Kasumigaseki (West)

The first course at Kasumigaseki Country Club was the 1929 creation of Kinya Fujita (a former member of Tokyo Golf Club) and Shiro Akaboshi. The West followed three years later, with the original course renamed the East. The new track was designed this time by Fujita and his assistant, Seiichi Inoue, a man who would go on to become one of Japan’s most respected architects.

The modifications that Hugh Alison and American green keeper George Penglase carried out on the East course just after it opened were not lost on Fujita and Inoue and they replicated many of the best features from the East on the West, fashioning a layout that remains every bit as challenging today as it was when first built.

The East course was the venue for the 5th Canada Cup (now the World Cup) in 1957 and it was last used for the Japan Open in 1995. Not to be overshadowed, the West also held the national Open a little more recently – in 2006 to be precise – so there can be no doubt about the golfing pedigree of both courses at Kasumigaseki.

A major change to the West course was made by Taizo Kawata in 2000 when he converted the traditional Japanese dual greens on the course into conventional putting surfaces that golfers play to all year round – a move welcomed even by traditionalists who had for years been used to putting on different greens in the winter. Tom and Logan Fazio completed a further course renovation in 2016.