This is one of the best golf courses I’ve ever played.

This is one of the best golf courses I’ve ever played.

When you travel all the way across the world, 25 hours of travel to go play a golf course, you hope it’s going to be a really good golf course. And here at Hoyana Shores, I have a a feeling that’s going to be the case Today, I’m outside Hoian, Vietnam, playing Hoiana Shores Golf Club, which is one of the very best courses in Asia I’m going to take you in a little bit of tour. I’m going to tell you about it and help you decide if you should make the trek out to Vietnam to play golf. Today’s gonna be a good day. So at the beginning of the trip, we were in Hanoi, which is big, crazy city, really not a whole lot of golf. We went to King’s Island, which was about an hour outside of the city, and really kind of cool. You take a speedboat out. There are three courses there, and on the island, that’s all there is. It’s just those three golf courses. So pretty cool experience, completely different course than what we have here. So here, Hoiana Shores, is located just outside of Hoi An, which is a much just more chill, smaller It almost feels like more of a like Southeast Asia beach town, but it’s right on the river, even though the ocean is close, the town of Hoyan is not right on the ocean, but definitely more just like chill vibes And honestly, for as much as I love the craziness of Hanoi and the big city There’s something that’s just so nice about chilling Having a beer, down by the water, overlooking all the boats, overlooking the people. It’s just a really nice vibe. So if you have an opportunity to come to Hoi An, definitely take it And honestly, this course, yeah, it’s reason enough to come here All right. So Hoiana Shores opened in 2020 and was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., which honestly, kind of a surprise. When you think of a modern L style course, you’re not expecting RTG. Jr. to be the one to design it. I would have expected, you know, a core Crenshaw, Tom Doke, McClay Kid But this course feels just like the other modern Link style courses that I’ve played from those architectss So the first hole is the hardest hole on the golf course, a beastly, long par four with this crazy green. And then you move over to number two, which is a dog leg left, short par four, really fun golf holes My initial thoughts when we first got here is, oh, this feels like Bandon Dunes, the original Bandon Dunes golf course in the way that it looks, feels bunkering. It’s just a really impressive piece of land. And right now I’m only three holes in in, incredibly impressed, like exceeding expectations so far birdie putt here on the fourth hole. Let’s see. We can make a putt. Little wide. That’s okay. There we go. Nice par. Nice par. All right, first par three of the course, the fifth hole, got 121 yards from the white, and what is a wild looking green. But if there was ever a time to hit my first hole in one, this feels appropriate. Just short. Just short. sit, sit, sit, sit. Sit! Ah! I think I might get lucky. There’s a bunker there. Maybe I went over it. I don’t know. We’ll find out. Ah That looks good. Dirt. That looks good. Give it to him. Come on. Come on.
Come on. Oh.
Good. Nice put.
All right. Second par three, eighth hole, such a cool looking short par three All right. May not have had the hole in one on the last part, three, but this one, I got a good feeling about this one. We’re okay with that. We’ll take it. Oh. Ah. That was pathetic. That was less than ideal. So we just made the turn, and it’s safe to say that the wind is picking up a little bit. So we’ll see how this backline goes. Have you ever been playing a golf hole and you see a green, like off in the distance and you’re like, oh, it would be cool if that were the golf hole, even though it wasn’t, it was a different green from a different hole Well, I thought that’s what was happening here at the 10th at Hoyana. I saw green off in the distance. I was like, oh, man, that’s such a cool look. I took a photo of it. This is great. And as yet further up, I realized, oh, no, that was the green for the par 5 tenth that we were playing. And all of a sudden I realized I was just like, this is a cool hole. And we’ve had that experience a lot on this course, where you’re just looking around. It’s like, this is a cool hole All right, here at the 11th hole, short par four called dunes, and you look at this hole as just sand everywhere. Hence the name dunes, but cool looking hole. quick little look at the 11th green here. Just all kinds of movement going on. Okay, 100% can confirm the 11th hole at Hoyana Shores, one of the best short par fours I’ve ever played So, for me, if you guys have followed some of my stuff, you know that I value fun golf. Like, yeah, strategic elements, architectural elements, that’s great. That’s important. But I just want something that’s going to make me hit fun shots and holes for you look at the course and you’re just like, ah, that looks cool. Like, I’m excited to go play this course. And that is Hoyana Shores. Every hole so far has been just fun, aesthetically pleasing. And the good news is it also has a whole lot of strategy involved. There is multiple ways you can play every hole out here 11 holes in, and with every hole, there have been multiple ways that you can play it. The greens, maybe a little over the top for some purists, but they’re also huge, giving you lots of different areas to aim for, and we’ve had a whole lot of fun putts today as well All right, par three, 12 hole, right in front of the clubhouse. There are hundreds of people watching. So if I hit a hole in one, it’s going to be really impressive. I’d
