(Far) East Coast swing Roanoke's Kenny Saunders began his career in the golf biz as a 42-year-old cart boy. Now, he's a PGA club pro in Vietnam.

Randy King

Jul. 20, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Rewind the clock to five years ago in Nashville, Tenn.

Kenny Saunders had spent 15 years in the jewelry business. The Roanoke native was admittedly tired and in search of a new challenge.

"I was good at what I did, but I never loved it," said Saunders, whose jewelry career included long stints at Henebry's outlets at Tanglewood and Valley View malls before taking him to the Virgin Islands and Nashville.

Then, on perfect cue, Saunders' girlfriend and future wife, Millie, served up a loaded question that would eventually spark major change in each's lives.

"I was 42 years old and she says, 'If you had a choice of doing anything in the world what would you do?' " Saunders recalled. "I had no answer at first because I had never thought about it. A few days later, I came back and said, 'I want to be in the golf business.' And she was like, 'well, do it!'

"And I say 'Millie, I don't think you understand. If I do this for three years, I'm not going to make any money, I'm going to have to start at the bottom.' And she says, 'well, go for it.'"

Talk about a great caddy. Saunders couldn't have pulled a better club from the bag himself.

Lay up? Shut up, the lady said.

So what the guy's first shot in his pursuit of a lifelong dream came from the deep rough.

"My first job in the golf business was at the Nashville Golf and Athletic Club, where I was a 42-year-old cart boy making $6 an hour, working 15 hours a week," said Saunders, laughing.

"But I kept working hard, I learned how to operate a golf course, and I kept working my way up to PGA pro. Meanwhile, Millie sacrificed a lot, she supported us for three years. And now look where we're at."

On the other side of the world, that's where.

They're living in a place called Vietnam. Life has never been better.

'Live like a King'

Today, Kenny Saunders is 47 years old. He is one of only two Class A PGA pros in a country that most Americans only know because of the U.S. military's involvement in a war that never seemed to end. It was a conflict that lasted from 1961-73 and cost an estimated 1.5 million soldiers from both sides their lives, not to mention 100,000-plus casualties of innocent civilians.

Millie -- the two got married in Las Vegas shortly after Kenny landed his first head pro's job at the Dalat Palace Golf Club -- is basically retired these days. She teaches English in her spare time at the resort hotels that have sprung up like weeds in recent years in the southern half of the country, and engages in her hobby of photography.

The couple lives in a rent-free villa in Phan Thiet, where Kenny recently became the head pro and director of operations at Ocean Dunes Golf Club, a beach resort on the coast of the South China Sea.

"It's the last place I ever thought I would be," Kenny said. "When we told people back home we were coming here, everybody's reaction was: 'Oh my God, Vietnam, are you nuts?'

"But you know what? They don't even think about the war. Seventy percent of these people weren't even alive during the war. It's like it didn't even exist. And they treat us, the Americans, so good you wouldn't believe it."

No kidding.

"One of the wonderful things about working here as an [expatriate] is they pay for my house, they pay for my electricity, they pay for my cable TV, computer, I have a driver, my food is free, they do my laundry, I have a housekeeper, I don't do crap," noted Saunders, laughing.

"When I mention that we live like a king, we really do."

The golf business is going bonkers in the place, too. Sixteen courses have been built in Vietnam the past dozen years, and another 30 or so are on the drawing board. The country had an estimated 400 golfers 10 years ago. That number has since mushroomed to approximately 7,500.

While the U.S. economy is currently spiraling downward, it's just the opposite these days in Vietnam. The country's economy and stock market is riding a high horse and soaring upwards. Tourism is starting to boom.

"Things are happening here, and they're moving fast because there's a lot of outside money coming in right now," Saunders said. "The business people here are becoming affluent very quickly. They're getting fast money and they've all joined golf clubs. And they don't join a golf club on how good the course is, they join it by how much it costs. If you join the most expensive club that's just showing everybody that you've made it."

It's a life that Kenny and Millie Saunders never could have dreamed about until almost moving exactly halfway around the earth in the first week of 2007.

"Once I became a PGA pro, Millie started dreaming about where this could take us," Saunders recalled. "We decided it could be a great way to see the world. We were looking at Costa Rica or the Dominican Republic, also the Philippines. Then I saw a posting on the PGA Web site and I came across the job here. I had no idea they even played golf in Vietnam!"

Long way from home

Life is so good 12 times zones away that Kenny and Millie Saunders have no reason now to even think twice about coming back to the U.S., other than for an occasional trip to visit family and friends.

Saunders' parents, Ken and Rosanne, did get to see their oldest of three children last month when the couple returned to the U.S. for a 312-week vacation.

"When Kenny first told me on the phone about this job, I thought it was a joke ... I honestly did," Rosanne Saunders said. "But now I'm happy for them because they seem so happy and it just seems like a great opportunity for them. Yes, it's too far for a son to be away, but when they're happy you just don't say too much about it."

Ken Sr., a 68-year-old retiree, still plays golf regularly at Countryside Golf Club, located only a quarter-mile from their longtime Roanoke residence. He never dreamed that the son he first took to the course at age 5 would eventually become a PGA pro. Until five years ago, Kenny Saunders' golf resume included little more than the fact that he was a four-year letterman on Cave Spring High's team from 1976-79.

"Oh, we talk about it ... I mean Kenny was mighty old to get started in the golf business," Ken Sr. said. "He was in the jewelry business all his life. And he called me one night and said, 'you're not going to believe this, but I'm changing professions.' I couldn't believe it, but that's what he loves. Golf is his passion. He said it's just like working for free."

Roanoke's Bob Cutrara, who played a lot of golf with Saunders in the 1980s, has kept close tabs on what's become somewhat of an overnight rags to riches story.

"Kenny was doing picture framing for me at one time," said Cutrara, 65, who ran Graphics Etc., before retiring five years ago. "Now look at him. He's a golf pro and he's having the time of his life, having a lot of fun. It's a great story. Every time he sends me an e-mail, it's just one more thing that makes you feel like he's just fell into something just super. I'm so happy for him and Millie."

Ken and Rosanne have made plans to make their first trip to Vietnam in November. They're excited about a excursion " that takes 33 hours from door to door," Ken noted.

"It sounds like a beautiful place," Rosanne said. "I keep picturing the movies and new clips we saw of the old Vietnam. One of our neighbors, when he found out we were going over there, said, 'I've been there once and I'm not going back.' He was in the war."

For Kenny and Millie Saunders, though, their new life in Vietnam rivals Utopia.

"Yeah, it's going to hard for me to go back home," Kenny said. "I know when I leave here and go back to the U.S., I have to mow my yard, have to do my laundry, do my dishes ... and I don't look forward to that.

"As long as the opportunities are here and things are going the way they are, I don't think I can go back. We love it here. Plus, I love what I'm doing. Not many people get that opportunity where they jump up in the morning and simply can't wait to go to work. Well, I do now."

Newstex ID: KRTB-0175-26787711