[Chip Gaskins]

How good are the Japanese courses that are highly ranked: Naruo, Kawana, etc

I have been to Japan but did not make the effort to play them, now with mortgages, kids, recessions, etc getting back just to play golf feels like an impossible task.  Now I kick myself.

I just wondering had anyone played them and how good were they?

Did Allison make more than one trip?

I can't believe the World ranking panels get too many chances to rank these courses every year, so I assume there is some inertia with their rankings, but that is just a guess.

Has/did Japan experience a rebirth of great courses in the past 10-15 years like America has?  I assume not.

[Pete Lavallee]

Chip,

This months Travel and Leisure Golf Mag had an excellent article on traveling to Japan to play golf. I believe there is now a Golf Tour Operator who could make those dreams come true. The top courses there look like they would be well worth the effort to play.

[Ben Cowan-Dewar]

Chip,
To your first question, I believe that Hirono is truly world class, head and shoulders above the other courses. Naruo (which was the greatest surprise of my trip) and Kawana are both world top 100 contenders. Tokyo and Kasumi (which was ranked as high as 37th) were both very solid, but not in the same class.

Allison made only the one trip, but the impact on Japanese golf was profound. This is something that was not lost on the members I met, who revered his work.

I would imagine more raters play them then you think, as it is a relatively easy trip to see five percent of the world top 100.

There has not been a rebirth. I have not heard of any modern Japanese course that people feel rivals any of the classics.

[Melvyn Morrow]

The following article from 'The Scotsman' dated the 18th August 1903 is based upon 'Golf Illustrated' and announces the formation of the first club in Japan. I attach the article for anyone who is interested in golfing history.

[Ron Farris]

I have a favoring toward Hirono.  One of my good friends while I was in Japan was a member of Hirono.  He told me how even it was changed over the years and that some of the greatness had been taken away.
Kawan is a nice course with some very interesting holes.  We enjoyed the meals at Kawana, perhaps more than the golf as it often rained, which of course does not diminish the architecture.

[David Stamm]

Hirono is one "the" courses I'd like to see in terms of rest of world.

[John Sabino]

Chip - How good are the highly rated Japanese courses, you ask? As good as any in the world. I just returned from a tour of playing golf in Japan including the top ranked courses - Naruo, Hirono, Kawana and Tokyo. Aside from Tokyo Golf Club, which wasn't that great, the other courses are fantastic. Alison was a masterful designer, best illustrated with some pictures.

His best single hole, the par five 15th hole at Kawana, Japan's "Pebble Beach", seen below. You hit your tee show across a ravine down into the valley seen here.



The fairway has plenty of humps and bumps in it as seen from this picture, looking back from the green:



Naruo, located near Kobe is the most difficult of all the courses. It is narrow, with a lot of O.B. You can see the narrowness and steepness of the terrain as illustrated from the 9th tee, below, on this dog-leg left, downhill hole:



The 10th hole is the hardest par four I have ever played. It plays more than 450 yards and your second shot must carry this ravine:



It was such a difficult hole with the wind at us that I had no possibility of carrying the ravine so I played an adjacent fairway instead to get to the green.

The 8th hole is a double dog-leg left that forms a semi-circle with O.B. on both sides of the hole. This picture shows the hole from the green looking backward. Most of Alison's greens are circular or oval in shape and elevated.



My favorite of all the courses was Hirono, which reminded me of Pine Valley. This is the 7th hole, a par three with typical Alison style bunkering and elevated green.



The course does look like it has changed quite a bit since this 1933 photo of the same hole, taken off of an earlier GCA post. The waste areas and bunkering look like they have been polished quite a bit.



I will be posting a full review of each course on the blog in the coming weeks with a lot more pictures. In sum, Alison's design work done here stacks up very favorably with the work of any architect in the world. The Japanese custom of a full lunch at the turn, a hot bath after the round and the most polite people in the world make the golf here a unique experience.

[Noel Freeman]

While I did have to eat a full sushi lunch at Kawana, I did not at Tokyo nor at Hirono..   The ritual Japanese bath at the end is a nice end-note.

Hirono is to me very comparable to Bethpage Black especially since it has become more parkland in nature.  While a return to the treeless, sandy wastelands it had at birth would be warranted and terrific, it isnt going to happen.

Hirono has several things going for it even with narrowed corridors.  The angles needed in order to access green pin positions are still there, the bunkers still require you to spin the ball well in order to save par.  The greens are also better contoured than at the other Japanese courses I've seen but are not Alison's original surfaces.. They were rebuilt to emulate them but I do not believe the current versions would be superior.  Still, they do undulate well and provide interest.

The outstanding holes are the par 3s-- most notably the 5th which is a short iron to a plateau green over an inlet, the 7th which the above shows pictures of and the 17th which is a terrific test over the corner of a lake to another plateau green but this time you likely have 3/5 wood or hybrid in hand.  The 13th has been re-orientated since Alison was there (the tee has been moved 90 degrees) and while still a good par 3, I think the old pictures show you how wonderful it once was (someone look up Paul Turner's thread on Hirono).  I think when Tom Doak visited Hirono one of the greens committee members had also order a bunker to be put on the 13th green, this has since been removed but I have some pictures of it still in there.

I will make bold to also include two wonderful par 5s at Hirono.  The 12th is very similar in spirit to the 18th at Pebble Beach as it bends right to left along a lakeshore. For my money the 15th (par 5) is the best hole on the course.. A Japanese Pine sits about 300-330 yards (depending on tee) out in the fairway and dictates that most play falls on the outside of the dogleg left which challenges the player.  Essentially, it lengthens the hole which then requires two sets of cross bunkers cut into gullies which must be surmounted.  Jack Nicklaus was the first player to reach this in two shots back in 1963, a feat which is not often replicated.

There are many good and sturdy par 4s at Hirono (3,4, 14(with a terrific canted fairway),18).. I wish there was a drivable par 4 to tease the player with but in no certain terms is this a shortcoming.

Kawana truly is Japan's Pebble Beach.. It obviously shares a more inspiring piece of turf than Hirono but suffers in spots from its double greens and flattened greens. 

I must agree with Ben Dewar on Tokyo Golf Club.  Pleasant enough golf course but nothing that I would label world class.  If it was in Westchester County it would be another one of those nice places to play but pale in comparison to some of the greats there.  I find the course somewhat forgettable..

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