The King's Island Golf Resort and Country Club lies some 45
kilometers west of Hanoi in Ha Tay Province. The $22 million project
features plans for two 18-hole courses designed by Robert McFarland,
a golf school, a luxury hotel and corporate villas. There will also
be a sports center, horseback riding, tennis, boating and hiking in
nearby Ba Vi National Park and Tan Vien (Gently King) Mountain which
overlooks the site and from which King's Island gets its name.
The
driving range opened in August 1993 with Vice-President Nguyen Khanh
teeing off. The event prompted the official communist Party
newspaper Nhan Dan to announce "Golf is a good sport for health and
the spirit, but quite new in Vietnam." The first six holes of the
Lakeside course are open and the full 18 are scheduled for
completion soon. The Mountain view course is due to open in 1995.
According to King's Valley president Denis McDaniel, the company is
interested in building four or five more courses in Vietnam
including one at Dien Bien Phu, site of the decisive 1954 battle
that marked the end of French rule in Vietnam. The area is a popular
tourist attraction, especially among French visitors.
Buses leave for the club every
Sunday morning from the Metropole Hotel in downtown Hanoi.
Non-members are welcome. The cost of joining is $15,000 for
individual memberships and $36,000 for corporate memberships.