At the 2012 National Junir Golf Championship in Phan Thiet, the 11-year-old golfer Nguyen Hung Dung set a fantastic record in the Vietnam’s golf history with a total score 9-under-par after two days of competition (18 holes). Sir Nick Faldo admitted that no Asian junior golfers could do that at the age of Dung at that time.
Dung has been playing golf since he was 6. He began the interest in the game when his father, the businessman Nguyen Hung Cuong took him to the golf course to watch when he was playing. His father let him have a go at the game and from the offset, Dung showed great potential to be a professional golfer. Cuong then decided to let Dung learn to play in the hope that golf would train the boy to be careful, skillful, patient and sensitive.
At the age of 9 years old, Dung was the youngest Vietnamese golfer to compete at the Callaway Junior World Golf Championships (CJWGC) in SanDiego, California,
After returning from the California Championship, he showed a great improvement by the win at 2011 National Junior Golf Championship in the under 11 years old sub-category, and he successfully defended the titles the following year.
Now, Dung is still studying golf under directions of 2 coaches: Malaysian golfer Edemund Jonathan Au and Andrew Bowles – General Manager of Vietnam Golf and Country Club.
at the age of 9, 10 years old, Dung competed and won against some South Korean competitors who were five or six years older than him. Au said.
While Edmund J.Au is his first trainer who has given instructions since the first time Dung started playing golf. Andrew helps Dung to improve all the golf skills.
Dung said: “My golf idol is Luke Donald as he can play short game extremely well. In future, I really want to be a professional golfer and can play at the Masters Tournaments.”
Especially, the VGA JUNIOR TOUR, HCMC Sponsoring Association for Poor Patients and Charity fund of Junior golfers NGUYEN HUNG DUNG has been organized for 3 years. This is the annual golf tournament with aims to donate to fund-raising “Hope for Children” to perform the journey “heart surgery for poor children in Vietnam.”
It’s still too early to say about his next achivements, but by all things he has showed, this fully–fledged boy is considered as the new hope of Golf Development in Vietnam .