Asia

Japan

Kanto

Tokyo Golf Club was founded in 1913 but the club moved site twice before settling on its present location, close to the former castle town of Kawagoe or “Little Edo” as it is known locally (Edo is Tokyo’s former name).

“Golf has been played continuously here since 1953 and four post-war Japan Opens have been staged,” writes James Spence in his book 

The Finest Golf Courses of Asia & Australasia

, “the first in 1954 and the most recent in 2001 where the winning score was 277, a mere 7 under the tournament par of 71. Even though Tokyo Golf Club is not a long course by modern standards, it protects its par well. If you are fortunate enough to be invited to play here, it will serve you well to remember this.”

Komyo Ohtani who studied in England laid out the course in 1940. Ohtani was an admirer of London’s brilliant sand belt courses and he brought a sprinkling of Surrey to Tokyo Golf Club. Two sets of greens for each hole is common at Japanese golf clubs, one is generally in play during the summer and the other is generally a winter green, seeded with a more hardy strain of grass. Tokyo Golf Club employs this dual green system. “This permits variation in length and difficulty of the holes with some cost to the visual impact of the holes at the margin.” Writes James Spence, but he goes on to say that Tokyo “is a delight to play but the back nine has a little more feature and more pronounced bunkering than the front.”

The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses Volume 5

, Masa Nishijima wrote: “The opening holes of Tokyo GC are especially memorable; the first hole is one of the best starting holes and best short par-4s in the world. At the 2nd, the diagonal line of bunkers produces a beautiful landscape, and the Asaka green has been restored by Hanse from Alison's original drawing.

At the par-5 5th, Hanse restored the fairway bunkers made by Ohtani before the war. This is now a fine strategic par-5 with a creek in front of the green. However, one change I regret was at the Chichubu green of the par-3 8th. I loved this green before. It was a masterpiece of Ohtani and Inoue. It was a bonnet type close to crowned green. Hanse lowered the elevation of the green and lowered its difficulty.

The par-3 12th hole is noteworthy in its structure for the two green system: the two green and two tee boxes cross routes, making two scenarios of a single green in each. This is the start of the course's best stretch of holes. The cardinal hole at 

 was the inspiration for Ohtani's par-5 13th while the 14th mimics Alison's original finishing hole of the Asaka course, and also the 6th at 

. When the tee shot carries a high mound there is a huge Sahara bunker between the green and the landing area.

Gil Hanse's most recent work was to restore an alternate left-hand route to Ohtani's par-5 15th. Due to the evolution of golf equipment, the route on the left had been planted over with trees to avoid the possibility of danger on the adjacent 18th fairway. Hanse challenged this and restored the idea of Ohtani neatly."

You’ll need an invite to play here at Tokyo Golf Club but if you are lucky enough to receive one, take it immediately. This is a world-class golf course that is mature way beyond its years.

 to read an interview with Gil Hanse by Tokyo Golf Club committee member, Mr Ito.

Tokyo

Yokohama Country Club was founded in 1960 and over the following six years architect Takeo Aiyama designed and built both the East and West 18-hole layouts. The West course hosted the 1978 Japan Open, which was one of the first professional events won by Seve Ballesteros, and the 2018 edition of the same event was held on a composite course at the club.

The West underwent a major renovation in 2014/15 by Coore & Crenshaw, with design associate Toby Cobb acting as construction manager on the project. The upgrade involved reconstructing and raising the height of every tee and fairway, with additional spoil brought in by civil contractors from other construction projects in the local area. The old double greens on every hole were also replaced with single greens and sub air systems were installed to cool the bent grass putting surfaces during the summer.

Furthermore, the old par five 18th was converted into a new par four 8th and par three 9th and the former 13th and 14th were combined to form a new 4th hole. Holes 17 and 18 on the East were also renovated because they were used as the 1st and 2nd holes during the Japan Open, avoiding potential problems caused by spectators using a tunnel to access holes 2 and 3 on the West when the tournament was on.

