Ono Golf Club

About the club

Osamu Ueda is second only to Seiichi Inoue among Japanese course architects of the mid-1900s. Inoue's reputation guaranteed that he tended to be given better sites to work with, but Ueda's courses still rank among the country's best. Ueda was especially inspired by the work of Charles H. Alison, whose signature course in Japan at the legendary Hirono Club is not far from the Ono, and the latter course compares favorably with Alison's—indeed there are those who say it is the better of the two. Though both are located in the same general area about thirty miles from Kyoto, the site of the Ono is somewhat less interesting, but the course resembles Alison's with its challenges and tricks, including water hazards on a number of the holes. Little has been done in the succeeding half century to disturb Ueda's vision, apart from some inevitable lengthening.