Nature is the greatest artist.
The sound of wind, sky, and waves is more beautiful than any other melody. The golf course, where nature and I become one, is not far away, is located in Vietnam, where you can experience one 我. Let's listen to The Bluffs from the eyes of a professional golfer and The Bluffs from the perspective of a course designer. What life on Earth and the golf course have in common is that they started out in the sea. The early golf course was rooted in the delta and coastal dunes that golfers call the Links terrain, and stayed on the coast for a long time before moving inland. Even as golf moved closer to densely populated areas, people who drew golf courses on paper searched for sandy soil as much as possible. There was a good reason for this. The grass that grows on the sand is elastic, so the cheeks stand out well, and it is highly drainageable, so it drains out quickly even after a lot of rain. Where there is sand, the wind blows, and the wind blows on the sand naturally digs holes and builds bunkers. As such, the wind is an essential element of the golf game. Without any wind, golf is no different from a dart game in a room. Early great courses kept nature intact along the shoreline. British author Bernard Darwin once described the "perfect land of golf" as "a place where dunes continue to flow like they're going to break on the left and ripple on the right, and vast bushes spread out on the right." Nature clears our souls. Human beings are only blessed and comforted when held in the arms of nature. The human mind remains at its most stable in front of beautiful nature. However, as golf becomes more popular, golf courses gradually let go of nature. The development of the golf course could be accelerated by the emergence of bulldozers, but rather than maintaining a natural alignment, the course was standardized by symmetrical holes with fairways formed at right angles and straight lines. Courses with a uniform layout that anyone can predict appeared on the most disturbing terrain. The landscape next to the golf course has been transformed into a residential complex instead of a waterfront. Golfers were soon forgetting the greatness of nature. However, advances in modern technology have not only been detrimental to golf courses. A new generation of course designers have also emerged, first through TV broadcasts and later through the Internet, where golfers from all over the world can indirectly experience the great waterfront course by sitting on their desks and sofas. Course designers searched the beaches of the world for golf course sites, and they fell in love with Vietnam's fascinating 3,000km coastline. Since then, former professional golfers such as Greg Norman Golf Course Design, Faldo Design, and Nicklaus Design, as well as renowned course designers such as Lee Schmidt, Brian Curley, and Robert Trent Jones Jr., have begun to show their creativity along the coastline of Vietnam. After all, golf has not been out of the influence of dunes for so long or completely. ◆ For the purists Ho Tram, about 80 kilometers southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Located here, The Bluffs Grand Ho Tram is an authentic links course on a sand plateau overlooking the sea. Designed by Greg Norman, who is also a Vietnam tourism ambassador, the second course in Vietnam opened in 2014 and is one of the world's top 100 courses by Golf Digest. The symbolism of the world's top 100 courses is significant. They should receive high marks in several categories, including "shot options," which ask how well the course presents various options including risks and rewards, and "shot options," which ask whether the course requires a variety of shots, the shape and shape of the hole, the balance of waves, the placement of penalty areas, the use of slopes, and the "diversity of design," which judges routing. Norman, who designed The Bluffs course, said, "The experience of enjoying true links golf on the dunes in southern Vietnam and enjoying dramatic sea views throughout the round is one of the most unique golf experiences in the world." The Bluffs has a total length of par 71 and 7007 yards, and consists of five par 3 holes, four par 5 holes and nine par 4 holes. Compared to a general golf course, there is one more par 3 hole and one par 4 hole is smaller. Another peculiarity is the par rotation of holes 4 through 7. Holes 4 and 7 are par 3 holes, and holes 5 and 6 between them are consecutive par 5 holes. It consists of par 3, par 5, par 5, and par 3 that have never been experienced in a domestic golf course. I felt indescribable joy after confirming this special par rotation. With such a par rotation, it is very likely that the hole was formed while preserving the natural terrain when creating a routing plan. ◆The beginning of the Hwang-Hol-Kyung The opportunity to visit the world's top 100 golf courses is not very common. Even I, a professional golfer with more than 25 years of experience, have rarely experienced the world's top 100 golf courses selected by Golf Digest. In that sense, The Bluffs is one of the best golf courses for Korean golfers to experience world-class links courses. This is because most links courses in Korea have created artificial sand dunes, and other golf courses selected as the world's top 100 golf courses are private membership courses or golf courses far from Korea. As I enter The Bluffs Clubhouse feeling pleasant tension, I can see traces of designer Greg Norman everywhere. The men's locker room displays golf bags and clubs used by Norman. If you come downstairs from the clubhouse, there is a shop that sells golf wear, hats, and souvenirs, and if you leave the shop, you will see a sand dune unfolding like a panorama. Thanks to the sand dunes and shrubs that have invaded the fairway without hesitation, it feels like there is more sand than grass. ◆ Dune of Addiction From Hole 1 to Hole 18, the dynamic round has ended, in which even a single hole can't let go of the tension. Since it is rare to do a round on one of the world's top 100 courses, I tried to look around the course in as much detail as possible, and as I did the round in the strong wind, I felt tired. I hurriedly ordered mango juice and rice noodles from the clubhouse restaurant. As I look up, the course and hotel unfold out the window of the clubhouse restaurant like a picture. I couldn't take my eyes off the course outside the window while I was gorging on rice noodles. I couldn't take my eyes off the dunes of The Bluffs, just as a smartphone-addicted person couldn't take his eyes off the smartphone screen while eating. I was addicted to this course.