Vietnamese Golf and the 'Irrational' Puzzle of Development: From Practice Ranges to International Arenas

I believed in the textbook for 5 years – World Cup 2026 shattered it all. But today, I'm not talking about football. I'm talking about golf – a sport that we Vietnamese still think of as 'a sport for the rich', 'a playground for tycoons'. And it's that very mindset, that 'irrationality', that is holding back an entire generation of talent.

Look at this number: In 2026, Vietnam had over 100,000 regular golfers, a 300% increase from 2026. But the number of professional golfers with rankings – that number stops at just a few dozen. I witnessed a 17-year-old talent with a swing as beautiful as a painting, who had to quit golf because his family couldn't afford academy tuition. Meanwhile, in Thailand – the country with the most developed golf scene in Southeast Asia – they have a public academy system and government talent development funds.

This is not a story about money. This is a story about how we view sports development.

Context: The shock of Vietnamese golf courses

In April 2026, golfer Nguyen Anh Minh – 17 years old – became the first Vietnamese to make the cut at an Asian Tour event. He finished 23rd at the International Series Morocco, pocketing $12,000 in prize money. This news was barely mentioned by domestic media. Meanwhile, a friendly match of the U23 football team can dominate three full pages of newspapers.

I've been following Anh Minh since 2026, when he was just 14, defeating his seniors at the National Golf Championship. What caught my attention wasn't his technique – it was how he handled pressure. On hole 18, needing a birdie to win, he didn't choose the safe shot. He pulled out his driver, hit a 320-yard drive, landing the ball on the green just 12 feet from the pin. The birdie putt – straight into the center of the cup. I asked him after the tournament: 'Why didn't you play it safe?' He replied: 'If I play it safe, I'll never know how good I can be.'

That's the mindset of a champion. But the question is: Do we have the system to nurture such mindsets?

Core Analysis: The 'irrationality' in Vietnam's golf development approach

Let me make a cross-sport comparison. In athletics – the sport I used to pursue – we have a selection system from school level, district level, city level. A fast 12-year-old will be discovered through school sports festivals. But golf doesn't work that way. Golf in Vietnam develops on a 'self-reliance' model: parents with money, children play golf; parents without money, children never touch a club.

This creates a paradox: We have over 100 golf courses, ranking in the top 10 in Southeast Asia for course count, but the number of professional golfers with rankings is only 1/10 of Thailand's. We have the infrastructure, but we lack a systematic training system.

I spent 3 years following national youth golf tournaments. One detail haunts me: 90% of young golfers come from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City – where golf courses and academies exist. Only 10% come from other provinces. And among those, most have parents who are businesspeople or financially well-off.

The truth I've drawn after 9 years of observation: Vietnamese golf is developing toward 'elitization' – serving a small privileged group – rather than 'massification' – creating opportunities for all classes. And this goes against how countries with strong golf cultures like South Korea, Japan, and Thailand have done it.

Look at South Korea: They have over 500 golf courses, but more importantly, they have a youth training system starting from elementary school. Young Korean golfers are systematically trained in both technique and psychology. Result: South Korea has over 40 female golfers in the world's top 100. And Vietnam? We have 0.

Contrarian Angle: Specialization or diversification?

This is where I want to break a common belief: Many think that to develop golf, we need to focus on a few exceptional talents and invest heavily in them. I believe this is wrong.

The fall of 2026 didn't stop me – it changed my entire path. I was a 400m runner, and I know the feeling of being forced into a single mold. When I got injured and had to quit running, I realized that if I had been trained in only one skill, I would have had nothing to hold onto. But because I played multiple sports, I could transition to sports commentary.

Applied to golf: If we only focus on 5-10 exceptional young golfers, we'll create a 'thin' generation of golfers – skilled but fragile. But if we build a diverse training system that allows children to approach golf from multiple angles – not just technique but also strategy, psychology, physical fitness – we'll create a 'thick' generation of golfers – adaptable to any situation.

The empty stadium of summer 2026 taught me to listen to matches with my heartbeat, not with sound. When I livestreamed commentary of old golf matches during the pandemic, I realized that golf isn't just technique. Golf is a story of patience, of reading situations, of knowing when to attack and when to defend. And those skills can't be learned from a single textbook.

Every statistic has the potential to lie; my job is to catch it in the act.

Look at the numbers: Vietnam has 100,000 regular golfers. That sounds impressive. But divided by 100 million people, the rate is only 0.1%. Meanwhile, Thailand has 0.5%, South Korea has 1.2%. We're deluding ourselves with absolute numbers while forgetting relative ratios.

And here's the key point: I believe Vietnamese golf is at a crossroads. We can continue developing toward 'elitization' – serving a small group, creating a few stars but without depth. Or we can learn from Thailand – a country that built a public golf training system, opened academies in rural provinces, and created opportunities for underprivileged children to access this sport.

I witnessed a 15-year-old golfer from Can Tho – a province without a standard 18-hole course – but he trained on the province's only 9-hole course. He defeated opponents from Hanoi in a national youth tournament. When I asked him how he trained, he said: 'I watch YouTube videos, I practice my swing in the yard, I read books on strategy.' He had no personal coach, no gym, no sports psychologist. But he had something many city golfers lack: hunger.

And that's when I realized: The sustainable development of Vietnamese golf doesn't come from building more courses or buying expensive equipment. It comes from creating a system that allows every child – rich or poor, urban or rural – to have the opportunity to touch a golf club.

From the starting line of failure to the commentary booth: every scar is a map. I failed in athletics, but that failure taught me that sport isn't just about winning. Sport is a journey of discovering one's limits. And golf – with its complexity of technique, strategy, and psychology – is the perfect sport to teach Vietnamese children that lesson.

But we need to change our approach. We need to bring golf out of the 'villa' of the rich and into schools, into communities. We need to build public golf academies in provinces, train local coaches, create nationwide youth tournaments with low entry costs.

The 'weird' football I discovered in 2026 – the anti-traditional football that accepted less possession but was more effective – taught me that: Sometimes, the most 'irrational' development path is the right one. While everyone thinks golf must develop top-down – from big cities, from the wealthy – I believe Vietnamese golf will develop bottom-up – from rural provinces, from children without means but with hunger.

Look at Nguyen Anh Minh – a 17-year-old from Hanoi, but his parents aren't tycoons. They're teachers. They sacrificed a lot for their son to pursue golf. And Anh Minh repaid them by making the cut at an Asian Tour event – something no Vietnamese golfer had ever done.

The question is: If Anh Minh could do it with modest conditions, how many more Anh Minhs could there be if we created the conditions for them?

Takeaway: Sport as a common language

I'm not saying golf will replace football in the hearts of Vietnamese people. I'm not saying we should abandon football to invest in golf. I'm just saying: Every sport has its own value, and golf – with its complexity and depth – can teach us lessons that football cannot.

Golf teaches us patience – because a round lasts 4-5 hours, and one bad shot can ruin the entire round. Golf teaches us honesty – because in golf, you keep your own score, no referee follows you every step. Golf teaches us respect – because you must respect your opponents, respect the course, respect the rules.

And those lessons – about patience, honesty, respect – are lessons every Vietnamese child needs, whether they become professional golfers or not.

I'll end with a question: When will we see a child in a remote area pick up a golf club for the first time – not because their parents have money, but because their school has a free golf program? When will we see a Vietnamese golfer standing on the podium at a major championship? When will we proudly say: 'Golf is no longer a sport for the rich – it's a sport for the Vietnamese'?

I don't know the answer. But I know that: If we don't start changing today, the answer will be 'never'.