Adam Calver: “Vietnam is my second home”  11:30, 21/03/2022

Why did you decide to come back to Vietnam without staying at home? What is special about the Laguna golf course in comparison to the other golf course you had managed? 

Vietnam has become my second home. The people, culture and natural beauty of the landscape is amazing and what is not to love about Vietnam. I have spent the past five years renovating and enhancing Laguna Lang Co with Sir Nick Faldo and Laguna Lang Co golf course has no comparison. Laguna has such mixed diversity throughout the course, with 5 distinct environments. 

This particular site is exactly what we look for when seeking new land for designing and developing a golf course. Tropical mountains at your back, waterfalls, forests, rice paddies, sand dunes and the wind from the sea in your face on the ocean holes,  all this packed into one 18 hole golf course; Laguna is carved through a landscape that is hard to find anywhere in the world.   

During the pandemic, many foreigner GM had returned to their country and it is a fact that the number of foreigners managing golf courses in Vietnam is very rare. So what do you think about this situation? 

For me, I started my career working as a Superintendent and then was a owner representative overseeing golf course construction, development and design. After that I gained experience hosting professional televised tournaments before becoming a GM and heading the team for operations, sales and marketing as well as the business development side of Golf. My degree is in Golf Course Management. However, I have dedicated decades to understanding how and what makes a great golf course design and a successful tourism experience. Building destination golf has been my passion in Canada, Dubai, Bali and Vietnam. My last four golf courses that I built and/or operated were all World Top 100 courses and they demand a global mindset with a focus on delivering world class standards combined with local sensitivities and experiences.  

With Vietnam’s growing golf market, the concern is building poor quality golf courses that will not attract higher-spending international golf markets. This happened in Thailand, Indonesia and some other South East Asian nations. There is only a handful of golf course designers and even less developers who truly understand how to build and deliver great golf. The challenge for the Vietnam Golf Industry is to focus on building internationally celebrated golf course designs with exceptional service standards and pristine golf course conditions and to build domestic-focused golf venues to grow the game of golf for Vietnamese nationals as well. Focusing on building clusters of destination golf is essential, not all golf courses need to be championship venues. 

Vietnam has an opportunity like no other country in the world today to build a dozen World Top 100 golf courses across the nation, if we can find the right developers and design teams to secure great golf sites we could be a true bucket list for the global golf traveler. 

Having educated and experienced industry professionals, such as General Managers / Director of Golf and most importantly Superintendents / Assistant Superintendents and Turfgrass professionals is essential to our long-term success as a recognized golf destination and successful golf industry. I do not feel it matters so much where you come from but you must have the proper knowledge and experience to ensure the golf facility is operating correctly. The saying “you do not know what you do not know” means the lack of experience and education can be devastating in the long term to the golf facility if the management is not properly experienced. For a top facility the leadership should have a four year degree with 7-10 years’ experience at a similar level golf club.         

How long have you stayed in Vietnam and worked at Laguna Lang Co? Do you think you will stay here forever and make it become your second home? 

Vietnam has already become a second home for me and my family. I first visited the country in 2012 to tour around Ha Long Bay and later that same year I was approached to oversee the construction and opening of The Bluffs Ho Tram. However, I was also offered a position to oversee the development and operations of Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs back in my home country of Canada at the same time. In 2015, I had the owners of Cabot come to look at some land in Vietnam to build a large golf resort here but they thought it was too far from Canada at the time.  When the opportunity to work at Laguna Lang Co arrived, I jumped at the chance and moved here with my family, and it’s been a dream. 

I have since been working with Sir Nick Faldo to restore Laguna Lang Co. The golf course needed some adjustments to the design to improve the condition of the greens and overall playing surfaces. This is an example of what happens within a few years when a club is not being managed properly. We were able to reverse that trend and Laguna has been a celebrated golf experience for the past 4 years.  We are also the first Sir Nick Faldo Signature Design open for play and the Home of The Faldo Series Asia Grand Final for the next 5 years. We moved this event from Mission Hills to Laguna Lang Co in 2017.  We are also the first golf resort to be invited to join the Asian Tour Destinations Club in 2020 and last year we were named by Golf World as a Top 100 Golf Resort in the World.   

I am grateful to be part of the great phase of golf development in Vietnam and I am looking forward to many great things to come. 

Covid-19 has affected many fields of life, tourism, economy and golf for the last two year, so how about your work at Laguna? Have you and your team found some suitable solution to adapt to the new normal? 

The Global Pandemic has devastated resorts globally. Although golf has been booming for the past three years, resort golf has been hit harder than the city golf courses. Laguna has been able to maintain most of our normal daily golf operations. However, we had a long list of golf tournaments and events that have all been canceled until the international travel routes reopen. The main awaited event was the Faldo Series Asia Grand Final in 2020 and 2021, which is now rescheduled for November 2022. 