An interesting little par three 19th was also built on the West during the renovation to allow players to settle bets when matches are still tied after a regulation round over the 18-hole layout. Of course, for those golfers who just want to get back to the clubhouse after finishing their game, it makes the walk back a little more fun if they choose to play this short hole on their way to the locker room.

Yokohama (West)

Yokohama Country Club was founded in 1960 and over the following six years architect Takeo Aiyama designed and built both the East and West 18-hole layouts.

The East and the West are two outstanding golf courses at Kasumigaseki Country Club. East or West, which is best? We’re really not too sure, but the East is the one that the members generally favour, so we think it’s prudent to stick with those in the know.

Kasumigaseki Country Club was founded in 1929. Kinya Fujita and Shiro Akaboshi, two gifted local golfers, originally designed the first course, now known as the East, and it was ready for play the same year. The members were clearly dissatisfied with the original design so Harry Colt’s partner Hugh Alison was soon commissioned to improve matters. Alison’s changes to Kasumigaseki immediately gained the utmost respect from Japanese golfers and he is now widely considered to be the guiding light of Japanese golf course architecture.

So, what did Alison actually do at Kasumigaseki to gain cult status? The answer is simple. He built cavernous bunkers. The par three 10th is a perfect example and this hole is possibly the finest par three in Japan. This was a good hole in the beginning – a 180-yard one-shotter across water to a relatively small green – but Alison turned it into a great hole. Originally, the bunker protecting the front of the green was little more than a shallow scrape by the time Alison had finished it was six feet deep and this is the general theme behind his improvements to the East course.

Tom and Logan Fazio recently completed an East course renovation which was a prerequisite to the club's hosting of the Tokyo Olympics, which was scheduled to take place in 2020 but was postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Fazio's eliminated the East's traditional Japanese dual green system and also a good number of trees during the extensive remodel.

Kasumigaseki (East)

The East course at Kasumigaseki Country Club employs the traditional Japanese dual green system, one for the winter and one for the summer, which takes a bit of getting used if you’re not familiar with this feature.

Founded in 1930, when Shiro and Rokuro Akaboshi made full use of the contours between Teganuma Pond and Tone River to lay out an interesting 18-hole course, Abiko flourished as a golf club until the onset of World War II, when fairways were turned over to farming and an air defence position was erected on the par three 13th hole.

It took until several years after the war to rebuild the course but it was suitably refurbished in time to host the 1950 Japan Open Golf Championship, won by Yoshiro Hayashi. Further national amateur and professional events have followed and one of the more prominent of those in recent times was the 2009 Japan Women’s Open, won by Bo-Bae Song.

The course underwent a major renovation by Brian Silva in 2012 when the old dual-green system – bent grass for winter and zoysia for summer – was replaced with the construction of a single green on every hole, built to contemporary specifications and turfed with an improved bent. Silva also refurbished tees and bunkers as part of the upgrading work.

Abiko

Yoshiro Hayashi won the Japan Open Golf Championship here at Abiko Golf Club way back in 1950, but the club hosted the Japan Women's Open Golf Championship as recently as 2009.

The tourist town of Oarai lies to the north east of Tokyo and it’s well known for the aquatic attractions of its beach, marina and aquarium. Oarai is also known by knowledgeable golfers as the location of Oarai Golf Club, one of the best golf courses in Japan.

Created in 1953 by the respected designer Seiichi Inoue, Oarai is one of only a few seaside courses in all of Japan, laid out on the shores of the Pacific with many of its wide fairways doglegged and lined by age-old black pine trees.

Despite the shelter afforded by many trees around the course, strong winds off the ocean can badly affect good scoring at Oarai, as many professionals discovered when playing the Japan Open here in 1998 – not that the sea breezes prevented Hidemichi Tanaka from winning the competition for the first time.

Oarai

Oarai is known by knowledgeable golfers as the location of Oarai Golf Club, one of the best golf courses in Japan.

Originally designed by Seiichi Inoue and opened for play in 1955, the layout at Nikko Country Club is a lie of the land parkland golf course that wends its way through dense trees that frame many holes. Architect Taizo Kawata modified the Nikko layout in 2001 and it’s set out in two returning loops, with the front nine playing counter-clockwise to the back nine’s clockwise direction.

