Ho Tram Strip Adds to Growing Awards Haul
Xem Tiếng Việt 
HO TRAM, Vietnam (Nov. 27, 2017) — For the second time in as many months, The Ho Tram Strip has had to expand its trophy case.
Last weekend, the acclaimed, multi-billion-dollar integrated resort’s hotel, The Grand, bagged ‘Vietnam’s Best Golf Hotel,’ ‘Asia’s Best Golf Hotel’ and — the coup de grâce — ‘World’s Best Golf Hotel’ at the annual World Golf Awards in Spain.
In October, its Greg Norman-designed links, The Bluffs, was voted ‘Vietnam’s Best Golf Course’ by Vietnam’s leading tourism and golf organizations.
The accolades are just the latest to come The Ho Tram Strip’s way. Among the other honors the destination has received since welcoming its first holidaymakers, golfers and gamers in 2013 are ‘World’s Best New Course’ at the 2015 World Golf Awards and inclusion on Golf Digest’s bi-annual list of the ‘World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses.’
The 2017 World Golf Awards winners were determined by an open, online survey conducted over a seven-month period earlier this year.
“These awards speak to what we’ve been trying to achieve here from day one, which is a world-class tourism destination,” said Michael Kelly, Executive Chairman of Asian Coast Development Ltd. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ho Tram Project Company Ltd., which owns and operates The Grand and The Bluffs. “But we know it’s important to keep pushing ahead and leading the charge, and that’s exactly what we intend to do.”
Located on a 2.2-kilometer private stretch of beach less than two hours from Ho Chi Minh City, The Grand features a 550-room hotel, a casino with 90 table games and 600 slot machines, 13 food-and-beverage outlets, a spa offering a range of treatments for golfers, three swimming pools and high-end retail outlets.
A second 20-story hotel tower is currently under construction. When finished in 2018, it will bring the total number of rooms to 1,100 and bolster the amount of amenities available to all resort guests.
Across the road, where towering seaside sand dunes dominate the landscape, The Bluffs offers a golf experience reminiscent of those more commonly found in southwest Ireland.
Opened in 2014, the course shot to international prominence in 2015, when it hosted the Ho Tram Open, a $1.5 million Asian Tour event won by Sergio Garcia and voted ‘Event of the Year’ by tour members.
The Bluffs is currently undergoing a multi-faceted renovation project designed to further elevate its profile.
In addition to reducing the amount of vegetation that has overtaken some of the dunes and removing the 419 bermudagrass between and around many of the tee boxes, the maintenance crew is working with US-based turf specialist On Course Agronomic Consulting to improve the performance of the playing surfaces, especially the greens.
The Bluffs, which is also site of a budding collection of single-family luxury homes called The Gallery Villas, is scheduled to again host an Asian Tour event — The Ho Tram Players Championship — each of the next two years.
The 2018 edition will take place from Dec. 6-9. Dates for 2019 are still to be determined.
