Vinpearl Golf Phú Quốc — Attraction in Phú Quốc

The resort island of Phu Quoc is now home to two premium resort golf courses, and it's a shame to come here and not sample at least one of them.

Vinpearl Golf is located at the NE tip of the island, where all the resort facilities (casino, theme park, and an artificial Venice) are concentrated. I managed to squeeze in nine holes on a Sat morning. So fair warning: at peak periods, it's expensive to play on, rising to USD 200 for walk-ins on a Saturday morning. It's half the price on a weekday. It is even cheaper if you stay at the Vinpearl resort. So if you are playing golf, that is the thing to do - stay in the resort. My guess is that if you do so, you could get on for USD 50 on a weekday.

The course itself is flat being on the plains next to the beach. It would have been nice if some holes lined the beach, but the developers obviously felt that it was much more lucrative to allow hotels and villa beachfront property. The course is carved out of the jungle, and the nice touch was for the developers to leave several mature trees lining the fairways and greens as part of the course design. Some of the holes are kept long and tight. Rather than risk the long woods on such holes, I have always felt that it is better to lay up and rely on an up and down for par. By and large, this worked. Except for the Index 1 hole, when I somehow landed my wedge in three putt range. But I shot the nine with 6 pars off the blues. That's a pretty good round for the first time.

The treatment is first class from the moment you arrive - there is a receiving party - till the time you leave. The course maintenance is very good. My caddy Pham Thoa, was exceptionally pleasant. She spoke sufficient English to chit chat, was more than competent to be my caddie. She hails from Cam Tho in South Vietnam but has worked in Phu Quoc now for eleven years. She made the round even...

Awful experience. The course was nice and the caddies were fine. No complaints there. However, my wife was forced to purchase a golf jacket because we were told her (very appropriate) golf dress did not comply with course rules. The staff cut off the tag of the jacket and forced her to wear it while on the course. When paying after our round, we were informed that the jacket cost an astronomical $220 USD. This being on top of the fact that we booked 9 holes, got to play about 12 at our caddie's direction, then we were promptly charged for 18 holes at the end. Clubhouse staff was extremely unprofessional and disrespectful while we attempted to have a discussion with them regarding the jacket. Don't come here unless you want to leave with empty pockets because they will trap you into spending...

Not a great experience. After paying $260 AUD of 18holes, cart and rental, we were then charged another $10AUD per ball. The receptionist's attitude was not good and once paid we were just left standing around and no idea of what was happening next. We then made our own way to get the rental clubs and it was so chaotic in the room we had no idea what was going on. Trying to find our caddy was just as bad! If you're paying that much you expect some kind of service.

The course was nice and the caddies were fine.

Also we ordered food and it took over an hour to come with only two holes left. We ordered banh mi and a pizza then 3 club sandwichs and a buffalo sandwich turned up.

Overall we had a nice day of golf but expected a lot more. After playing a lot of golf in Bali the service here does...