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Golfing potential yet to come up to par
Jeff Puchalski is a veteran golfer and a member of the elite Professional Golfers Association of America, but he has been playing most of his games in Vietnam in the last 13 years.
For Puchalski, the industry clearly has huge potential, so he decided to form his own new company in Vietnam named FORE Golf Asia, a management and consulting firm specialising in golf development and operation.
“Golf has been developing very slowly in Vietnam, we’ve gone from one to five and now 18 golf courses, but a lot of other projects are moving very slowly, many are even having their licences revoked or applications denied because they are not sound enough,” said Puchalski, who is experienced in golf business management and consulting.
Golf is a huge business worldwide and many investors and professionals like Puchalski have come to Vietnam to explore opportunities in golf development. Nevertheless, golf is still widely seen as an elite sport in Vietnam and has been received rather passively, so experts are now calling for it to be strategically regarded as an industry that has multiple impacts on the domestic economy and environment.
According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, there are now 144 golf projects in Vietnam, but only 18 have been completed and in operation. Others are under construction or under planing stages.
People in the golf industry complain that their projects’ progress has been too slow and the industry should be boosted to create more economic benefits. But some experts say that golf development should now be handled with more care to avoid negative impacts.
“Golf can become an economic sector that attracts not only sport travellers, eco-tourists and other types of tourists, but also investors inside and outside the area of golf,” said Nguyen Duc Truyen from the Social Science Research Institute.
Le Van Kiem, general director of the Long Thanh golf course, said: “A golf course can provide jobs for thousands of local people and contribute millions of dollars to the state budget. It can also serve as a connecting hub for visitors from different parts of the world to come to exchange cultural, trade and political ideas.”
The economic benefits of golf are the reason for such a large number of golf projects being registered in Vietnam. However, their development has met various challenges; most notably the complex procedures that take each project an average of 10 years to complete. Other issues related to golf include the lack of a master plan for golf course development, low proportion of projects’ land actually used for golf, and negative impacts on agricultural land and the environment.
“The lack of a master plan for golf can lead to ineffective land use and waste of resources and affect long-term economic and social development,” Truyen said. The actual use of land for golf triggers great concern from experts. The current 76 ongoing golf projects use 15,466 hectares for golf courses, out of the total of 23,832ha of land allocated to them. This means that about 40 per cent of golf projects’ land is used for other purposes such as hotels, commercial services and property trading.
“Property is the main business for golf project investors,” said Professor Ton Gia Huyen, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Soil Science Association. “Golf is only a ‘disguise’ for many of them to achieve lower land rentals compared to what they would otherwise have to pay to actually invest in the property business.”
Huyen regards this as a gap in policies, and calls for tighter controls on land use, including a limit on proportion used for purposes other than golf.
“The authorities must carefully examine projects’ land use plans before approving them, and then constantly inspect their compliance just as with other land types,” he said.
Another argument for tighter control of land use is the agricultural and environmental effects of golf courses. Pham Manh Thong, an official from the Environmental Police force warned that as some important agricultural lands were converted into golf courses, agricultural production might drop and many agricultural workers might lose their jobs.
For the environment, the extensive use of water, chemical fertiliser and pesticide might drain out local water sources and cause pollution.
So to balance the benefits and drawbacks of golf projects, Huyen suggests that Vietnam should take a strategic and long-term approach that takes cultural and environmental factors into account.
“For projects that have not gone into actual development, we should promptly make adjustments to maximise their potentials and minimise their negative impacts,” he said. Nguyen Ngoc Chu, secretary general of the Vietnam Golf Association, agreed: “Golf should be planned as an industry, but its development plan should also support the community’s health and sport development, and give high priority to effective land use.”
Puchalski thinks that for the domestic golf industry to take off, it needs to focus on both the local market and foreign demand. “Tourism is always an important source of income, but right now it also helps support the golf courses when there are not a lot of local golfers. But for golf to be sustainable in Vietnam, the Vietnamese need to play golf. Golf courses should boost grassroots training programs for young Vietnamese, because they will be the ones playing down the road,” he said.
VietNamNet, VIR
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