Occupying a rather flat piece of land, the tree-lined fairways at Nikko extend to just over 7,000 yards from the back tees on this classic track. Bunkers are used sparingly – there are only thirty four sand traps doted around the layout – and there’s a complete absence of any water hazards on the course.

A couple of par fives are rated the toughest holes on either nine: the slightly downhill 580-yard 4th dog legging right to the target and the arrow-straight 547-yard 13th rising slightly to a green that’s protected by a lone bunker.

Everything’s understated at Nikko, from the simple routing of the course across such easy walking terrain to the modest old wooden-framed clubhouse. In many ways, teeing it up here nowadays feels just like it was when the course first opened over half a century ago.

Nikko

Originally designed by Seiichi Inoue and opened for play in 1955, the layout at Nikko Country Club is a lie of the land parkland golf course that wends its way through dense trees that frame many holes.

Opened on 8th November 1958, the course at Ryugasaki Country Club is another high-quality parkland track from the prolific Seiichi Inoue, an architect who has designed literally dozens of Japanese layouts. Located eighty kilometres northeast of downtown Tokyo, the club lies only an hour’s drive from the city centre.

The course is heavily wooded – pine trees line most of the holes – and bunkers are arranged sympathetically, blending in beautifully with the landscape. The club operates two sets of greens at every hole, which can mean a difference in overall length of almost 300 yards, depending on which set are in play.

Distinctive holes include the narrow, short par four 5th, played downhill to a raised green, and the 421-yard 9th, which is routed through a small valley before rising to a well-bunkered putting surface. On the back nine, the most memorable hole is the short par three 12th, where the green is benched into a hillside on the other side of a small ravine.

The club has hosted all the major national championships, most notably the Japan Open (last held here in 1992), the Japan Ladies Open and the Japan Amateur.

Ryugasaki

Ryugasaki Country Club is another high quality parkland golf course from the prolific architect, Seiichi Inoue. Opened for play in 1958, Ryugasaki still has dual winter and summer greens in operation.

Located in the northern foothills of Mount Fuji, Fujizakura Country Club is set at altitude in the heart of the popular resort area of Fuji Five Lakes.

Designed in 1976 by Noriyuki Miyoshi, who consecutively won the Japan Amateur Championship three times between 1953 and 1955, the layout is a supremely testing course that stretches out beyond 7,700 yards from the back markers.

The layout is dominated by Mount Fuji, which can be seen from every hole on a clear day and there’s even a mirror image of the famous peak in a reflection pool on the tee box of the 596-yard par five, which doglegs right to a lovely geeensite nestled in a glade of Japanese pines.

The active volcano is the driving line at the straightaway five 15th which is counterbalanced by the pretty par three 16th where a pond guards the front and left side of a wonderful green complex that's almost a Reverse Redan.

Fujizakura

​Located in the northern foothills of Mount Fuji, Fujizakura Country Club is set at altitude in the heart of the popular resort area of Fuji Five Lakes.

Built on the site of a former cedar tree farm, an hour’s drive west of downtown Tokyo, the course at Tokyo Classic was more than a decade in the making. Construction began in March of 2006 but the financial global downturn in 2008 put the project on hold until new owners acquired the site and work recommenced in January of 2014. It then took the best part of three years before the course was finally ready for play.

The tree-lined fairways are laid out on a gently rolling, free-draining site where a sizeable creek comes into play on several occasions, most notably at holes 3, 4 and 11. Tees and fairways are seeded with Zoysia, putting surfaces are carpeted with bent grass and fine fescues are used to fringe bunker faces and accent the more open areas.

The client (who also operates the Hokkaido Classic course outside Sapporo) requested a layout that would be a fun, member-friendly course but also one that the best players in the world could enjoy. To satisfy that brief, the Nicklaus Design team provided a good mix of holes, requiring golfers to play just about every club in their bag.

