History of Course Design in Japan日本のコース設計の歴史

The Birth of Golf Courses in Japan

By Japanese for Japanese
golf course

Father of Japanese golf course design

At that time, there was no concept of course design (diagrams) in Japanese course construction, and the members selected by the club became the creators, drawing their own empirical images, which were then directly instructed and guided on site.
Therefore, around 1930, when the Tokyo Golf Club moved from Komazawa to a new location in the village of Kneale in Asaka, Saitama Prefecture, there was a growing movement among members, led by Mitsuaki Otani, to entrust the design of a new course to an expert from the UK, rather than the amateur designers who had been working on it.
Harry Colt, who was regarded as a master of the golf course design world at the time, was given the opportunity to design a golf course, but he ended up inviting his apprentice, Allison. The arrival of this substitute designer in Japan had a major impact on the world of course design in Japan.

And Allison left behind not only blueprints, but yet another valuable footprint. That was George Penglace, who stayed on as construction supervisor.
He accompanied Allison from the U.S. as the exclusive shaper and has been involved in all aspects of construction in Kasumigaseki, Tokyo since Allison's return. In other words, he showed us the practice of course construction.
Seiichi Inoue (later a course designer), who was recuperating from an illness at Kawana at the time, met Allison there by chance and later served as his local interpreter and assistant. He later became an employee of Kasumigaseki CC, which was under construction, and received direct instruction on golf course construction from George Penglace, the construction supervisor at that time.
In this way, Allison returned to Japan after teaching not only "design methods" but also "how to build" courses to the newly born Japanese people. The legacy he left behind in the Japanese course design world was later passed on to a younger generation of designers, including Shiro Akahoshi, Nagazo Ito, Seiichi Inoue, and Osamu Ueda.
This is why it is said that "Japanese golf course design began with Allison.

two green

When discussing the history of Japanese golf courses, it is necessary to know about the birth of the "Japanese standard," the two greens.
Around 1930, when the greens at Kobe Golf Club were converted from sand to grass, single greens with Korai grass became the mainstream on golf courses in Japan. It was not until the Tokyo Golf Club (Asaka Course) opened in 1932 that a course with a single green of bent grass was built.
The Asaka Course was completed under the guidance of Alison, who was invited from England, and was acclaimed as the "Pearl of the Orient" for its beauty, with all fairways and greens finished in green all-bent grass.
However, this green (creeping bent) was wiped out without a trace by the summer heat (brown patch) and winter frost columns in 1936. The same was true of Kasumigaseki CC (East Course) and Sagamihara CC, which were constructed at the same time.
The reason why the grass died was because the Western-style turf of the time was not suited to Japan's natural environment, and the lagging management technology also contributed to the failure of conservation measures. It was the Japanese golf industry that rapidly experienced the difficulty of transition zones due to the difference in growing environments. At that time, there was not even a scientific book on turf in Japan. (The USGA's green section was officially announced in 1960.) Then, the members of the Club began to struggle with how to maintain the quality of the bent greens throughout the year. The Club's members began to struggle with how to maintain the quality of the bent greens throughout the year, and a practical and immediate solution was to install a summer green of Koryo turf adjacent to the current bent greens.
Specifically, the idea is to use different greens depending on the season, such as Korai grass in summer and Bent grass (sub) in winter. This was the beginning of the 2-green system. This was the beginning of the 2-green system, which became the "Japanese standard" and continued for the next 50 years.
At that time, Seiichi Inoue played a central role in this series of work to convert the course to two greens. This remodeling work marked the beginning of "course renovation" in Japan.
Since then, the Japanese golf industry has entered an era of renovation, and against the backdrop of new and improved grass species and innovations in maintenance technology, it seems that we are now approaching an excessive period of time when we must decide whether to move back to a single green or not.

Course Reconstruction

The history of course renovation is said to have begun in Scotland with links courses, but these were mainly partial renovations of holes. The history of full-scale course renovation and remodeling began with the reconstruction of golf courses in the United States.
In the United States, there was a movement to rehabilitate and restore golf courses that had been closed or abandoned during the 16 years between the Great Depression in 1929 and the end of World War II in 1945. However, many of the great designers who were active before 1940, such as Charles McDonald, Hugh Wilson, and Alister MacKenzie, had already passed away, and there was a need to restore courses based on a new design philosophy. The 1930s was a busy time for designers who were no longer in the business of building new courses.
The remodeling of Augusta National GC, which began in 1946, attracted the most attention in the United States at that time, and was undertaken by Robert Trent Jones. In particular, the renovation of No. 11, No. 12, and No. 13 is said to have created the prototype of the current Amen Corner, and his design skills were highly acclaimed, leading to wide recognition of Trent Jones' name and abilities as a course designer.
Later, in developed golfing countries such as the U.S., U.K., and Japan, the main work of course architects was not to build new courses, but to remodel them.