I think it’s going to happen. And by hundreds of people, I mean, three. Oh Going low. Step, stay there. Hang on. Okay, no, come on back. All right. Hear that clapping? That means I’m a good golfer. I hit that well got really well. It’s a little too far to the left, so we’re hoping it doesn’t go in the bunkers over there. New grip change is working. I don’t even know what to do with all this distance. is what happens with this new drive. All this distance, you end up in bunkers you didn’t think were reachable. But a little gap wedge into the green. It’s going to tuck this up there close. Just like not quite enough There we go. Par three, 14th, 18 index. It’s the easiest hole on the course, but I don’t know. It’s a pretty crazy looking holes. in a good way. So I haven’t exactly been playing the par three is great today, but there’s no time like the present. Hit a good shot. We just got like 105 here. All kinds of bunkers, but this is an opportunity. All right, 15 feet. That was great. Feel good about that. birdie list today. So let’s see if we can knock one in here. Tricky putt. Break, break. Just didn’t break as much as we wanted, but we’ll take the tap in par. call it good. Not mad at that. So Hoyana Shores is part of Hoyana Integrated Resort, which is that giant resort behind me. It’s a billion dollar plus project that’s got a casino and a hotel and all this stuff. But we’re not staying there. We are staying at the Anantara Hoyan, which is the only five star resort directly in Hoyan. It’s right on the river. It’s got a beautiful pool area. It is walking distance to everything in Hoyan. So if you’re looking to come out here, you’re looking for a nice place to stay and you want to stay in the city where you can go experience all of the amazing things that are there I would recommend checking out the resort. It”s been really cool All right, so now we’re getting to the star of the show here at Hoyana Shores, which is saying something because everything’s been really good up to this point. 15, 16, 17, 15 is a medium linked par four going straight out to the water. 16th is another medium length par 4 going straight along the coastline, and then you get to the final par 3, 17. It’s actually only a par 71 golf course. You got five par ths. And honestly, every single par three so far has been awesome Hang on We’ll see. We’ll see. So this may not look like the optimal position here on 15. Watch this. It might be good. Okay, you might be fooled into thinking that I’m in rough shape here, but this birdie chip is perfectly positioned to play off the hill, trickle down, and drop in the hole. You know, where’s the fun in that when you can make a par putt from right off the green, that just felt like the better move Oh! Thought we had that one. Thought we had that one. one. So here on 16, short par four, but you’ve got some challenges. You’ve got some options. There’s a bunker that cuts across two-thirds of the fairway from the water all the way up So if you want to go driver, things get significantly more narrow as you get into driver distance. So I have four iron. I’m about 20, 30 feet short of the bunkers, but your approach shot here, is gnarly. You got big bunkers all down the right hand side, a wild looking green This is a golf hole. Well, we put it up there. We gave it a chance. Oh!!! How o o? That was perfect. Like, that was we clubbed up, like that was perfect. It was gonna go, right it missed by like this much and then just trickled all the way down and then it went down into the bunker. I hate golf. This is a stupid game. Well, we’re out All right. Out of the gnarly bunker. See if we can salvage something here. Ow! No such luck. But the 16th hole here, still pretty awesome. All right, last chance for a hole one here on 177. And I believe Katie in the group in front of us just hit a hole in one. So I don’t know for sure we’ll find out after the round, but why don’t we don’t we make it extra memorable and just finally do this? Stop talking about it. Knock it in the hole. That’s very left, but might still be on the green. Not going to be a hole in one, but that’s okay. Oh, that’s got to get up. That’s got to go. That’s gonna need some luck. But maybe maybe we’ll get some of that’ll roller coat. Okay. Well. 15 feet per par All right. Let’s try and make a putt here. Oh! All right. So we’re on the 18th hole here at Hoyana Shores. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this little tour as much as I’ve enjoyed playing it Hoyana absolutely lived up to, if not exceeded expectations. This course is so good It’s definitely a trek. It takes a while to get here, but if you’re looking for a good golf adventure with legitimately world class golf, this is as good as any top 100 course I’ve played, definitely a spot to consider. So we’ still got two more rounds. We’re playing Denang Golf Club, and we’re playing Laguna Lanco here coming up. which I’m really excited about. Those are all within a pretty short drive of here Well, that, my name is Sean Oggle, founder Breaking 80. We talk about cool golf products in case of today, really cool golf courses. If you got some value out of this, maybe hit the subscribe button. If you have questions, drop comment, thumbs up, do all those YouTubey things, and you’ll see you on the next video. Peace.

See the full recap from my epic golf trip to Vietnam: https://breakingeighty.com/vietnam

Interested in visiting Vietnam for golf? Check out Asia Golf Trips. The owner Scott Resch is wonderful: https://asiagolftrips.com/

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
0:00 After traveling 25 hours to get here, this better be good!
0:28 The Vietnam trip so far.
1:24 Hoiana Shores. A Robert Trent Jones Jr. design.
1:47 Holes #1 & #2.
2:01 Bandon Dunes of the far east?
2:17 Hole #4.
2:41 Hole #5.
3:01 Hole #6.
3:30 Hole #8.
3:58 After the turn.
4:39 Hole #11.
5:04 I value FUN golf courses.
5:46 Hole #12.
6:17 Hole #13.
7:21 Hole #14.
8:21 Hoiana Resort.
8:56 Holes 15, 16, 17.
9:23 Hole #15.
10:16 Hole #16.
11:38 Hole #17.
12:32 Hoiana lived up to expectations.
13:07 Close