There are no overtly blind shots to speak of but there’s a "peek-a-boo" green on the par three 12th where the right half of the putting surface is hidden in a bit of a punchbowl, though golfers can easily see the flag. There’s plenty of positioning required off the tee and with approach shots to the par fives to gain the best angle into the green.

Highlight holes include the short par four 2nd and the longer 9th, where an extra tee has been installed to allow the hole to play as a drivable par four if required on certain competition days. On the back nine, the 11th is a tough, slightly uphill par four that normally plays into the wind with a bluff running along the entire right side of the hole.

Interestingly, Tokyo Classic Golf Club is the first country club in Japan with equestrian facilities, including horse riding club and polo fields.

Tokyo Classic

Built on the site of a former cedar tree farm, an hour’s drive west of downtown Tokyo, the course at Tokyo Classic was more than a decade in the making.

The city of Chiba is located less than an hour’s drive east of downtown Tokyo and Takanodai Country Club lies just to the north of this busy seaport, handling a large proportion of the cargo that enters and leaves Japan annually.

The course once lay on the outskirts of the city but, as Chiba expanded outwards, residential development now surrounds the perimeter though housing remains largely out of sight, thanks to the screening provided by the mature trees that now line the fairways.

Formed in 1954, the club engaged the nation’s top architect, Seiichi Inoue, to lay out an 18-hole course for the members and he employed the dual green system which is still in use today, with golfers playing to korai or bent greens, depending on the season.

Notable holes include the right doglegged par four 5th (rated stroke index 1), the shortest of the four par three holes at the 171-yard 15th and the longest par five on the card at the 606-yard 14th, which is ranked as the most difficult hole on the back nine. After recent lengthening, Takanodai now measures more than 7,100 yards from the back markers.

The Japan Open has been held here on four occasions, the last time in 2011 when Bae Sang-moon became the third South Korean golfer to win the event following a playoff win against Kenichi Kuboya.

Takanodai

A dual green Seiichi Inoue design from 1954, Takanodai Country Club has played host to the Japan Open on four occasions, most recently in 2011.

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.

Kasumigaseki (West)

A major change to the West course at Kasumigaseki Country Club was made by Taizo Kawata when he converted the traditional Japanese dual greens into conventional putting surfaces...

Situated close to Mount Nasu, in the northeast section of the Nikko National Park, the 18-hole layout at Nasu Golf Club is a heavily forested mountain course that stretches to 6,615 yards from the back tees. It’s a Kinya Fujita and Seiichi Inoue co-design that dates back to 1936, with holes draped across a dramatically undulating landscape. The course closed during World War II and only re-opened in 1949.

Not to be confused with Nasu Country Club which lies 25 kilometres to the southeast, Nasu Golf Club lies in the hilly terrain to the north of Nasushiobara, where “the undulations of nature and the wind peculiar to the plateau play a role more than a hazard,” according to the club’s website.

“Therefore, there are very few artificial hazards, with 18 holes, 18 bunkers and only one pond. The skill of Seiichi Inoue, a master of course design, is utilized and misunderstandings of distance and inclination often occur. It is better to think that you can take a flat stance only on the tee ground, and unlike golf on flat ground, advanced technology is required.”

Nasu

Routed across undulating, wooded terrain, Nasu Golf Club measures 6,615 yards from the tips and this must have been a tough course when the Kinya Fujita and Seiichi Inoue-designed Nasu track opened in 1936.

Host venue for the Japan Women’s Open Golf Championship in 2002, the course at Hakone Country Club is one of four golfing layouts set out side by side on the northeast slopes of Mount Hakone in Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park.

Hakone Hot Spring Supply Company acquired the land in 1933 and began selling lots for vacation homes. In the early 1950s, the plan evolved into building a golf course and seventy-eight prominent businessmen were invited to help set up the club.

The founders invited former Japanese Amateur Champion Shiro Akaboshi to be their architect. Shiro had worked with C.H. Alison when he visited the country in 1930 to work on Tokyo Golf Club so he was well versed in sound design theory and construction knowhow.

Hakone Country Club’s course was the first that Shiro Akahoshi designed as a professional architect after World War II and he considered it the best accomplishment of his career, playing a lot at the club late in his life.

