The Yuji Kodera-designed course at Karuizawa Golf Club dates back to the Golden Age and it’s located at altitude in one of the nation's most popular summer resorts. You’ll need to befriend a member to play here, however.
Overall rating

The Yuji Kodera-designed course at Karuizawa Golf Club dates back to the Golden Age and it’s located at altitude in one of the nation's most popular summer resorts. You’ll need to befriend a member to play here, however.

Karuizawa
The small town of Karuizawa lies just over an hour’s drive to the north of the Japanese capital and it’s popular with Tokyo residents who want to escape from the big city in the heat of the summer.
Karuizawa’s sporting credentials are rather impressive for a relatively out of the way place, having hosted equestrian events during the Summer Olympic Games in 1964 and curling matches at the Winter Olympic Games in 1998.
There are a number of golf courses available for public play in and around this resort town and these are pleasant places to play golf but it’s the original, private course at Karuizawa Golf Club that stands head and shoulders above all the others.
Lying at an altitude of 3,000 feet above sea level and surrounded by mountains on all sides, the old course has been lengthened a little down the years but, apart from the extra yardage, it plays much as it did when first constructed back in 1919.
It’s not an easy place to get a game at Karuizawa, with fewer than 10,000 rounds a year played here, and even though the layout has been classed as rather basic by some observers, its exclusive ambience is still rather hard to beat.
World Top 100 Golf Courses
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
Cypress Point Club
California, United States
Pine Valley Golf Club
New Jersey, United States
Royal County Down (Championship)
Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Shinnecock Hills Golf Club
New York, United States
National Golf Links of America
New York, United States