Nick Faldo has followed up on his award-winning golf course design in Vietnam with the introduction of a first Faldo Series tournament in the country.
The inaugural Faldo Series Asia Vietnam Championship will take place on
September 27-28 at Phan Thiet’s Ocean Dunes Golf Club, a course designed by
the six-time Major winner himself. In its last three Planet Golf surveys,
Golf Digest (USA) rated the layout among the top two in Vietnam.
Open to players from all Asian countries, the tournament will present new
opportunities for young golfers not only in Vietnam, but in neighboring
nations such as Cambodia and Laos as well.
"All you have to do is look at the sheer number of people in this part of
the world to see there is an extraordinary amount of possibility," said
Faldo. "There may be dozens of potential superstars in this region, but
we'll never know unless their talent is cultivated. I believe this event can
be a stepping stone and I would like to thank the Vietnam Golf Association
and Ocean Dunes for helping to make it happen.”
Supported by major partners Mission Hills, The R&A and UBS and patron
Korn/Ferry International, the Vietnam Championship will provide talented
young golfers aged 11 to 21 with a combination of tournament experience on
the course and expert advice off the course. Simultaneously, younger
children from the local community will be invited to watch the action and
attend a free golf clinic.
“Just as he was fiercely determined to win golf tournaments, Nick has a
burning desire to create access to the sport,” said Jeff Puchalski, Ocean
Dunes’ general manager and director of golf. “He is displaying it again by
making another commitment to Vietnam, where interest in the game is growing
but events targeting kids have yet to take root. This could be what spurs a
youngster here to become a champion like Nick.”
Up to six players from the Vietnam Championship will qualify for the Faldo
Series Asia Grand Final, an R&A World Amateur Golf Ranking event to be
hosted by Faldo in March 2009 on the Faldo Course at Mission Hills in China.
Sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation, the
Faldo Series Asia title has been claimed in previous years by Thailand’s
Nakarin Ratanakul and India’s Rashid Khan. Both earned invitations to the
Faldo Series Grand Final in Europe and, courtesy of the Asian Tour, a start
in the Volvo Masters Asia and a scholarship to stage one of Asian Tour
Qualifying School.
Inspired by the decade-long success of the Faldo Series in Europe, Faldo
launched the equivalent in Asia in 2006. The Vietnam Championship takes the
2008 schedule to 12 tournaments in nine different countries across the
continent.
Anyone wishing to attend the Vietnam Championship, players or spectators,
should contact Ocean Dunes Golf Club on (84) 62-823-366 or visit the website
at
www.vietnamgolfresorts.com For information on the Faldo Series Asia visit
www.nickfaldo.com
