Having never been to Vietnam before, I was really excited to visit a new culture and a new venue for the VinPearl DIC Legends at the VinPearl Resort in Nha Trang. By the way, I’ve no idea why they call it that, we should be called the Legends World Tour because we travel all over the world and not just Europe!
Anyway, I flew into Ho Chi Minh City and then took another flight to Cam Ranh, then a 45 minute taxi ride to a small port in Nah Trang and finally a 15 minute ferry ride to the island of Tre Islet where I’d eventually arrive at the VinPearl Resort...(and what a resort it was)!
Now it was dark by the time I arrived as you’ll see in the video below, it was like travelling to a Far East version of a Walt Disney style resort and the size and quality of everything that had been built there was off the charts.
My room with a view
Anyway, getting back to the golf, I went to Vietnam with one goal in mind and that was to qualify for the year end MCB Tour Championship in Mauritius. Given that I’d seen significant progress in Italy and Spain in previous weeks, I felt that I could turn around what has been an awful year in to a respectable one.
The Golf Course was long, hilly, wet under foot and very windy indeed. These challenges should have played into my hands really as the tougher conditions are, the better I normally am. I played the Pro-Am with three great guys from Hanoi with only one of them speaking a small bit of English but thankfully my local caddie managed to communicate with them on my behalf. What was pretty funny was that after 3 holes, one of them commented that he didn’t think I was that good and my caddie was laughing.…and then I went on to make a bunch of birdies and after 9 holes, this guys attitude had changed. By the end of the day, we got to -15 in 18 holes and ended up winning the Pro-Am (The first thing I’ve won since my last divorce I think) ;-)))
Anyway, on Friday (Tournament 1st round) I got off to a great start on a tricky day (starting on the back nine) and was -4 through 15 holes but sadly, I three putted the 7th hole and then drove it into a bunker at the 9th and finished with a bogey to shoot 69, (-2).
Day 2 was my downfall, I got off to a poor start, +2 after 3 holes, I got my head down and played the next 8 holes in -3, so going into the 12th hole, I was -1 for the day and -3 for the tournament (and feeling quite good). On the 12th, my approach shot plugged in the left green side trap (dead) and subsequently made bogey. On the 13th, I pulled my tee shot (pin high) left of the green and fluffed my pitch shot. So still not on the green, I hit another poor chip shot to about 5 feet and missed it to make a double bogey. All that hard work gone in 20 minutes but I was keeping calm and just battling away. I pared the 14th and 15th holes only to finish bogey, double, par for 76. I was devastated.
I was now in a battle with Jarmo Sandelin, Carl Suneson, Peter Fowler and Jean Francois Remesy to make it into the top 48 players to make it to the Tour Championship. I knew Sunday was going to be a battle of will. Especially given the fact that I was playing with Jarmo.
Sunday was particularly windy but I was out in 2 over par which wasn’t great. I bogeyed the 10th to be 3 over par and I just tried to relax a little as I felt the pressure upon me.
I then birdied the 11th, 12th and 13th holes and pared 14 to be right back in the hunt. Sadly, I bogeyed 15 and 16 to finish the round on +2 so with rounds of 69, 76, 73 (+5 total) and ended up in a tie for 21st spot. I beat all the guys I needed to beat to make it into the event I thought, but sadly, my efforts weren’t quite enough to qualify for Mauritius and the Tour Championship? I missed out by 1 spot which equated to 1 shot.
That’s life I guess, sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don’t but never give up trying. Onwards and upwards and onto a better 2024.