The Club de Bonmont golf course has re-opened after a total reconstruction. The course, one of three at Plantation Bay, near Daytona Beach, was strengthened by noted Florida architect Steve Smyers, who was asked to add a little challenge to the 20-year-old track. “From the tee, it is visually stimulating – which is really what we were looking for, along with the strategy of the golf course,” general manager Greg Brousse told Cybergolf. “You now have to strategize yourself around the golf course , which is a neat feeling we never had before.” There was a soft opening for members in late ... full post »

Viet Nam has some excellent golf courses, I was surprised to learn. Not a lot of them. In fact, only a handful. But the ones that are there, scattered across the country, are definitely worth playing. Here is the larger question: Is it unpatriotic to visit Viet Nam as a tourist? Tourism is skyrocketing in the country, many visitors being American. Is it anti-American to contribute to the economy of the country we were once at war with? I’ve gotten some negative feedback already for visiting the country. I don’t agree with it, though I can understand the feeling. I didn’t meet a ... full post »

Back when I used to write for a high-tech magazine, a guy named Dean Kamen came up with a pre-release, promotional campaign that had the high-tech industry abuzz. He had invented something so huge, so momentous, it would change the world forever. The buildup was incredible. It turns out, his earth-shattering invention was … the Segway. It was supposed to revolutionize the “personal transportation industry.” Guess what? It didn’t. I’ve seen a few in the years since, but it’s hardly taken over the world. It’s a cool, little “self-balancing” scooter, but the price is prohibitive and it’s just not that practical. Now, they’re turning to ... full post »

I’m sitting on a bench by the big lake in downtown Hanoi, near where the old quarter starts, taking occasional, slow pulls from a bottle of Johnny Walker Black. The lake is green, but that’s probably because of all the trees around its edges; most lakes and streams I’ve seen in Viet Nam are brown, the color of clay. A steady stream of traffic speeds by behind, somehow miraculously avoiding a 1,000-scooter pileup. The noise starts to sound like the constant chirping of crickets or something after a while; you don’t even notice it. In front of me is a young ... full post »

Imagine, if you will, if all the swarms of bees in the universe were released at the same time, in the same country, in the form of 50 cc motor scooters. Traffic in Viet Nam, especially in the cities, is as insane as you might expect. This is the Kingdom of the Motor Scooter and everybody it seems, from the city centers to the rural villages, has one. The motor scooter is the social nexus around which Viet Nam revolves. Lovers sit in parks, not on benches, but on their scooters, while they neck. Whole families crowd on to single scooters, four or ... full post »

If the caddies in Vietnam were any cuter, they’d burst into flames. Most of them are women, because they work harder than men, or at least that’s what golf officials say. They rarely pair the two sexes, because the male caddies tend to boss the women around and not do any work themselves. That’s the Vietnamese culture. Sounds sort of like the American culture, too. When Jeff Puchalski, an American club pro living in Vietnam, started training caddies a few years back, he had to teach them not to giggle when their golfer hit it in the water. The female caddies are clad ... full post »

My first experience playing golf in Viet Nam was as the Viet Nam Golf and Country Club, where years ago they covered up the bomb craters left from the war. In some ways, that’s typical of the way the Vietnamese look at the war, and in some ways atypical. The Vietnamese are pretty open about the war. You can talk to them about it, if you can break through the language barrier. One early morning on the beach in Pham Thiet, we struck up a conversation with an avuncular Vietnamese who was an interpreter for the U.S. military during the war. Those ... full post »

CBS’ boast about having the best golf team in broadcasting is baloney, but adding Nick Faldo will definitely help, especially when you consider it already has David Feherty. NBC is the best simply by having Johnny Miller. Faldo will give CBS some color it needs – though I’m not as big a critic of departed Lanny Wadkins as many – but it’s unlikely he’ll be as willing to be as controversial as Miller. Faldo had to seriously convince CBS that his broadcasting will take preference over his golf, and he did that by promising to work The masters instead of ... full post »

The Key West Golf Club finally re-opened its front nine, a year after Hurricane Wilma came roaring through, producing an eight-foot storm surge that flooded the island and the course. The course had four feet of water on it and filled the irrigation ponds with salt water. The course has since changed to saltwater-tolerant paspallum, a grass that many ocean-side courses are going to. The club, not surprisingly, is the southernmost golf course in the U.S., and opened in the 1920s as a nine-hold course. Rees Jones re-designed the course in 1983, the first he did with his own company. full post »