As borders have been closed, we have been focusing on growing and building our domestic golfer base. Before the pandemic, we already offered special discounted golf rates for local residents of Vietnam to play golf and stay at Laguna Park Golf Residence, which helped us when the international markets first closed. We have seen a surge in our golfers “road tripping” to enjoy 3 to 7 day golf escapes with family and friends. 

As golf construction has continued to boom even during the pandemic, I have been assisting Sir Nick Faldo with his Vietnam projects to ensure we maintain a world class standard for great golf as we aim to market these new courses to the international markets in 2022. We are very fortunate to have Faldo hosting events every year at Laguna and he has a true love for Vietnam. We want to make sure we help his new courses become world-class destinations of their own.  The more quality courses we have the better it is for the entire golf industry in Vietnam. 

In 2022, do you have any plan to support the golf community through CRS projects? 

For the past five years, we have been leaders in the region with various CRS activities. Laguna offers Free Golf for all kids under the age of 16 years old if they are playing with an adult. We also host free golf for women each year during National Women’s Day and run a number of donation programs each October in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Working with Sir Nick Faldo and the VGA, we will be offering a second opportunity for Vietnamese junior golfers to qualify for the Faldo Series Asia Grand Final. In the past, there were only five available positions for Vietnamese players to qualify for the Asia Final but now, as part of Laguna hosting the Asia Final for the next five years, we will be offering ten positions to Vietnamese players. This is a massive opportunity for junior golfers to gain their world amateur ranking points and provides a pathway to being a tour professional. 

As a Board Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation (AGIF) we are working closely with various associations such as the VGA and Da Nang Tourism in Vietnam to assist in providing training and certificate programs to the Vietnam Golf Professionals working in Turfgrass and Club Management fields. Working with the AGIF, we offer a Certificate in Greens Keeping (CIG) and we feel this is a great opportunity for Vietnamese working in the Turfgrasss / Green Keeping sector to register (or for their golf clubs to enroll them)  for the certificate program. This is a very important step in the long term success of the golf industry in Vietnam.

Working with our partner and sponsor for the Cobra Puma Charity Pro Am, we will continue to use this event as a positive source for the golf community to give back to various charities in Vietnam. 

We will also work with Vietnam Golf Magazine to host our 2nd Caddie Championship in 2022 which has been a great event for growing the game for caddies working in golf.   

As a chairman of Vietnam Golf Coast, do you think 2022 will be a year of golf tourism here? 

We have a number of proposals on the table for boosting the recovery of golf tourism in Central Vietnam. Once borders open, there is a huge opportunity for Vietnam to build this brand as there are a few new exciting courses now open that the international markets have not experienced yet. However, we are fully aware that this is a global race to attract and retain the global golf tourist who are keen to travel and play the world’s best courses. For the first time in history every single nation in the world is competing to gain the attention of tourists seeking unique, safe vacations and we feel our cluster of 5 of the top 7 golf courses in Vietnam gives the Vietnam Golf Coast that advantage we need to get Vietnam ahead of other golf destinations. 

Even with the challenges ahead, I feel 2022 will be a strong year for the Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An golf courses as the domestic demand to visit and play all the courses is very strong already and we are just coming out of the winter months. Once domestic travel is fully open I know the courses, beaches and hotels will be packed. 

Does Laguna have a new promotion program to facilitate the development of women's golf? 

Laguna has a number of promotions and packages available for women golfers. We have events throughout the year and our Girls Golf Getaway has been very popular.  We are seeing more women taking girls trips to Laguna, staying in the resort, golfing, going to the spa, enjoying the  3km beach and enjoying the pools around the resort. Having the Banyan Tree 3-bedroom pool villas, Angsana Sky pools or Laguna Park 2 or 3-bedroom Golf Residence with private pools and back yard BBQs all within walking distance to the Club House is a big advantage to the golf course at Laguna. 

We have also been offering free rental club packages with introduction golf lessons for women who are just trying golf for the first time.  Our facilities allow women to either play the GONGS putting course, or use the short game area to practice or just have some fun with the girls before and after the round. 

Can you share with readers your personal plans in 2022 and so far? 

My personal plan is to get Laguna Lang Co back up and hosting tournaments and events as soon as possible while assisting Faldo on growing new projects across Vietnam. I am planning to travel to the British Open and back to Canada for a little while this summer once travel is not restricted. 

Domestically, I am planning to travel around Vietnam looking at new golf sites and playing the courses that have just opened. I have walked new and potential golf course sites around the world; it is always part of my vacation plans. Developers and Designers always have the same question for me “Give me a number. Out of 10, how good do you think is the site?” I really enjoy being part of developing new golf land.