Me and my mate Dave do one golf trip a year. It always ends with sunburn and exactly one argument. This year the argument lasted the entire four hour drive back to Saigon: which course was better, Ocean Dunes or Sea Links?

The trip itself was TGROUP's 4 day Mui Ne package. A car picks you up at your hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, drives you the 250km to Phan Thiet (Dave slept the whole way, I got the driver's full life story, lovely man), you play Ocean Dunes one morning, Sea Links the next, laze on the beach in between, then they drive you back. No airports. No strangers getting added to the van. That alone had me sold before we hit the first tee.

Since we never settled the argument like adults, I have written it up as a head-to-head instead. You decide. Dave is wrong, by the way.

THE HEAD-TO-HEAD

Day two, Ocean Dunes. Early tee time, which I grumbled about until we were walking down the first with the light still soft and nobody in front of us. It is a Nick Faldo design, one of the older courses in Vietnam, and it plays like a course that has nothing to prove. Palms, a bit of water, the sea turning up between holes like it is checking on you.

Dave parred the 9th and mentioned it, by my count, eleven times over the following 48 hours. I had one blow-up hole caused by a bunker I refuse to describe. Caddies were brilliant, read every putt better than I read my own children.

Afternoon was beach and absolutely nothing else. Phan Thiet, for context, is the fish sauce capital of Vietnam, so parts of town smell faintly of it, and by day two I had decided I liked that. Dinner was grilled squid and cold beer at a place our driver recommended. He was right about that too.

Day three, Sea Links. Different animal entirely. It sits on a cliff about 160 hectares wide over the East Sea, dunes everywhere, and from the first tee you can see so much water it feels like a rude amount. I took a photo on every single par 3. Every one.

Then the wind introduced itself. I lost four balls, Dave lost two and went very quiet, which was its own kind of victory for me. My caddie walked into a bush and came out with my ball like a magician, then told me, kindly, to aim further left than felt reasonable. She was right every time.

Greens were quick, the kind of quick where you start breathing differently over a two-footer. Hardest round I have properly enjoyed in years. We limped to the clubhouse, ordered two beers, and the argument began.

The boring practical bit. Private car both ways from Saigon, hotel in Phan Thiet, both rounds with green fees, caddie and cart all sorted by TGROUP. It came out at just over 19 million dong each. I have paid more for far worse weekends, some of them involving airports.

Gripes, because nothing is perfect: the drive is four hours each way, so bring a podcast or a Dave who sleeps. And book the early tee at Sea Links, the wind gets meaner after lunch.

My scores, for the record: Ocean Dunes 8/10, Sea Links 9/10, but only because the caddie got my ball back. Dave scores them the other way around, which tells you everything about Dave.