[Tim Leahy]

I know Japan has limited land for golf courses but do any of the Architects on this site see a Japanese golf boom after Matsuyama's Masters victory. How many courses have been built in Japan or near there over the last 20 years? I remember the Japanese golf boom in the 80's when they were buying up courses on the West Coast and flying in junkets of Japanese golfers because it was cheaper than a membership in Japan.

[Jeff Schley]

Tim,
Heading to Japan this September for a trip (hopefully) and many maybe surprised to note that Japan already has the second most courses in the world at over 3,000 already. Will tick off 10 this coming September. Membership is very expensive still and almost exclusively for Japanese. They still travel quite a bit to Thailand, Philippines to play golf.

I would anticipate a few new courses now that Hideki is coming back as Masters champ perhaps.

[Don Mahaffey]

Did the predicted boom in Argentina after Cabrera's victory(s) ever occur?

[Adam Lawrence]

Hard to imagine a significant boom in what is already a large and mature golf market. Very limited opportunity for growth really.


Booms generally happen in markets that are emerging, and therefore have space for expansion.

[Tom_Doak]

Golf has been in the doldrums in Japan for 25 years, along with their economy.  They have plenty of capacity for new golfers if Matsuyama's win spurs interest among younger people [which it should].  But it is extremely expensive to build a golf course there and only a economic boom will get new development moving again.

[Thomas Dai]

Japan is relatively speaking a pretty mountainous country with not a lot of flat land that isn’t used to grow crops or live on.
Land availability given lack of suitable terrain vrs population locations and density tends to equal ¥¥¥¥¥ golf.
atb

[Wayne_Kozun]

Heading to Japan this September for a trip (hopefully) and many maybe surprised to note that Japan already has the second most courses in the world at over 3,000 already.

The UK might have more courses if it was counted as one country rather than four as there are 2900 course in England+Scotland.  The number of courses in Japan isn't as surprising when you figure in the population at 125M is a lot higher than countries, other than the US, where golf is popular.

[Kalen Braley]

Wayne,

I took a closer look at Japan vs the UK and Japan does have more people per sq. Km - 333 to 279, or about 16% more.

Japan is quite a bit larger than the UK thou.
  Japan - 377,975 sq kms, ~2500 golf courses
  UK - 242,945 sq kms, ~ 2900 golf courses

When it comes to golf course per sq km, the UK blows Japan out of the water at nearly twice as much. 
  Japan - 1 golf course per 151.2 sq kms.
  UK - 1 golf course per 83.8 sq kms.

And yet the UK is still getting new projects, and Japan not so much?  I guess you can never have too much of a good thing!

[Andrew Harvie]

It has the second most golf courses behind the USA. I doubt a boom is coming, but perhaps a renovation boom

[Adam Lawrence]

Wayne,

I took a closer look at Japan vs the UK and Japan does have more people per sq. Km - 333 to 279, or about 16% more.

Japan is quite a bit larger than the UK thou.
  Japan - 377,975 sq kms, ~2500 golf courses
  UK - 242,945 sq kms, ~ 2900 golf courses

When it comes to golf course per sq km, the UK blows Japan out of the water at nearly twice as much. 
  Japan - 1 golf course per 151.2 sq kms.
  UK - 1 golf course per 83.8 sq kms.

And yet the UK is still getting new projects, and Japan not so much?  I guess you can never have too much of a good thing!

The UK is getting very occasional new projects. It's hardly a significant difference.

[Tom_Doak]

Yes, for some reason, American developers are more likely to back a new course in Scotland or Ireland than one in Japan.

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