Hirono Golf Club

About the club

Harry S. Colt's colleague Charles H. Alison spent several months in Japan in 1930 creating the initial plans for a number of courses, of which Hirono was the last and has become the most celebrated. The environment is reminiscent of the undulating heath and sandy soil familiar to Alison in his home country around Berkshire and Surrey. Though the designer did not remain in Japan to oversee all of the work, he left behind detailed sketches that enabled local designers Seiichi Takaharta and Chozo Ito to realize his vision, so that the resulting course seems as if it had been transplanted wholesale from Britain. Of particular note here are the bunkers, which were so revolutionary in Japan that they have come to be called Alisons. The course suffered a great deal during the war and reconstruction efforts afterward, but subsequent work has brought Hirono back in line with Alison's vision.