His design theory was to utilise the natural terrain as much as possible, offering multiple shot options towards every green, requiring every player to choose one among a variety of options, depending on his or her playing skills.

There are gentle undulations in the landscape and a small creek meanders through the course from Lake Ashinoko, with the front and back nines forming two large loops from the old clubhouse, which was once located on top of a small hill.

Hakone

Designed by Shiro Akaboshi in 1954, the course at Hakone Country Club was built with no expense spared, including the importation of thousands of tons of volcanic soil from the Mt Fuji region.

Situated just outside the port city of Osaka, Ibaraki Country Club dates back to the early 1920s, when the East course was brought into use. Almost forty years later, Seiichi Inoue designed the West course, allowing members the choice of playing two 18-hole layouts.

After more than fifty years of operation, the club felt it was time to upgrade the West course so Rees Jones was called in to renovate the layout in 2011, installing a new irrigation system and re-grading the course to provide new tees, greens and bunkers.

In his first Japanese project, Jones and his senior associate Bryce Swanson replaced the dual green system, devising new green locations and reworking fairway landing areas to provide optimal angles into the new greensites.

Jones chose a neo-classical look, where soft flowing lines and a diverse set of greens characterise the redesign. With its lengthened holes, the result is a new layout superimposed on the old course for modern championship play while still remaining enjoyable for the membership.

A club spokesman said: “We now have a classic, strategic design with a single-green format that complies with modern standards... The new layout makes great use of the natural rise and fall of the land... Rees and Bryce skilfully incorporated Kamiga Lake into a number of the holes by opening views and by bringing the lake into play on the finishing holes.”

Ibaraki (West)

Originally designed by Seiichi Inoue in 1960 with double greens, the West course at Ibaraki Country Club was renovated by Rees Jones creating single green complexes, reopening to acclaim in 2011.

The Umesato course at Chiba Country Club opened for play in 1960, hosting the Japan Open just two years after its inauguration. Taizo Kawata remodelled the layout at the start of the new millennium, converting old-fashioned double greens to single greens.

Located an hour’s drive to the northeast of downtown Tokyo, the club operates three 18-hole courses – each with its own clubhouse – that are spread out in a line over 13.5 kilometres. Umesato lies closest to the capital, followed by Noda, then Kawama.

The Japan Open was staged again at the club in 2014 and, more recently, the Umesato course has hosted three editions of the Panasonic Open: Yuta Ikeda won his 14th title on the Japan Tour in 2016 with a 3-stroke margin of victory; Kenichi Kuboya defeated Katsumasa Miyamoto in a playoff for his win in 2017; and Rahil Gangjee from India held off his nearest rivals by one shot to claim the title in 2018.

Chiba (Umesato)

The Umesato course at Chiba Country Club opened for play in 1960, hosting the Japan Open just two years after its inauguration.

The Gotemba course is the flagship layout in the Taiheiyo Club’s 18-course portfolio, but the Mashiko PGA course (designed by Shunsuke Kato in 1976 and renovated by the same architect in 2002) may well be the most demanding of them all.

Taiheiyo (Mashiko PGA)

Located next to Nishinasuno Golf Club, the course at Horai Country Club is a 1990 Robert von Hagge-design that twists and turns through forested terrain where doglegs are aplenty and the green complexes often large, undulating and very tricky to read. It’s a clever amalgam of modern and classic design.

Horai

With the shortest par three measuring a mighty 239 yards and the longest par five weighing in at a whopping 705 yards, it’s no surprise to learn that The Royal Golf Club course can be stretched to an astonishing 8,143 yards from the tips.

The Royal Golf Club

Caledonian Golf Club is a 1990 J. Michael Poellot design with a back nine that impressed Tom Doak: “The Cape par-4 13th around the lake at the back of the clubhouse, the par-5 15th with its approach vaguely reminiscent of the 13th at Augusta, and the par-5 closer with an alternate fairway route like the 15th at Seminole.”

