First there was the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. And Michigan’s Arthur Hills golf trail. And the Tennessee Golf Trail. And the Magnolia Golf Trail. And so on. it’s getting so you can’t hit a driver without hitting one.
Now Vietnam has topped them all with the Ho Chi Minh Golf Trail.
The idea, of course, is to attract international golfers to seven of that country’s top courses. But given the history, I find it hard to think of a more inappropriate name.
Oh wait. I can. How about a Bataan Golf trail, following the path taken by the prisoners of the Japanese in World War II. Or the Moscow Golf trail, tracing the retreat of Napoleon’s Grand Armee from Russia. Or perhaps the Andrew Jackson Golf Trail, following the path of the Cherokee Jackson forcibly moved from Georgia to Oklahoma.
Of course, the difference may be that Ho is a hero in Vietnam. But he’s also the man in whose name Vietnam suffered nearly thirty years of poverty, purges and human rights violations. And its only been in the last several years, as Vietnam is ABANDONING the communist system, that it’s beginning to show some progress.
Besides, I wonder what Ho would think. Golf is the bastion of evil capitalist warmongers. He fought for years to drive them out. And now Vietnam is inviting them back, begging for their dollars.
Ironic, isn’t it?
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Regarding the Andrew Jackson golf trail—I played in a scramble last year at one of the Hermitage Golf Club courses (The General’s Retreat and the President’s Reserve are the couses, i think I played the General). Anyhow I was the one with the scorecard and as I turned it into one of the assistant pro’s, who looked like he had been there for a while, I asked him what Old Hickory used to score. My jokes are awful, but he asked me back “Who is Old Hickory”?
Now it is one thing if the average American doesn’t know who Old Hickory is, but it is another thing for a Tennesseean not to know, let alone a Nashvillian. Given that the pro worked on the property of the Hermitage estate, and entered the property from Old Hickory Blvd, and the two courses were named after Jackson—that is pretty pathetic.
As for the Ho Chi Mihn golf trail, Viet Nam is on my short list of the places I would actually like to go outside North America. Viet Nam since the first 18 months of my life my dad was there. Scotland because 320 years ago my ancestors came to America from there, Isreal and Russia. The last two are out, but I hope to some day go to the two former.