Sapporo Golf Club Wattsu Course

About the club

The Sapporo Golf Club opened in 1958, just in time to benefit from the enormous interest in golf in Japan in the wake of the country's stunning victory in the previous year's Canada Cup. Indeed the game was as much an opportunity to display elegance as it was a pastime, as the early photos of immaculately dressed Japanese elite on the course make clear. The city of Sapporo became famous worldwide as the site of the 1972 Winter Olympics, and the infrastructure built for that event made it easier for players to visit the club. The Watsu course was built by Seiichi Inoue built on high ground that provides superb vistas out over the surroundings, but also leaves players at the mercy of the gusts that come up off the sea. Some protection is however provided by the trees that Inoue had planted throughout his course and that are now mature.