Long Thanh Golf Club

The verdict

Long Thanh has a simple claim that no rival near Saigon can match: scale and convenience. It opened in 2001 as one of the first international standard resorts in the south, the work of the prolific California firm Golfplan, and it has only grown since, to 36 holes spread across the Lake and Hill courses with a residential estate, a sizable clubhouse and a teaching academy attached. The land is gentle parkland, generous off the tee, threaded with lakes and mature trees, and kept on Bermuda greens and paspalum fairways that hold up to year round play and heavy traffic.

What keeps it busy is the location and the lights. Reach it in about 45 minutes from central Ho Chi Minh City, tee off late and play the Lake course under floodlights into the evening, and the brutal midday heat never enters the equation. The golf is fair rather than fearsome, which suits the corporate fourballs and visiting groups that fill the sheet. Pair it with Vietnam Golf and Country Club across town and you have a comfortable two course base for a Saigon stopover.

The holes worth the trip

The Lake course is the one to play and the reason most visitors come. As the name promises, water is the recurring theme: a string of par 4s and par 5s bend around lakes that pull the eye and punish the lazy line, while Golfplan kept the fairways wide enough that a sensible player can stay dry and still make a score. It is a course that rewards course management over raw length, and it is all the better for night play, when the floodlights flatten the depth perception and every approach over water becomes a question of nerve.

The Hill course, added later on higher ground, is the firmer test of the two, with more movement in the land and longer carries, and it tends to be quieter. Together the 36 holes give a group plenty to do over a long day without leaving the property, and the practice academy and short game areas are good enough to make Long Thanh a working base rather than a single round. Conditioning is the swing variable: at its best it is excellent, but on a busy holiday weekend the volume of play shows, so an early or a late tee time is the smart booking.

None of it is dramatic in the way the central coast links are. Long Thanh trades scenery for reliability and access, and on those terms it delivers, which is exactly why it has stayed near the top of Saigon golfers' rotation for more than twenty years.

Where to stay nearby

Most golfers stay in Ho Chi Minh City itself and drive out for the round, which is the sensible play given that District 1 has the hotels, the restaurants and the nightlife and the course is a comfortable highway run away. The club also has on site residential and resort facilities for those who want to be on the first tee at dawn, and it works well as a relaxed base for a society trip built around 36 holes a day.

Treat the south as one short cluster: Long Thanh with Vietnam Golf and Country Club and Tan Son Nhat near the airport make an easy three round Saigon stay, and many groups then fly north or to the coast for the marquee courses. Our Vietnam golf hub maps the whole country, and our 7 day Vietnam itinerary turns it into a plan.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts around Ho Chi Minh City.