| Purpose of this Website:
When I decided to go
on golf trip in the late 1990s, I was at a loss as to which country to go and
which courses to play. Books and websites introducing golf courses in each country
were available but there were no websites to introduce good Asian golf courses
which compared and evaluated them. I believe that this website will help serious
golf players in Asia and elsewhere become familiar with Asia’s great courses.
This site should be suitable for strong players who like challenging & demanding
courses and whose average drives are over 240 yards. It is not suitable for players
who want easy courses and good scores. Although the reviews contain my biased
opinion, I hope they will be useful as a reference for serious golfers who like
to play challenging courses that test their skills. My motivation is pure
enjoyment, not for business reasons. Please do not expect advertisements or favoritism.
Also the course pictures that I personally took may violate copyright laws. If
there’s a golf club which I reviewed that doesn’t want the pictures used on this
websites, please inform me and I will remove them. My apologies beforehand.
Points
to Keep in Mind about Course Evaluations:
Course Layouts
I
take the following matters into account: “Would the course keep challenging you
no matter how often you’ve played ?‘’, “Would the layout make you use all 14 clubs?”,
and “Does the layout reward your good shots and penalize you for bad shots?”. Course
Difficulty Levels
This doesn’t imply that more difficult the course, the better
it is. Fairness counts. I think that a difficult and fair course means “challenging”.
However, I do downgrade the rating by 1 to 2 points from the layout category if
I feel the course has many too difficult holes which I hardly can judge is fair.
Course Conditions
Greens and fairways conditions tend to be bad when
you play in the wet seasons. When I play during the wet season, I guess what the
rating would be if I played in the dry season. However, it is extremely difficult
to rate the condition perfectly because I play most of the courses only once.
Members or visitors who often play a course may complain that the green condition
is usually good but I rated it poorly. Please forgive me if that happens. Also,
bent grasses are not grown in tropical and subtropical regions. Bermuda grasses
are used mostly; as a consequence, the greens are slower, which tends to worsen
my ratings. However, excellent greens are becoming more common in tropical and
subtropical golf courses, as they adapt bent grasses or use new species like TifEagle
Bermuda grass, which deliver better putting speeds and consistency. Some of the
improvements of the greens due to breeding is just amazing. Landscaping & Views
Landscaping beauty is based on course designs composition. Takes
into acount how the natural terrain is used, i.e. how greens, trees, and bunkers
are placed. In addition, how greens, bunkers and mounds are shaped. Man-made beauty
depends on the designer’s ability to utilize the beauty of the terrain. I also
consider views consisting of beautiful natural scenery such as mountains, natural
lakes, seashores, oceans, hills or ravines, which usually make up the backdrop
of each hole. The good view further enhances the landscaping beauty of fairways
and greens when seen from the tees. Regarding Golf Courses I Play
Basically,
I do not play randomly, but try to play courses with good reputations which I
learn about through word of mouth, or golf magazine rankings in each country or
polls. Consequently, the ratings have many 4s and 5s out of 5s. I sometimes play
courses that I’ve never heard of or I am forced to play during trips due to social
obligations and consequently the evaluations of those courses are inevitably not
too high.
My Goal
I started covering courses in 2003 and
plan to play all famous 500 couses in Asia by 2010. To this end, I need to play
atleast 60 different new courses annually, and it might be difficult to do so
as I am a company employee. However, I luckily live in Hong Kong where it is located
somewhat in the center of Asia. With this geographical advantage and my passion,
I hope to achive my goal. Luckily, I can play 2 different courses a day on almost
all courses in Asia excluding most parts of Japan where you are forced to have
lunch breaks between front and back 9. When I accomplish playing 500 different
courses by 2010, I am not sure if I should extend my coverage by another 500 courses
in Asia making it the Asian good 1000 courses or if I should start playing at
famous couses in the world, especially in America, UK and Ireland. As a company
employee covering clients in Asia, I have a higher chance to stick to Aisa as
the region has very little time difference therefore allowing me to work effeciently
as well. Myself
Born in Kobe, Japan in 1959. I have been living in Hong Kong since 1993.
I am currently working at an European bank. My official handicap is 3
at the Discovery Bay Golf Club (DBGC) as of Dec. 2005 where I was the
2005 Club Champion. My average driving distance is 250 yards, ranging
from 240 to 260 in fine weather, no wind and on flat fairways.
The
Other
I abbreviate course names as follows: GC (Golf Club or Golf Course),
CC (Country Club), G&CC (Golf & Country Club), S&CC (Sports &
Country Club), G&CR (Golf and Coutry Resort), GR (Golf Resort), G&LR (Golf & Lake Resort), RGC (Resort Golf Club), and G&HR (Golf & Holiday Resort). Appreciation
I
would really thank Mr. Michael Galbraith and Mr. Bob Kagotani for helping to organize
this English site and Mr. Kousaka Tomonari and Mr. K. Kawabata for helping to
organize the Japanese site and playing together many of golf courses that I cover.
Without their help, this site could not be set up. Kimi Hoshiyama |
