A quiet Kyoto favourite set among the hills of Koka

Century Golf Club opened in 1975 in Konan, in the Koka area of Shiga Prefecture, as a hospitality course built around Kyoto's business community and long enjoyed by a small circle of devoted golfers. The 18-hole, par-72 layout stretches to 6,567 yards from the back tees and uses the natural hills with real strategic intent. The Out nine plays through shaped contours and carefully placed trees, while the In nine keeps its native woodland and natural ponds; the course twice hosted a women's professional tournament in the 1980s.

Many holes are memorable enough to make you look back from the green, like the iris-lined par 3 over the pond.

Highlights include the stretch from the 7th to the 9th, with views over the club's pond, and the 175-yard 14th, a garden-like carry over water framed by irises. After the round there is a bath and a relaxed meal in the clubhouse. Koka is famous as the historic home of ninja and for Shigaraki pottery, both easy detours, and Kyoto and Lake Biwa make natural bases. The club runs a reservation-only shuttle from JR Terasho Station on the Kusatsu Line, making it reachable without a car.