Kokichi Yasuda designed a new 18-hole golf course at Otaru Country Club in 1974 and the layout was selected to host the Japan PGA Championship four years later.
The Mashu and Akan nines form the preferred 18-hole layout at Eniwa Country Club, where tree-lined holes designed by Hirochika Tomisawa are set out on the flood plain of the Izari River, making this an easy-walking place to play.
The sixth and final Japanese golf project from Ron Fream of Golfplan in the 1990s, the course at Bonari Kogen Golf Club occupies a spectacular location in the foothills of the Azuma Mountain Range.
Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed all 36 holes at Grandee Nasu Shirakawa Golf Club in 1995. The Nasu Mountains provide a magnificent backcloth to a challenging course that has hosted the Dunlop Srixon Fukushima Open on the Japan Golf Tour since 2014.
Situated to the north of Akashi, the 18-hole layout at Onotoyo Golf Club bears the architectural mark of Osamu Ueda. Playing corridors have narrowed a lot since the course debuted in 1971, placing a real premium on accuracy off the tee.
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.
Located an hour’s drive north of Kobe, the 18-hole layout at Pine Lake Golf Club is an impressive mid-1980s Robert Trent Jones Jnr design, one of more than twenty Japanese projects the American architect has worked on down the years.
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.
Venue for the ANA Open on the Japan Golf Tour, Sapporo Golf Club has all but three times annually hosted this professional event on its Wattsu course.
Featuring bent grass greens, the Kaimon course at Ibusuki Golf Club is a late 1960s Seiiche Inoue design that lies at the foot of Mount Kaimon, on the southern tip of the Satsuma peninsula, where strong sea breezes often heighten the challenge.
Rank | Name | Courses Played |
---|---|---|
1 | Kimi Hoshiyama |
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2 | Kenichiro Oda |
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3 | Tony Hagihara |
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4 | Yutaka Kawanami |
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5 | Bob McCoy |
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6 | Hwa Young Nam |
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7 | Tao Lin |
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8 | Paul Rudovsky |
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= | Kuan Kuo |
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= | Fergal O'Leary |
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