Caledonian

Opened in 1994, the course at Narusawa Golf Club lies under the watchful gaze of Mount Fuji at an altitude of more than 3,500 feet. Unusually, a good number of holes on the outward half dogleg to the left, while coming home holes invariably dogleg right.

Narusawa

When first laid out in 1931, the course at Sagami Country Club wasn’t situated in a built up area but it’s now entirely surrounded by residential properties due to the urban expansion of nearby Yokohama city.

Rokuro Akaboshi, who was the first golfer – and so far the only amateur – to win the Japan Open in 1927, designed the Sagami course in 1931 though it was upgraded by Seiichi Inoue during the 1950s before undergoing an extensive renovation in the 1990s.

The club still employs a dual green system, with every hole having a “Pencross green” and a “Southshore green,” and these are constructed with two different grass types to handle the hot and humid summers and short, cold winters.

In general, the landscape is fairly flat so walking isn’t an issue at Sagami. Tree-lined fairways are generally wide and forgiving, though some peripheral fairways have high netting along one side to protect neighbouring properties from stray golf balls.

Sagami

Sagami Country Club is a 1931 design from Rokuro Akaboshi, who was not only a pioneer of Japanese golf course design, but also the winner of the inaugural Japan Open in 1927.

Laid out by the flamboyant American architect Robert von Haage, the tree-lined fairways at Nish-Nasuno Country Club are framed by tall Japanese red pine trees, providing golfers with a real sense of seclusion when they play here.

Nishi-Nasuno

Located a short 20-minute drive northeast of Narita city centre, Narita Golf Club was founded in the late 1980s, with Taizo Kawata setting out the course. Surprisingly for a tree-lined layout, playing corridors are relatively wide and forgiving.

The Rolex World’s Top 1000 Golf Courses

 with the following edited narrative extract:

“Narita is not far from Tokyo Airport in Chiba Prefecture – perhaps the best land for golf courses in Japan, having nice changes in elevation yet not encumbered with mountains that elsewhere cover some 4/5th of the country’s land mass. It is also less than 40 miles from the city and has become a club favoured by big business for corporate networking as well as relaxation.

It was originally conceived as somewhere for businessmen to meet and converse, yet not too far from the office. It is a product of Japan’s last truly affluent period and was put together with few budgetary restrictions. It was at the time extremely luxurious and has been well maintained since.”

Visiting golfers may be introduced by a member on weekdays but must play with a member at weekends. The club is also closed on Mondays.

Narita

Located an hour’s drive northwest of downtown Tokyo, the 36-hole golf facility at Musashi Country Club celebrated fifty years in operation in 2009 by hosting the 74th edition of the Japan Open on its Seiichi Inoue-designed Toyooka course.

Musashi (Toyooka)

The Sumire course comprises the private 18-hole layout at the 36-hole Murasaki Country Club. Pascuzzo Pate Golf Design began a phased upgrade in 2012 which resulted in the 85th edition of the Japan Open being held here in 2020.

Murasaki (Sumire)

The East and South nines at the 27-hole Kawaguchiko Country Club form the premier 18-hole combination at this 1977 Robert von Hagge and Bruce Devlin creation. The course is routed over gentle, forested terrain at altitude of about 1,000 meters at the northern foot of Mount Fuji.

Kawaguchiko (East & South)

Japan’s New St Andrews Golf Club is a 27-hole facility where Jack Nicklaus and Desmond Muirhead laid out the club’s 18-hole New course in 1975. It’s a well-bunkered 6,800-yard layout where both small and large ponds also create an aquatic challenge during the round.

New St Andrews (New)

Situated an hour’s drive south east of downtown Tokyo, Sagamihara Golf Club’s 36-hole facility first opened for play in 1955, when Seiichi Inoue set out the fairways on a site that’s now completely surrounded on all sides by suburban buildings.

Both the West and the East courses are tight, tree-lined tracks with fairways playing to dual greens. The longer East course extends to 6,629 yards and it plays to a par of 74, thanks to a course configuration that has three par fives on both the front and back nine.

The outward and inward half each conclude with par fives that dogleg slightly left as they head towards the clubhouse but the scorecard highlights are the par threes at the 8th and 11th, where the greens at these short holes sit behind small lakes.

