Asia

Kinki (Kansai), Japan

Hirono Golf Club has played host to all the major Japanese championships and, although it measures a mere 6,925 yards from the back tees, it’s a supreme test of golf.

Chubu, Japan

There are two courses on the Izu Peninsula at the Kawana Resort and the Fuji course is universally considered to be the best.

South Korea

The course at South Cape Owners Club is a Kyle Phillips design, set out on a dramatic cliff top property, with ocean views available from all eighteen golf holes.

Kinki (Kansai), Japan

Naruo shares all the traditional aspects of Japan’s older golf clubs. The continuity in tradition here is maintained by the 700 members whose average age is 71.

China

Set out across reclaimed land on Chongming Island in the estuary of the mighty Yangtze River, the 2011 Jack Nicklaus-designed Links layout at Lanhai International Golf Resort was completely re-built by Ogilvie, Clayton, Cocking and Mead in 2018 creating Yangtze Dunes.

South Korea

The Club at Nine Bridges is located on Jeju Island, the volcanic island south of South Korea’s continental landmass sometimes referred to as Korea’s Maui.

Kanto, Japan

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.

Kanto, Japan

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.

China

Constructed in a manner unlike anything that’s been built before in China, the Shanqin Bay golf course just might become the benchmark for those still to come... assuming the authorities do not commandeer the fairways.

Vietnam

The Greg Norman-designed golf course at The Bluffs Gran Ho Tram, took all of ten years to come to fruition after it was first earmarked for investment back in 2004...

Central Thailand, Thailand

Formed in 2007 by thirty of Thailand’s wealthiest people, Ayodhya Links is one of the most exclusive golf clubs in Asia. Membership is by invitation so only the great and the good of Thai society mingle in the clubhouse...

Vietnam

The course at Hoiana Shores Golf Club lies within an enormous 2,500-acre site to the south of Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known as The City of Lanterns. Fittingly, the pins on every green are adorned with lanterns instead of flags.

Kinki (Kansai), Japan

Influenced by Hugh Alison, Osamu Ueda designed the course at Ono Golf Club in 1961 and it’s often regarded as the sister course to the fabled Hirono Golf Club. Host to the Japan Open in 1969, Ono is a testy track.

Kanto, Japan

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.

Singapore

Sentosa's Serapong course fulfills Donald Ross' pithy edict: "Make each hole present a different problem. So arrange it that every stroke must be made with full concentration and attention necessary to good golf."

Vietnam

KN Golf Links Cam Ranh is located at the southernmost end of a long and gently curving sandy sweep, interrupted only by a naturally rugged headland where the height of the terrain allows for a number of remarkable viewpoints.

Kanto, Japan

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.

China

Venue for the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in 2011, the Blackstone course on Hainan Island covers 350 acres of a rugged landscape that’s dominated by lava rock, lakes and wetlands.

West Malaysia, Malaysia

TPC Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club, or KLGCC as it is known, is located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur and is one of Malaysia’s most popular golf clubs.

China

Located on the south side of Hainan Island, a mere 60 minutes by high speed train from Haikou, the 36-hole Dunes at Shenzhou Peninsula golf complex was designed by Tom Weiskopf and his associate Phil Smith.

China

For what is ostensibly a resort layout, the Lake golf course at Spring City, Kunming, is a tough test. No hole could be described as easy.

Kanto, Japan

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

South Korea

Anyang Country Club, formerly known as Anyang Benest Golf Club is cut through mature trees, which not only prove a challenge for the crooked driver but also brilliance of seasonal colour.

Kyushu, Japan

Koga Golf Club hosted the 62nd Japan Open, won by Australian Craig Parry with a score of two over par for the competition.

China

Sheshan International Golf Club is the epitome of Shanghai and it’s an intoxicating blend of Chinese tradition and international modernity.

China

The Jack Nicklaus designed Mountain golf course at Spring City in China kept a little closer to the resort brief and is consequently a more forgiving course compared with Trent Jones Jnr's design slightly lower down the hill.

South Korea

The 18 holes at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea are situated within a modern residential development in the Songdo International Business District.

Kanto, 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.

Vietnam

The Dunes course at Danang Golf Club (now called Norman) opened to critical acclaim in 2010 with its designer, Greg Norman, saying, “You’d be doing a very poor job to make a boring course out of a site like this”.

Java, Indonesia

Opened in 1995, Taman Dayu Golf Club has established itself as one of Indonesia’s best and most private courses and it sits in a resort spanning more than 600 hectares...