What opportunities would bring Vietnamese professional golf to the continent? 09:33, 04/10/2022

Last September, the DNSE Vietnam Open 2022 ended successfully, bringing a great influence to the Vietnamese golf industry. This tournament has made a strong transition with remarkable changes compared to previous seasons, contributing to raising the value of Vietnamese golf to the world level.

Accompany VGL to listen to Mr. Le Hung Nam - Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Golf Association about the opportunities and future of professional golf in Vietnam.

In your opinion, where are the amateur and professional athletes of Vietnam compared to the region and the world currently? What are the opportunities for athletes to reach further and thrive?

Currently, according to my personal assessment, young athletes are very potential and promising, many of them with outstanding achievements in domestic tournaments have been named on the WAGR and ranked quite high. However, pro athletes in Vietnam have not yet made their mark at regional tournaments. The recent international and national tournaments such as BRG Open Golf Championship Danang 2022and DNSE Vietnam Open 2022have partly shown that athletes still need to work harder and that they have a lot of opportunities to develop more in upcoming tournaments, bringing the image of Vietnamese golfers to international friends.

Up to 5 athletes in the top 10 of the DNSE Vietnam Open 2022 are amateur athletes and young Vietnamese golf talents, how do you rate the performance of these athletes at DNSE?

I see now that our young athletes have been, are and will be on the right track and trained very well, many of them have had the opportunity to rub in previous seasons, and have become more persistent and brave. I value the young Vietnamese athletes very highly and we have a plan for these talents to be nurtured and promoted in the best way.

In your opinion, how many young Vietnamese athletes have the opportunity to compete in the international arena (big tournaments in the world)?

The number of athletes participating in major tournaments in the world will be unlimited. As long as athletes practice hard and have passion in this sport, the possibility of them reaching out to the world is countless. There are still a lot of scholarships and study encouragement funds for this sport so that athletes can have the opportunity to develop.

How does the VGA Tour plan to develop young talents?

DNSE Vietnam Open 2022 is the first tournament to change the method of receiving prizes when all the remaining prizes from amateur athletes (amateur athletes are allowed to receive a maximum of 23 million VND) are transferred to the junior golf training program. 5 members of the national team, including Nguyen Quang Tri, Nguyen Anh Minh, Nguyen Dang Minh, Le Khanh Hung and Pham Thi Yen Vi, brought the program a total of 162 million.

In addition, VGA has also established the VGA Junior Tour system with more than 10 tournaments in 2023, and established a local focused training center according to the curriculum consulted by PGA Australia. We are also working hard to bring young athletes to compete in international youth tournaments and especially for young athletes to compete in the professional system of Vietnam VGA Tour. The Vietnam Golf Association maintains the search for funding sources to support young athletes to have the opportunity to receive scholarships and opportunities to go abroad for more specialized training in Golf. In addition, with the desire to find more new talents, the Association will also support Junior Golf in localities and widely communicate training programs, workshops, seminars as well as domestic and international tournament information.