A Championship Forest on Flat Chiba Ground

Sohbu Country Club's Sohbu Course is one of the great tournament venues of the Kanto region. Its own club likes to compare it with the best courses in the United States, and the record backs the claim: the Japan Open, the Kanto Open, the Japan PGA Championship and the Suntory Open have all been played here, and more recently the HEIWA PGM Championship on the Japan Golf Tour. The setting is a forest on flat terrain in Inzai, where tall, mature trees divide every hole from its neighbours, so each one feels like a corridor of its own.

There are 27 holes in three nines, East, Central and West, each par 36. Ponds and doglegs give every nine its own character. The fairways are wide and the course has length to spare: from the back tees, any two nines measure more than 7,000 yards. The greens come in pairs on every hole, bent and korai, and the tees are measured separately for each, so the course plays a little differently depending on which green is in use that day.

A host of the Japan Open and the Japan PGA Championship, 27 holes of wide fairways, big trees and room to swing freely

The three nines

East (holes 1 to 9) runs 3,565 yards from the back tees to the bent greens, with long par fives at the 1st and 8th. Central (holes 10 to 18) measures 3,554 yards, and its longest hole is the 595-yard par-five 17th. West is the shortest at 3,524 yards but carries the hardest single hole on the course by handicap, the 433-yard 6th, and finishes with a par five. From the forward tees each nine plays between 2,700 and 2,800 yards, so the course is also manageable for higher handicaps.

How a round is played

A round of 18 is two of the three nines, normally East then Central, Central then West, or West then East. The club may change the pairing for course maintenance, so the nines you play are confirmed on the day. Whichever pair you get, it is a full championship test of more than 7,000 yards from the back.