Takanodai Country Club

About the club

The Takanodai Country Club is located in Chiba, a major port city less than 50 miles east of Tokyo on the edge of Tokyo Bay. Legendary native architect Seiichi Inoue designed the course here in 1954, and it has remained largely unchanged, apart from some necessary lengthening back from the tee. Inoue's creation here has attracted four Japan Opens, the most recent in 2011. Though the city surrounds the club, the dense trees and brush keep the development largely out of view for the players. There are little in the way of sloped fairways or sand hazards, but the bunkering and doglegs keep things interesting. The clay subsoil has been supplemented with fertile volcanic earth, which makes for healthy greens, though the choice to retain the original double greens, which are no longer necessary given the new strains of grasses that are available, detracts somewhat from the atmosphere of a tournament-level course.