the most
prestigious junior golf competitions in all of Asia.
“The Faldo Series Asia championship finale is held every year at Mission Hills,
in southern China, and I think it’s fitting that Ocean Dunes is the only
Vietnamese club to enjoy a reciprocal membership agreement with Mission Hills,”
Cassells added. “The directors at Mission Hills understand they must offer,
through these reciprocal deals, the golf settings and playing experiences their
members cannot find anywhere else.
“With The Golf Package, Ocean Dunes makes this experience available to anyone,
through the Tet Holiday and beyond, whether they arrive from Shanghai,
Singapore, Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.”.
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