The Japan Open has been held at the club three times, with Toru Taniguchi winning the most recently hosted 72nd edition of the event in 2007 by two shots. Only four players were under par for the four rounds, with Toru’s 283 total translating to five under par for the tournament.

Sagamihara (East)

A three-time host of the Japan Open Championship (most recently in 2007, which Toru Taniguchi won) the East course at Sagamihara Golf Club dates back to 1955 and it’s a thoroughly challenging layout.

The West course at the 36-hole Shishido Hills Country Club has played host to the Japan Golf Tour Championship since 2003 and it’s a tough-as-nails 7,200-yard test when the rough is up and the layout is prepared in its rather narrow championship livery.

Shishido Hills (West)

The 36-hole facility at Musashi Country Club was established in 1959, with Seiichi Inoue designing both 18-hole layouts. The Sasai closed for almost a year in 2013/14 during a major renovation of the course and the rebuilding of the clubhouse.

Musashi (Sasai)

The East course at Ibaraki Country Club dates back to when the club was founded in the early 1920s, making it one of Japan’s oldest, and the 18-hole layout hosted the 78th edition of the Japan Open in 2013.

Ibaraki (East)

Located near Ogawa in Ibaraki, the 18-hole layout at Ishioka Golf Club is a Jack Nicklaus design from the early 1990s. It’s operated by Pacific Golf Management with the aim of “making customers feel they are playing on tournament courses.”

“Ishioka is an attractive parkland course cut out of the Kogama Forest. It is virtually flat which allows a designer like Jack Nicklaus to turn what might have been a sow’s ear into a silk purse. The course certainly bears his stamp. You can see every green from the tee and every hole is lined by trees. There is heavy rough in places, and specifically where it comes into play for the longer and better player.

Then there are lakes and the usual Nicklaus large greens, which tend to have generally flat putting surfaces, divided into separate tiers with subtle steps. There are some changes from a typical Nicklaus layout in that the fairways are quite narrow and much of his fairway bunkering is strategically placed to catch and punish wayward drives, rather than just being large swathes of sand all over the course.”

Ishioka

Originally set out by Osamu Ueda in the early 1960s and upgraded on a couple of occasions since then by Taizo Kawata, the East course is the longer and tighter of two 18-hole layouts at Gifu Seki Country Club.

Gifu Seki (East)

Situated to the east of the city of Ushiku, the course at Eagle Point Golf Club is a Taizo Kawata design that debuted in 1999. It’s configured as two retuning nines, with water hazards featuring at a handful of the holes.

“Eagle Point is not well known, even amongst Japanese golfers. The club has remained out of the public eye and has yet to host any big tournaments to measure its worth. It was the creation of Taizo Kawata, writer, broadcaster and international referee. He had good ground to work with, plenty of trees, undulating fairways and watercourses from which to make strategic and attractive hazards.

One of the best trends on new courses in Japan is a sensible gap between the ‘tiger’ tees and the normal men’s tees; here again there is almost a thousand yards difference in the overall length of the course, reflecting the gulf between the very best and the rest.”

Eagle Point

The Kanto region lies on the east side of Honshu, the largest of the Japanese islands, and it embraces the Greater Tokyo Area, along with seven other prefectures. Over forty-two million people are estimated to live here, accounting for a third of the total population in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Amateur golf in the region is administered by the 

, which was founded with just eight golf clubs in 1935. Today, the federation looks after more than 500 golf clubs across the ten prefectures of Tokyo.


 is undoubtedly one of the best layouts in Kanto, and recent restoration work by Gil Hanse has gone a long way to consolidating the layout’s position within our Asian Top 100 ranking chart.

 courses at Kasumigaseki are fine old tracks from the early 1930s that seem to improve with age, as does the course at 

, which was laid out by Seichi Inoue a couple of decades later.

Like Tokyo, an American architect has recently upgraded 

’s course. This time, the person involved was Brian Silva and his work entailed replacing the old double greens for a single, top spec putting surface on every hole.