No Bluffing 12:00, 07/11/2017

YOU PLEASE TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE COURSE ENHANCEMENT PROJECT?

It’s something that we just started. The Bluffs is a linksstyle design, but slowly since the course opened in 2014, vegetation has taken over many of the sand dunes and also negatively impacted on the amount of air and sun our greens receive. Our aim is to selectively clear that vegetation to expose the native trees underneath and enable the greens to “breathe” again. We have already removed vegetation around greens 1, 3, 7, 8 and 12, and the results are amazing. Living things need air and sun to survive. Turf is no different.

HOW CHALLENGING ARE VIETNAM’S SEASONS FOR THIS PROJECT?

Vietnam has two seasons - dry and wet. Normally, we get eight months of mostly dry conditions and four months of wetter conditions. In the last two years, the wet season has been longer than usual. That has caused problems, as it cuts into when we’re able to do our main renovations. Wet season is about survival. We can get weeks of huge rainfall and no sun, which is detrimental to growing dense and diseasefree turf.

HOW LONG DO YOU EXPECT THE COURSE ENHANCEMENT PROJECT TO LAST?

With the Ho Tram Players Championship scheduled for December 6-9, 2018, next year is going to be a big one for us. We’re going to want plenty of time to get the course looking and playing exactly as it should for an event of that magnitude. So our aim is to fnish removing unnecessary 419 (bermuda grass) from around select tees by the end of this year - a step that will not only further expose the sand, it will reduce course maintenance costs - and trim back the rest of the overgrown vegetation by the middle of next year. We’re also working on a plan to install new drainage in the greens and enhance the bunkers. I truly believe that when we’re all fnished, the course is going to be in a class of its own.