HOIANA ShOReS GC eARNS MULTIPLe ACCOLADeS AT ASIA-PA

hOIANA Shores Golf Club was named“Best New Golf Course”for 2019 at the Asia-Pacific Golf Awards, held here at the DLF Golf and 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 September 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 $4 billion development poised to open early next year on Vietnam’s Central Coast, just south of Da Nang. “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 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 UK-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,” 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 Alvin Chau, chairman of Suncity Group holdings Ltd. and shareholder in the hoiana project. 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,” 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