Many thanks again to Paul Turner for pulling this Hirono topic out of his bag of tricks. The following is the excerpt on Hirono from the World Golf Atlas, and hopefully it can further describe what a wonderful golf course it must be even to this day. (Do I hear the faint whispers of a possible GCA outing from those as equally impressed as myself?)
Domo narigoto (Just practicing!)
Hirono--Alison’s Restrained but Inspired Architecture
The Westernization of Japan, a breakneck process during the early decades of this century, was most marked in and around the great maritime cities like Tokyo--and farther west on the island of Honshu--the port of Kobe. It was within these cosmopolitan communities that the game of golf first took root and at Kobe, Japan, was to acquire one of the world's great courses--Hirono. It set the standard by which oriental courses are measured.
The site chosen for Hirono was in every way ideal. Twelve miles to the northwest of the port it was, in a contemporary description "dotted with many pretty ponds, winding streams, running rivulets, pine woodlands, ravines, and gentle undulations.'' The materials were at hand for an architectural artist, the Englishman Charles Allison and the course he designed in 1930 remains unaltered to this day.
At Hirono, Alison took advantage of the terrain to arrange, as at Sunningdale and St George's Hill (where he had worked with Harry Colt), several splendid carries from the tees. He planned intriguing greens at the end of generous fairways and sprinkled the course with bunkers of the type that in Japan bear his name to this day. In every way it was a piece of Berkshire transplanted to the Orient.
Charles Alison was a skillful draftsman; it was a talent that would have appealed to the Japanese. The holes, hazards, and greens in Alison's drawings were produced with amazing accuracy after he departed, a tribute to his skill in designing and to the high esteem in which he must have been held by all those with whom he came into contact.
Hirono measures 6,980 yards from the back tees and 6,100 yards from the forward ones; Alison gave it all the length a championship course should need. Nowadays too much importance is attached to playing a course of 7,000 yards or more especially in Japan. There is generally thought to be some inadequacy in a layout that measures less More monstrosities have been constructed in the name of length than would be thought possible; a look at Hirono provides an answer to the argument, for 6,980 yards of architecture is worth 7,400 yards of most other kinds.
Few courses outside Britain have this striking difference and variety in each hole that Hirono possesses. Each is named after its peculiarity Lake End, Fiord, Wee Wood, Devil's Divot, Boulevard and Quo Vadis? We can assume that Alison had a hand in the naming, which is thoroughly appropriate. In playing or just walking the course the titles immediately strike home Devil’s Divot, for example, is a par three across a huge gouge in the earth, in the shape of a giant divot. Fiord is another par three. Across an inlet of a lake resembling a small Norwegian harbor. Some of the names commemorate people associated with the club’s founding. But most announce a holes feature or situation.
At first the greens were all of creeping bent grass but it was soon found that the ten times more virile Japanese Bermuda grass encroached and took over, in spite of all efforts to stem its advance. A fine variety of korai grass-of the same family as the fairways--was substituted and properly maintained and mown short. It is a suitable enough putting grass even though it browns off in winter and goes dormant. It does, however, have a wiry texture that baffles nearly all golfers who are new to its acquaintance. Varieties of American seed grasses make up the rough grass together with some local flora. The trees are almost entirely pines indigenous to the area. And they are lovingly cared for.
The whole is a vista of beauty and naturalness that changes color through the seasons. In summer its a rich green with only the sand traps offering a contrast to the softness mirrored in the lakes and ponds, while in autumn and winter it changes to the light brown of hibernation. At all times it is an inviting golf course of outstanding dignity and class.
Like Sunningdale. which in many ways it resembles Hirono starts off with a par five hole. It is straight, narrow, and flat and clear of obstacles all the way to the flagstick, which can be clearly seen from the tee though 500 yards away. Two shallow depressions cross the fairway at the 100 yard and 400 yard marks. Alison placed his traps for the wayward drive at the 200 yard range on the right and at 220 yards on the left, a pattern that has been almost universally adopted by all students of his work in Japan. Two plain and modest bunkers guard the green, which inclines enough to drain itself. Here, as throughout the course, natural features are used to their best effect. Two man-sized par fours follow the blank spots of article are filled with large mound work that suggests something of a linksland course. The 4th hole requires a spectacularly long tee shot and the green is raised high above a typical Alison sand trap. The 5th hole is a picture postcard par three of outstanding merit high across a large lake. Fearsome-looking sand traps guard a modest-sized green so that even at 150 yards of length the hole is a difficult one for golfers of all classes and experience.
The course turns inland then by way of another first-class par three of 200 yards. A natural. well cleared ravine courses diagonally across it and, against a wind, it is farther then most people can hit, but the regular tee is set at 170 yards so that at this distance it is a pleasure for all golfers to play.
The 8th hole uses a small pond by the green to effect. The second shot must skirt or carry the pond to an interestingly shaped green. For club golfers it is fun and terror, the choice of shot never easy.
The 9th takes the route straight to the clubhouse. A par five of 525 yards, the tee shot is all carry across brush and pathways to a generous fairway that disappears into a natural grassed and cut hollow in front of tide green. The 10th and 11th holes are two pleasant fours that take the golfer out to the lake again. The 12th hole is one of the courses best and also one of the best par fives in Japan. Its tee shot is across an inlet of the lake beyond which there is a small natural ditch reminiscent of Carnoustie to worry about. The shot is fearsome for lesser players and difficult enough for professionals To alI except the very longest and straightest hitters the green is still two shots away. The tee shots at the 13th and 14th holes both have to carry water of marvelous proportion and beauty giving pleasure to the player who makes it but no offense to those who don’t. These two shorter holes lead to another outstanding par five in the 15th at 560 yards, Allison’s longest hole. The 16th climbs farther away from the lake to a high plateau green seemingly set against the sky. From the back tee, the 17th is a 230 yard par three across the margin of another lake with plenty of open space to be aimed at by those who are not ambitious or strong enough. Here Alison could have made the mistake of duplicating his 5th and 13th holes but sensibly he offered something different; water plays a lesser part but sheer length is used to compensate.
The 455 yard 18th is in every way a rewarding final hole. First there is the carry across a gully to the fairway. Then the fairway turns left for the long slog to the green. Again there is an area of mounds and hollows and sand traps off to the right more to distract than to impede, but the greenside traps have been sited in earnest. Eighteenth greens are almost always given the best attention by constructor and maintainer alike, and this one is no exception Allison never even dreamed of television but made a marvelously spectacular finish.
Hirono was host to the Japan Amateur championship in 1933 and the Japan Open in 1939 but since then there has been nothing of national or international importance staged there This is to be regretted because there is much to show off and as far as champion golfers are concerned much to test them.