Pro golf Legends bring sport to Cambodia for first time as Scotland’s Drysdale takes Vattanac trophy

The East Course at the Vattanac Golf Resort [VATTANAC GOLF RESORT]

 
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Golf came of age in Cambodia last week as the Legends Tour pulled into Phnom Penh for the first international tournament ever to be hosted by the country.
 
Played at the acclaimed Sir Nick Faldo — designed East Course at Vattanac Golf Resort, the Legends Tour brought a field of former stars of the European Tour and PGA to the Southeast Asian country. Due to course conditions at the next planned stop in Vietnam, the Legends Tour is now instead staying at Vattanac for a second week, this time on the west course.
 
 
Part professional tour and part exhibition, the Legends Tour, the current name of the European Senior Tour, is a professional golf tour for players over the age of 50. Participants include 16 former major winners and 10 former Ryder Cup captains, although 2005 U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell was the only one to come to Phnom Penh last week.
 

Teeing off on the 10th on the East Course at Vattanac Golf Resort [JIM BULLEY]

 
Scotland’s David Drysdale took the trophy in the first Vattanac tournament on Nov. 23, finishing 12-under to narrowly pip Peter Baker and Anthony Wall to the post. The tournament is played over three days, and Drysdale rode a dominant closing 66 to jump up the rankings and take his first Legends Tour title.
 
“Vattanac Legends Championship winner sounds fantastic,” said Drysdale. “It’s been a long time coming, but it feels amazing. I played great today and I’m delighted to get it done. I felt pretty calm and was just trying to stay focused and hit one good shot after another.”
 
But as much as the Legends Tour is a professional golf tournament, it’s also something of an exhibition series, taking international golf to countries where its presence is limited. Cambodia is perhaps the most obvious example — it had never hosted any international tournament before this one — so this year’s tournament also served as a chance for the country to show the golf world what it has to offer.
 
Cambodia didn’t disappoint. The Vattanac Golf Resort is an impressive course with dramatic water features and plenty of reminders of where you are (for example, a replica Angkor Wat sits between the ninth and 10th).
 

A replica of Angkor Wat between the ninth and 10th on the East Course at Vattanac Golf Resort [JIM BULLEY]

 
Situated about 40 minutes’ drive from the five-star Rosewood Phnom Penh hotel in the center of the city — also owned by Vattanac Group, and where many of the golfers chose to stay — the course is easily reachable for a half-day morning game, with plenty of time to see the city in the afternoon. That journey became even easier for the pro golfers last week, with a police escort ensuring they got to and from the course as quickly as possible.
 
The Legends Tour took the exhibition element into the city as well, hosting an event on Phnom Penh’s crowded Walking Street, a riverside road that is only open to pedestrians on weekends.
 
Surrounded by food carts and souvenir stalls, Legends golfers, along with local politicians and celebrities, took turns on the Tour stage attempting to chip balls from the bank to a target on a barge in the middle of the Tonle Sap River.
 

The East Course at the Vattanac Golf Resort [JIM BULLEY]

 
The Legends Tour finishes its second stop in Phnom Penh, this week known as The Vattanac Legends Championship Legacy Edition, on Nov. 28, before jetting off to Mauritius next week for the season-ending MCB Mauritius Legends event.

BY JIM BULLEY [[email protected]]