Takarazuka Classic: a hillside test above the Osaka plain

Takarazuka Classic Golf Club opened in November 1961 in the green hills north of Takarazuka, Hyogo. Designer Giichi Sato was brought in during construction to make the layout more demanding, and the result is an 18-hole, par-71 course of 6,514 yards from the back tees. The outward nine plays over broad fairways with several ponds, while the inward nine climbs and falls, asking for carries over valleys. Forty-seven bunkers and water on four holes keep every shot honest, and the bent greens reward a careful approach.

Wide, pond-guarded fairways going out, valley carries and rolling ground coming home.

The club is one of the easiest Kansai courses to reach without a car: trains from Osaka reach Takarazuka Station in about half an hour, and the club bus takes around ten minutes from there. Riding carts with GPS navigation, a 16-bay practice range and a clubhouse bath round out the day. Takarazuka itself is famous for its all-female Revue theatre and its riverside hot-spring hotels, and the hills here lead on toward the old onsen town of Arima, so a round fits neatly into a day or two of Kansai sightseeing between Osaka and Kobe.