Hyogo, Japan
The hilly course at Higashi Hirono Golf Club is a 1989 Yukichi Kobayashi creation, which staged the 2012 Panasonic Open, won by the architect’s namesake Masanori Kobayashi.
The hilly course at Higashi Hirono Golf Club is a 1989 Yukichi Kobayashi creation, which staged the 2012 Panasonic Open, won by the architect’s namesake Masanori Kobayashi.
The hilly course at Higashi Hirono is a 1989 Yukichi Kobayashi creation which staged the 2012 Panasonic Open, won by the architect’s namesake Masanori Kobayashi. The event returned to the club seven years later, with Toshinori Muto’s 21-under par total giving him a four-stroke victory against the field.
Highlight holes include the right doglegging par five 5th (rated stroke index 1); the par three 7th where the back-to-front sloping green is fronted by a lake; the very long par four 13th with a zelkova tree in the fairway as it approaches the three-tiered green; and the par five closer which has ponds on either side of the fairway as it narrows towards the home green.
Higashi Hirono hosted US Open Sectional Qualifying in 2016, when the upturned saucer-shaped island green on the slightly downhill 3rd hole created all sorts of problems for the professionals.
The latest ranking of the Top 100 Golf Courses in the World serves as the ultimate global golf bucket list. Most members of our World Top 100 Panel are seasoned golfers, each playing 20-30 of these courses annually while travelling extensively over decades to form their opinions on others. We recognise that opinions vary—even among our panel members. Rankings are subjective, and there are undoubtedly 50 or more courses in the UK and USA alone that could easily fit onto this list. Links Golf Pilgrimages The rankings
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Overall rating
4.5
Overall rating
4.5
