[Ran Morrissett]

With a bunch of pics too and it can be found under the In My Opinion section.

I'll be curious to see people's take on this course.

The quality of the Alison courses in Japan remains a question mark to me. I'm unclear how pure Kawana or Hirono are today and it's a long way to go to see stepped-on designs.

Noel doesn't seem impressed by the green contours (or lack thereof) and when you add in the coarse korai grass and double greens, I just don't know what to make of it all  

Cheers,

[Tom MacWood (Guest)]

Fabulous. Were you able to learn much of Alison?

[John_Lovito]

Noel,

Nice work!  It sure is nice to have your employer subsidize your golf travels .  With all the trips you have planned next year, we are going to expect many more of these reports.

[NAF]

Tom, What I learned about Charles Alison was that he was a big proponent of strategy off the tee.  The fairway bunkering and you tee shot positioning at Kawana was the key to scoring as the greens were mainly flat and dull.  The only guess I can make about Alison is he took this from H.S. Colt style as all Colt courses I have played in London relied upon fairway strategy.

Ran-I wonder if the hotel owners at Kawana changed Alison's greens.  I think Doak might be the only one on the DG who has seen the course and maybe he can comment if he remembers the greens but the only ones I truly remember are #11 and #15.. I don't know if the new turf technology will ever make it over to Japan so they can get rid of those stupid sub greens.  It wasn't any hotter or humid than a summer day in Georgia or the Carolinas.

[Ran Morrissett]

Noel,

I don't know how many courses Alison did in Japan but I assume it was a relatively small number, say 5.

Given WWII and everything else that has taken place since those handful of courses were built, and given what we have seen happen here in the U.S. by well intentioned club boards, a fair amount of work is likely to have been done to Alison's Japanese courses. For example, it definitely sounds as if the greens were flattened at Kawana at some point based on your descriptions.

And let's face it - why would his courses be immune to the actions that struck all the other great architects around the world?

And when there are only 5 or so courses to pick from, you can't fall back on sheer numbers figuring that there is bound to be some unspoilt gem amongst them.

I don't know if the above logic is correct but if it is, I doubt if Kawana, Hirono, Nauro,Tokyo GC, etc. deserve their high world rankings in GOLF magazine. For instance, I don't get the sense that you would place Kawana #58 in the world - is that true enough?

Cheers,

[NAF]

Ran,

I have seen 25 of the top 100 with Black Diamond being #100 and I have played that.  I think Kawana belongs closer to Black Diamond and somewhere below Cruden Bay and Lahinch (other courses in 50-100 I have played)..I think it is better than East Lake (if that still shows up in the top 100)..In fact I think East Lake is a weak course that other than its history and clubhouse doesnt belong in the top 200.  Anyway, I think Kawana is a strong 7 on the Doak Scale and deserves its rating based upon the strong routing and its strategy off the tee.  It is a unique course but the greens and turf are negatives and being a hotel that caters to Japanese not prone to change.  The Japanese are glacial when it comes to change in many ways and I can't see Kawana changing unless they had a problem with the Japanese PGA event they have there annually..

Basically, Kawana is still top 100 from what I can see, the sum of its holes beats what I saw at  Black Diamond (# 100) for example but it probably belongs more in the 75-100 arena but I will say this..I really enjoyed myself and it was a great experience.

Maybe if it was clear and I could have seen Mt. Fuji I would have been even more keen on it!
 

[Ran Morrissett]

Noel,

How tough were the bunkers to recover from? Some of them look quite deep, which I understand was an Alsion's trademark in Japan.

What kind of short game interest could the course possess if the greens are generally flat and slow?

It sounds like it would have been a nightmare to get to the resort without being accompanied by a Japanese speaking person?

Cheers,

[Rich_Goodale]

Noel

Great review!  Almost makes me want to try to overcome my aversion to raw fish and 20 hour plane flights and tee it up tomorrow.  A couple of questions:

1.  Did you have to play mostly the "winter" greens or did you get a mixture?

2.  Does everybody have to play the front tees (a la much of Scotland) or did the caddies just not like the cut of your jib?

Keep up those travel reports and you may be the first recipient of the GCA journalism scholarship.

[Ben Cowan-Dewar]

Noel,
Great write-up, I too have a few questions.

Is it a feasible trip, or is it simply too much travel to get down there?  I am unclear did you play Hirono or not?  Could you put together a few courses on a trip, or are the private courses super-exclusive?

Regards

[NAF]

Ran,

I never got in the fairway bunkers because most of them were 190-220 yards out from the tees I played from.  A 3 Wood made them easy to carry.  That being said, many of them, notably on holes like #2/#3/#7#15 and #17 were penalties if you got into them because all you could do is hack out of them.  They were indeed deep and buried. .Thank god there was no heather growing on top of these bunkers b/c getting out might find you stuck in it.  Your short game at Kawana is based upon a lot of short pitches because many of the greens are crowned or fall off so hitting them is not a guarantee.  If you are accurate inside of 20-25 yards you can aim for the flag because the ball will get grabbed by the grass.  I reckon the speeds of the greens were 6-7 on the stimpmeter tops..SLOW!

Ben- As Ran alluded to it is very hard to get around Japan outside of Tokyo without a Japanese speaker.  Most people will try very hard to help you but their English I found was only a step above our Japanese.  That being said they seem to understand you but this could be more in the way of politeness.  Would I have got there without my friend who spoke Japanese, probably yes but it would have been VERY frustrating  ... As far as I know Kawana is the only Alison course you can play that is PUBLIC..Hirono/Narou are all private and hard to get on.. So a golfing trip to Japan requires knowing some people who hold the keys to the kingdom.. Hirono is in Kobe which is 4 hrs from Tokyo and very exclusive from what I was told.  I will say Kawana is feasible if you are in Tokyo just get a day or 2 in the capital under your belt before you head down there right off the plane like I did.

Rich- I played the mid tees- there were 3 sets of tees.. It looked like the Tips had not been used in a while..Perhaps the people who play the course are not big hitters like the LAMA (forgive my Caddyshack ref) and my caddies were not good for much other than applauding a good shot.  They did not read putts or give yardage.
I was fortunate enough to play 17 of the normal greens and only on the par 3 10th play a temp green. Not all of the greens have a sub green.. 2 or 3 holes if I recollect had just one green.  That being said if you played the temp greens at Kawana your rating of the course would go from a high 7 (IMHO) to a weak 5..It would not be worth the greens fee.  This would only happen though during the summer when I was there.

[Paul_Turner]

NAF

Thanks for the report and the pics; the course has a look all of its own.  What wonderful terrain (much lumpier than I expected) and some spectacular green sites.  

How about the 13th, I thought it was a famous hole?

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