Kakegawa Country Club: a championship test in warm Shizuoka

Kakegawa Country Club spreads across rolling hills in the warm Kakegawa area of western Shizuoka. It opened on October 10, 1974 as Minami Kikugawa Country Club, to a design by Kokichi Yasuda, one of Japan's best-known course architects. The par-72, 18-hole layout runs to 6,927 yards. In 1984 it hosted the Japan PGA Championship, and today Accordia Golf runs it. The fairways are generous, but a number of holes punish a stray shot. On the 8th, for example, you can take the left side for extra distance and flirt with out-of-bounds, or play safe to the right and face a longer approach.

A strategic layout with a tournament past, playable in comfort right through the year.

It rarely snows here, so the course stays open all year. You can play with a caddie or take a self-drive four-seat cart, and there is a 200-yard range plus an approach and bunker area for warming up. Kakegawa is a stop on the Tokaido Shinkansen, so the course is easy to combine with a trip along the coast. You could visit the rebuilt wooden keep of Kakegawa Castle, walk the tea fields that cover the surrounding hills, or try fresh Shizuoka green tea. The club is about 15 minutes by taxi from Kakegawa Station, or by car from the Kakegawa and Kikugawa interchanges on the Tomei Expressway.