Ba Na Hills Golf Club was named Asia’s best golf course at the annual World Golf Awards from 2017 through 2022. (Images: Ba Na Hills Golf Club)
Famous as one of the game’s deep thinkers, European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald explains his design strategy at award-winning Ba Na Hills Golf Club in Vietnam.
Master strategist Luke Donald is riding a Ryder Cup high
At Bethpage Black, the Englishman cemented his legacy as one of Europe’s greatest-ever Ryder Cup captains with his squad’s 15-13 triumph over the United States. Donald has become as famous for his tactical clarity and meticulous preparation as for his past reign as the World’s No. 1 golfer.
Not surprisingly, Donald’s second consecutive victory as European captain has focused renewed attention on Ba Na Hills Golf Club, his only golf course design. Opened in 2016 near Da Nang on Vietnam’s central coast, Ba Na Hills was named Asia’s best golf course at the annual World Golf Awards from 2017 through 2022.
In 2011, Donald rose to World No.1 and made history as the first player to finish at the top of both the PGA Tour and European Tour money lists in the same season.
“I’ve always believed that strategy is the heart of golf whether you’re leading twelve players into battle or designing a course that tests decision-making on every shot,” says Donald, who designed the course in partnership with IMG. “At Ba Na Hills, the idea was to create a layout that rewards patience, creativity, and precision. It’s not about power, it’s about thinking your way around the course.”
Nestled in lush mountain foothills, Ba Na Hills unfolds across dramatic terrain shaped by ravines and streams. “The topography of Vietnam is just unbelievable,” Donald says. “You’ve got mountains, forests, and ocean all within an hour’s drive. The land gives you so much to work with, and at Ba Na Hills we tried to make every hole feel distinctive, every round feel like a journey.”
The par-three eighth, a downhill short hole framed by forest, is a highlight of Donald’s 7,858-yard design, while the closing stretch—including the island-green 16th and water-guarded dogleg 17th—delivers a thrilling finale through sweeping highlands. Ba Na Hills is also the only comprehensively flood-lit course in the Danang area, with all 18 holes illuminated for nighttime play.
Since opening, Ba Na Hills has become a cornerstone of a booming golf destination marketed as Golf Coast Vietnam. The region is home to an impressive roster of high-profile courses, including Colin Montgomerie-designed Montgomerie Links Golf Club, Greg Norman’s course at BRG Da Nang Golf Resort (formerly Danang Golf Club), and Sir Nick Faldo’s Laguna Lang Co Golf Club.
Ba Na Hills Golf Club is the only comprehensively flood-lit course in the Danang area.
Donald says Ba Na Hills remains one of the most satisfying achievements of a career that has included 16 professional victories worldwide. In 2011, Donald rose to World No.1 and made history as the first player to finish at the top of both the PGA Tour and European Tour money lists in the same season.
“There’s something very special about Ba Na Hills,” Donald says. “When I see people from all over the world come to play it, to test themselves on a course that asks them to think, to adapt, to stay patient, it feels like a small reflection of what I love about the game.”
