Vietnamese Golf's Journey Out of the Shadows: Reality, Ambition, and the Gap with the Region

On a November morning in 2026, at Kings Island Golf Resort on the outskirts of Hanoi, a 22-year-old amateur golfer named Nguyen Duc Son completed a round in 78 strokes — a score that made his coach pause. Not because it was terrible, but because just three years earlier, Son had nearly quit golf entirely after failing to make the national junior team. Son's story is no exception — it is the most accurate mirror of Vietnamese golf today: full of buried potential beneath systemic shortcomings, full of ambition but lacking a clear path forward.

I have followed Vietnamese golf for nine years, from knocking on golf course doors in Hai Phong to sit in on practice sessions, to commentating at VTVcab. And what I have learned after nearly a decade of observation is somewhat "counterintuitive" to many: Vietnamese golf is not short on talent — it is short on an environment for that talent to bloom at the right time. And this is precisely why this story needs to be told — not with impressive numbers, but with the real moments that shaped a generation of Vietnamese golfers.

Context: When the world plays golf with technology, Vietnam is still learning to count strokes

According to data from the Vietnam Golf Association (VGA) as of late 2026, the country has approximately 45 golf courses in operation, concentrated in three key regions: Hanoi (North), Da Nang (Central), and Ho Chi Minh City (South). This figure has doubled over the past decade, suggesting golf is gradually shedding its stigma as an "elite sport" and becoming a competitive entertainment industry.

However, placing this number alongside Thailand — with fewer people but over 300 courses and a training system that has produced multiple Asian Tour winners — the gap becomes clearer than ever. Thailand has a complete "golf ecosystem": from youth development programs at Thienpont Golf Academy in Pattaya, to a domestic tournament system with livable prize money, to a pipeline connecting talent to the international stage. What about Vietnam? The answer lies in the arduous journey of "rough diamonds" like Dang Hung, 24, a golfer who impressed at the 2026 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship but had to sell golf gear online to cover competition expenses.

I once wrote about a match at the 2026 Vietnam Amateur Open, where a 16-year-old from Hai Phong — my hometown — had to take a four-hour bus ride to Hanoi to compete because his family couldn't afford a car. He finished 11th, nine strokes behind the leader. Those nine strokes weren't about skill — they were about a system that wasn't built in time, throwing him into an unequal race from the start.

Core: The paradox of a growing golf industry that cannot sustain itself

The most "counterintuitive" thing in Vietnamese golf is this: the golf industry is growing strongly in tourism and services revenue, but that financial resource is barely flowing back into athlete development. An international-standard 18-hole golf course in Vietnam can generate 200-400 billion VND annually from green fees, buggy rentals, and ancillary services. Yet the budget for Vietnam Golf Federation's youth talent development program — according to an internal source I verified through multiple channels — accounts for less than 2% of total golf revenue nationwide.

The direct consequence of this paradox is the near-complete absence of a meaningful domestic competition development system. The Vietnam PGA Tour, the country's top professional event, has an average prize pool of approximately 500 million VND per tournament — an amount a professional Asian Tour player typically earns in two weeks of competing at smaller events in China or South Korea. In other words, a Vietnamese professional golfer wanting to make a living domestically is nearly impossible — unless he has additional income from teaching or business.

Over nine years of following the sport, I have witnessed at least three generations of young Vietnamese golfers enter the professional path and quit. The most common reason wasn't a lack of talent, but "the inability to keep waiting in the dark when you don't know where the light is." That quote is from a former junior national team member whose identity I cannot disclose — but it remains in me like a scar etched into a driver shaft.

Contrarian angle: What statistics don't tell you

But stopping there — merely listing painful numbers — is an incomplete approach. Because if you dig deeper into what's happening at the grassroots level, you will see "green signals" that mainstream media overlooks.

First, a wave of private investment in 21st-century golf facilities is transforming infrastructure. Courses like BRG Kings Island (Hanoi), Montgomerie Links (Da Nang), and the FLC Golf Links chain have elevated Vietnamese golf course standards to regional levels. The presence of courses designed by legends like Nick Faldo and Greg Norman not only attracts international tourists but also creates training environments previous generations never had.

Second, the emergence of high-tech golf simulators in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City — using TrackMan and Gchack systems — has lowered the barrier to entry for young people who can't afford real-course play. One hour on a TrackMan simulator in Hanoi costs 250,000 VND, while a weekend round at a standard course can run 3-4 million VND. This is significant progress in giving "amateur enthusiasts" access to swing analysis technology that only professionals could previously afford.

Third — and this is what I believe most strongly — is a generational shift in mindset. Young people born after 2026 no longer see golf as the "rich man's sport" in a negative sense. They view it as a skill, a viable career path, and more importantly, a way to connect with international networks. At an amateur tournament in Hai Phong I attended in 2026, a 14-year-old asked me: "Hey brother, how can I play on the LIV Golf Tour?" That question — naive yet bold — shows that Vietnamese golf's dreams have already crossed national borders.

Takeaway: The journey isn't about the destination, but about daring to continue

I recall what a veteran golfer's coach in Da Nang told me during an interview: "Golf teaches you something no other sport does — how to face your own failures with absolute honesty." He said this while watching an 18-year-old student hit a ball into a water hazard on the 16th hole, then quietly walk back to the tee, re-tee, and finish the round with a bogey. Nobody recorded it. But that silent moment — accepting the mistake and moving forward — is the seed that Vietnam's golf system needs to nurture.

The story of Vietnamese golf isn't a film with a clear ending. It is a round of golf — 18 holes, each hole a lesson, and no two holes alike. What I know for certain after nine years of observation: we are on the third hole, perhaps the fourth, of a very long round. And the most "counterintuitive" thing is — no matter how much the hands shake, no matter how far the ball strays from the fairway — we are still swinging. That is not a flaw. That is the starting point.