Tam Dao Golf Resort sprawls around the base of a one-time colonial French hill station and nestles against the borders of Vietnam’s largest national park. This explains Tam Dao’s feast for the eyes. An IMG design, the course plays 7,169 yards across some wonderful, natural contouring. The fairways and greens are grassed with deep-green paspalum (the latest strain of salt-tolerant turf) and a nearby mountain reservoir ensures lush conditions, not to mention brisk currents in the layout’s many creeks. Dazzling, white-sand bunkers guard the greens here, demanding precision, while the sloping fairways are are less constricting. If you like early tee times, book a room in the club’s monumental clubhouse, one of the largest in Vietnam. If nostalgia’s your thing, consider a 13km side trip to the 1,000m-high perch of the one-time hill station.

• GETTING THERE: In Vinh Phuc Province, the course gates are 45km (27 miles) from Noi Bai Airport and 65km (40 miles) from downtown Hanoi. A new road is on its way.

• SIGNATURES: The par-3 8th hole plays 204 yards from the tips, along the shore of the lake, with heavy bunker defining this gauntlet to the right.

• 15 MINUTES OF FAME: National Geographic featured Tam Dao and its National Park in a June 1999 feature about conservationists’ efforts to catalog the park’s rare and endangered creatures.

• ECHOES OF SURREY: The short, uphill par-3, 2nd hole is a dead ringer for the par-3 2nd on the West Course at storied Wentworth in Surrey, England.

• PEAK PERFORMANCE: If you think you’ve seen the three peaks of Tam Dao’s 10,000-square-meter clubhouse elsewhere, look up. The Vietnamese architect modeled the structure on the peaks of Tam Dao.

• FRENCH TWIST: The one-time colonial French hill station at Tam Dao lies 13km from the course, up a winding road that passes through the national park’s forest. Alas, but for an old stone church, all of the old French villas are in shambles today.