Osaka Golf Club

Located about an hour’s drive from Osaka, the course actually lies closer to the city of Wakayama. It’s here, on the cliff tops above Osaka Bay, that holes were routed across a tight parcel of land by Osamu Ueda back in 1937 and the sparkling waters of the bay can be seen from many vantage points on the tree-lined fairways.

The 396-yard 7th is a feature hole on the front nine, where golfers fire their tee shot across a small pond to a fairway which then veers 45 degrees left to a triangular-shaped green. This putting surface, like those at holes 1, 3 and 4 on the front nine, sits close to the edge of the coastline.

On the back nine, the very short 14th hole plays along the boundary of the property, next to the road that separates the course from the sea, and it begins a rather unusual sequence of five holes that conclude a round at Osaka with par values of 3-5-3-5-3. A somewhat bizarre configuration perhaps, but there’s no doubt the holes exactly fit the lie of the land.