Eighteen personalities and an island green to finish

Taiheiyo Club Sano Hillcrest Course lies in the green hills outside Sano in southern Tochigi. Opened on April 7, 2001, it was designed by Eiichi Motohashi under the supervision of Desmond Muirhead, and later remodelled by Norio Honma. The 18-hole, par-72 course stretches to 7,045 yards from the champion tees, with a JGA course rating of 73.3, and it hosts the Japan Golf Tour's first qualifying stage each year. The club describes a blend of European and Japanese character in which every hole has a strong personality: American-style water holes, flat tree-lined holes, highland holes bordered by forest, and fairways that roll across the hills.

Every hole has its own voice, and the last one is played to an island.

Each hole has a single green ringed by sculpted bunkers, and water shapes several of them, from the 8th, where a bunker runs into a pond beside the green, to the 18th, an elevated-tee par 4 to an island green surrounded by water and sand. Caddies are available, and visitors join through a member's introduction. Sano is famous for its ramen and its large premium outlet mall, and the old temple town of Ashikaga, with its flower park, is nearby. Drivers exit the Kita-Kanto Expressway at Sano-Tanuma IC, about ten minutes away; by train, take the Tobu line from Asakusa via Tatebayashi to Tanuma, then a 15-minute taxi.