Yokohama Country Club

The verdict

Yokohama Country Club was founded in 1960 and grew into a 36 hole club on rolling, wooded ground in Kanagawa, within reach of both Yokohama and central Tokyo. The original East and West courses were built out over the following years under the club's first president Takeo Aiyama with Hideo Takemura, and the West has long been the championship layout.

What sets the club apart today is the restoration work of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, who reworked the West in 2014 and 2015 and renovated the closing holes of the East in 2016, bringing width, strategic bunkering and bolder greens to a classic Japanese parkland canvas. The West plays to par 71 over 6,938 yards and hosted the 1978 Japan Open, one of the first professional wins of Seve Ballesteros, with the club staging the championship again in 2018. It is a private members club, so access needs arranging, but it stands among the most rewarding inland tests in the Tokyo region.

The holes worth the trip

The West is the round visitors come for, and the Coore and Crenshaw restoration has given it a character closer to the strategic ideals of the classic era. Fairways were widened, sightlines opened and the bunkering reset to tempt the bold line, so the course now asks the player to choose an angle and accept the risk that comes with it.

The greens are the defining feature, larger and more contoured after the work, rewarding the approach played to the correct portion and punishing the lazy miss. At 6,938 yards and par 71 the West is a proper test from the back tees, yet it remains playable from forward markers thanks to that restored width.

The East, a par 71 of about 6,560 yards with its closing holes also touched by Coore and Crenshaw, makes a fine complementary round and gives a visiting group two strong eighteens on one property. Conditioning across both courses is to the high Japanese standard, and the championship pedigree of the West gives every round here a sense of occasion.

Where to stay nearby

Most visiting golfers base themselves in central Tokyo or in Yokohama itself, both offering excellent hotels and easy road access to the club and to the other great courses of the Kanto region. A Yokohama base puts the bay, the dining and the waterfront close at hand.

For a golf focused trip, Tokyo gives the widest range of lodging and the simplest links to the airports, while Yokohama offers a quieter, characterful alternative right by the course. Yokohama Country Club sits naturally on an itinerary of the leading inland courses around the capital.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts near Yokohama Country Club.