The revival of golf courses in Japan began around 1950 (Showa 25) after World War II.
During the war, all golf courses were closed and the course was cleared of trees and cultivated as agricultural land. However, after the war ended, the club officials patiently worked to restore the course while it was being confiscated by the U.S. military. The Hirono Course, which was the site of an airstrip, was reopened in 1949, and the Kasumigaseki CC East Course was completed in September 1952, followed by the West Course two years later with 36 holes. The main architects responsible for the postwar restoration of the golf courses were Shiro Akahoshi, Seiichi Inoue, and Osamu Ueda, all of whom were trained by Allison. At the same time, a new professional course designer was born in Japan for the first time.
Furthermore, the first golf boom started around 1955, when the restoration of prewar prestigious courses came to an end. Furthermore, a change in golf course development began to emerge. The number of golf courses increased dramatically due to large-scale construction by major general contractors, which replaced the craftsman-like approach to golf course construction that had existed until then.
Then, in 1957, the Kasumigaseki CC Canada Cup was broadcast live on TV for the first time in Japan, and the sport of golf became widely known to the general public, spurring further popularization.

Landing of the American New Wave

In the 1970s, Japan experienced a high-growth golf boom. Importation of "American courses," as they are commonly called, by foreign golf designers began. In other words, the arrival of the huge American golf business. Karuizawa 72" was the first course in Japan to be baptized into this American golf culture.

The golf course project was part of the Seibu Group's comprehensive development of Minami-Karuizawa, and its large scale of development centered on a golf course and the appointment of a foreign designer became the talk of the town. The course designer was R.T. Jones Sr.
Jones, who was commissioned to design (plan) the course, visited Japan in June 1969 and made a presentation of the master plan incorporating 72 holes at a press conference. Three years later, in 1972, the American resort-type golf course, the largest in scale in Japan, opened. (This is where the name "72" comes from.)
The new course has evergreen fairways that had never been seen in Japan before, large and beautiful lakes intertwined with greens, and bunkers with sparkling white sand, all of which make the newly designed landscape stand out. The efficient course design, which incorporates the latest technology, is also astonishing.
All construction will be supervised by American experts in each type of construction, with assistance only from the golf course management staff. Specifically, greens, bunkers, etc., which had previously been built entirely by hand, were all bulldozed, and the entire course was converted to evergreen with fully-automated sprinklers and seeding (bent grass). Naturally, this construction method became the talk of the town, and many people from all over the country came to see the project. This was the first time that Japanese staff members heard golf terminology such as "mounding," "shaping," "maintenance," and "automatic sprinkling.
After the opening, the golf course became one of Karuizawa's tourist attractions, and even a tour bus began to visit the area. In this way, the newly developed public course "Karuizawa 72" was the pioneer in changing Japanese people's awareness of golf and golf courses.
After that, when the Resort Law was enacted in 1987, golf course construction in Japan took off and unique golf courses were created by famous designers such as Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, Robert Bon Hegyi, and R. T. Jones, Jr. Japanese designers created many golf courses in the "Japanese-American" style instead of the "Japanese Classics" of the past.

From New Construction to Renovation

In the 2000s, the collapse of Japan's economic bubble in the wake of the Lehman Shock in the U.S. in September 2008 triggered a wave of golf course bankruptcies. The main cause was a decline in the golfing population due to the aging of the population and other factors such as bad debts related to the redemption of memberships. Many golf courses began a period of hardship as they were forced to deal with the situation.
By 2025, there will be 2,110 golf courses in Japan, of which about 1,000 will have been in operation for more than 50 years.
Those golf courses that can afford to do so are rebuilding, and those that cannot afford to do so are forced to rely only on partial repairs and maintenance. However, those that cannot afford to do so will be forced to rely only on partial repair and maintenance. These trends are common issues for all remaining golf courses. This is a sign that we are entering an era of renewal for golf courses as a whole.