Vietnam - a war-torn country? Not anymore.

I cling to these little traditions and can't help but notice how many of them slide away as each year passes. For me, the start of the holiday stretch meant an annual Christmas Eve manhattan at the Hotel Vancouver's lobby bar, followed by a week off for family and friends and then off to the desert for golf. My greatest pleasure is watching the long string of headlights threading up Oak Street toward the city as I'm heading the other way to the airport.

So what tradition this year? Well instead of the usual trip to the desert or Hawaii, this time it's Vietnam.

From the minute Suzy and I started discussing this trip the comments from others was surprisingly, universally the same. "Oh yeah. I know somebody who (insert one of the following) 1. is going there, 2. is there now, or, 3. just came back from there."

It seems we have a knack for heading off to places that qualify as the next new hot destination. We were in Croatia last summer and we experienced the same comments. Speaking of Croatia, I owe my editor a column on this trip.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Make it a two part column, Steve. That was a long break)

The idea of Vietnam came about as the result of a coffee I had recently with a young flat-belly by the name of Rob Brew. He and his partner Duff Waddell started a trans-Pacific golf travel company that initially specialized in BC, Japan and Thailand packages. Rob is from Kelowna where he played college golf and the Junior Zone II Tour.

After graduating Rob headed over to Asia to burn off some steam and wound up teaching English in Japan where he augmented his income by taking money off of the other teachers at the school. He recognized that while Japanese citizens come to Canada for an education they go elsewhere to golf, like Hawaii, Guam and New Zealand. Golf in Canada was a foreign concept. Recognizing an opportunity, Global Golf Vacations was born as he and his partner started working both sides of the Pacific developing relationships with courses and customers.

According to their website the company appears to have grown to offer guided and self-guided packages in BC, southern United States, Scotland, Thailand, New Zealand and South Africa. These guys also seem to have impeccable timing as they started their company just when the Canadian dollar started going through the ceiling and the Japan economy is also rebounding nicely.

Another smart business touch comes from Rob's teaching background. Several of his Asian clients also have sons and daughters attending school here so when they book lessons for their kids they get two bangs for their buck - golf lessons and English lessons.

So, back to our conversation over coffee. I explained to Rob that Vietnam had caught my eye as it had been voted 2007's "Undiscovered Golf Destination of the Year" by the International Association of Golf Travel Operators and could he help me with some contacts over there. IAGTO is the same organization that named BC as the #1 golf destination in the world for 2007. Rob admitted that Vietnam, while on their long-term radar is not on their present list of golf tours, so we agreed we would both do some homework and see what we came up with. Here is what I found out.

Of the 16 golf courses operating in the country, seven really stand out as world class and have been recently bundled up into a very convenient marketing package called the Ho Chi Minh Golf Trail

But, what is intriguing is that there are more than 30 new projects in various stages of construction; most attached to a major hotel or residential resort complex. This appears to be what might separate Vietnam from other Asian golf destinations. Vietnam is attracting major investment capital and is being talked about as becoming the second largest domestic economy next to China.

The Ba Ria - Vung Tau region is considering six new golf course projects, in particular, the province has approved a 300-hectare golf course-tourism complex funded by the Republic of Korea.

The largest 54-hole golf course in the country has been licensed to start construction in Lam Dong Province in early 2008, with the capital also coming from the Republic of Korea.

Of the existing courses, perhaps the best known are Dalat Palace Golf Club, Ocean Dunes Golf Club and the Montgomerie Links - Vietnam.

According to my sources the Dalat Palace Golf Club and Ocean Dunes Golf Club have recently been voted the best in Vietnam by readers of Asian Golf Monthly magazine. Located in the south of the country, these are big beautiful rolling resort courses attached to large scale resorts. Best of all they are close to Mui Ne Beach where we have decided to spend much of our time while there. If opportunities allows I have asked the folks handling the marketing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail operation for a visit to the other courses in the region. We'll see how it goes.

Indeed, thanks to a tropical climate, a thousand-mile coastline and a cost of living that makes golf, lodging, food and domestic travel extremely affordable it would seem to explains the boom in golf and the subsequent attention of the world media, including your humble golf travel writer from BC Golf News.

It could be the beginning of a whole new tradition.