Japan 2024 Course Line up

Yokohama West Course (Tokyo)

• Designer: Takeo Aiyama & Hideo Takemura (1960)

• Renovations: Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw (2016)

We begin our Japanese golf adventure in Tokyo, playing on one of the country’s Top 10 Courses - Yokohama Country Club. The club, is a private member course with a 36-hole championship layout – the higher ranked West Course is used exclusively for members and by invitation only. Both West/East have beautifully groomed tree-lined fairways with undulating layouts and the hinterland as their backdrops.

The courses are flanked by the historic port cities of Yokohama, Kawasaki and Yokosuka to the south. 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.

Both courses underwent a major renovation by American architects Coore & Crenshaw and re-opened in 2016 in time to host the 2018 Japan Open. Trademark features of the new West Course include its bunkering (all 83), heavily contoured greens and a swag of swooping dogleg par 4’s.

Yokohama West was the original contender to host the 2020 Olympics and it was a great disappointment to Coore & Crenshaw to miss out on that prestigious honour.

Narita Hills Country Club (Tokyo)

• Designer: Pete & Alice Dye (1991) and refurbished in 2015

Narita Hills, a member’s course, was built by one of the world’s most famous architect team – Pete & Alice Dye of TPC Sawgrass, and Whistling Straits fame. Said to have designed some of the most exciting golf courses in the world, Dye’s creation at Narita Hills has attracted an international audience since it opened in 1991.

Located in a hilly area of Chiba Prefecture, the undulating curves of the course are reminiscent of authentic links. From the glistening blue ponds to the smooth white sands and the vibrant greens of the turf, Narita Hills is as stunning as it is strategic.

A renovation by the Dye team in 2015 replaced the grass with New Vent giving the course invincibility during the summer and winter.

Hakone Country Club (Hakone)

• Designer: Shiro Akaboshi (1954)

The private member Hakone Country Club is a truly beautiful course surrounded by mountains and forests within the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. The deceptively flat course with only very gentle undulations was built at 700m above sea level at the foothills of two volcanoes – Mount Hakone and Mount Kamiyama and around meandering creeks feeding from Lake Ashinoko. Each hole on the course offers a different view of the inner and outer rims of the volcanos.

Japanese architect Shiro Akaboshi was greatly inspired by famous British designer Charles ‘Hugh’ Alison who travelled through Japan in the 1930’s building some the country’s finest courses including the 2020 Olympic Games Host Course Kasumigaseki. Akaboshi was a veteran of WW2 and Japanese Amateur Champion. He took up architecture late in life and was employed by the Hakone Hot Spring Company who acquired the land in 1933 to develop holiday lots and a championship course.

Fujizakura Country Club (Hakone)

• Designer: Noriyuki Miyoshi (1976)

Located in the northern foothills of Mount Fuji, Fujizakura Country Club is set at 1000m 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 is long and narrow with plenty of strategic shots required to out distance the ponds and bunkers. The course is about an hour drive from our hotel but with the prospect of viewing Mt Fuji from the tee box of every hole on a clear day the trip is definitely worth it. The camera is a must playing this course with Japanese pine forests lining the fairways and mirror ponds offering unique reflections of Mt Fuji. The signature hole is definitely #15 with the active volcano right in your firing line.

Katsuragi Yamana & Ugari Courses

• Designer: Siichi Inoue (1976)

Katsuragi Course architect Siichi Inoue is recognised as Japan’s design King with a pre-war career starting in the 1930’s and spanning until his death in 1981, aged 73. Inoue is one of the most prolific course designers in Japan and is in fact the most highly decorated with 17 of his 38 designs in the Japan Top 100 including the 2 Katsuragi Courses – Yamana and Ugari. Inoue invented the unique double green system in Japan which is still used today. He was also the original course designer of Kasumigaseki, the Olympic Course. Interestingly he is more famous after death - three of his best designs were completed in the years following his death and even 30 years on, a coffee-table book was published celebrating the beauty of all the golf courses he created. For many, his courses were indeed a work of art.

At Katsuragi, Siichi Inoue created two majestic golf courses which beautifully flow over the large-scale rolling hills and both have played host to many professional tournaments sponsored by the Yamaha Motor Company. The Yamana Course is tighter, loaded with more hazards and more strategic than the Ugari Course which is characterised by wider fairways. Both courses feature the Japanese double green system – 2 games for the price of one! On both courses each hole is beautiful framed by lines of Japanese native trees which feature in the wooden interior of the hotel or Castle we stay. To be eligible to play the Katsuragi courses, golfers must stay at the hotel.

Quote by Siichi Inoue “With a beautiful natural setting, the course should not only have great form but should also transport the player to a kind of paradise”

Golden Valley Country Club (Kobe)

• Designer: Robert Trent Jones Jnr (1987)

Located in the Hyogo Prefecture in Kobe, Golden Valley Country Club is surrounded by dense pine forests across an undulating layout. Of the 18 holes, 16 holes have creeks and ponds making it a picturesque but difficult course to play. The greens are large and inviting to attack but quite often tricky pins on windy days make for high scores! In 2014, the 82nd Japan Golf Championship was held at Golden Valley. The 18th hole is the signature hole, a spectacular par-5 hole that has ponds everywhere. Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s philosophy “Danger and Reward” is expressed in this hole and he stated that this hole is tougher than the 18th hole of Pebble Beach.

Rokko Kokusai Country Club (Kobe)

• Designer: East Course - Fukuichi Kato (1975) and re-modelled Nicklaus Design (1996)

• Designer: West Course - Nicklaus Design (1997)

Rokko Kokusai Golf Club located near the Kobe city centre is home to two magnificent 18-hole courses, East and West. Both courses are surrounded by natural forests in hilly terrain but have relatively flat and spacious layouts. Playing the East, a classical Japanese design, golfers will not only have to focus on hitting it long and straight, but also exercise good course management to avoid bunkers, lakes, rough and trees. Most greens are elevated and surrounded by deep bunkers, the aprons of the greens are narrow, so approach shots require a sense of distance and accuracy. The East Course is a popular venue for the Japan Open, Senior Open and Asian tour events. West has a completely different personality and is a big American style course preferred by the LPGA Japan Tour and is the host venue of the Suntory Ladies Tournament. West has clever undulating greens, no two alike, and beautiful sweeping fairways with true Jack Nicklaus ‘risk and reward’ options available to the golfer as they play each hole. Our closing hole on tour, the 18th, was described by Jumbo Ozaki, Japan’s favourite golfer, as the best finishing hole in Japan.

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