Construction of the new Rock Valley course designed by Albanese & Lutzke at the Yen Dung Resort & Golf Club near Hanoi, Vietnam, is set to begin in 2021.

“The views on Rock Valley are like nothing I have ever seen that does not have an ocean,” said Paul Albanese. “Golfers will be standing on top of mountains up to 125 metres in height looking across the entire golf course and, on some holes, over to beautiful rice paddies and a traditional Vietnamese village. Looking down onto a golf hole they are about to play will be very dramatic.

“On the scorecard a hole will be 400 metres, but play like 300, or less. There are going to be some very dramatic shots where it will take a long time for a ball to land — you could have a cup of coffee as you wait!”

The architects have worked at the resort before, with the design of the Hillside course that opened in August 2017.

“The two courses are so very different, as described by their names,” said Albanese. “Hillside is precisely that – created essentially on the side of hills. The complex design issues that we dealt with to enable this course to be a fair and fun challenge was itself a challenge! We spent a lot of effort ensuring it could fit and I am proud of the technical design and construction team we worked with to get this done – and done well.

“Hillside is truly a fair challenge. If golfers wish to play safe – they can. But if they choose to be daring and try to shoot a low score, and they get bitten, there will be some tough penalties, caused not intentionally by design, but due the difficulty of the terrain. Golfers will really need to think their way around the golf course.”

The Hillside layout has recently been given two awards by Vietnam Golf Magazine in coordination with Vietnam Golf Association, National Administration of Tourism, and National Administration of Sports — ‘Most Challenging Course in Vietnam’ and ‘#2 Best New Course in 2019’.