Fuji Country Club ☆ Follow

Located in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, Fuji Country Club is a 18-hole, par-72 course designed by Shiro Akehoshi. The course is situated at an elevation of 470 meters on the hills of the Hakone outer ring, offering views of Mount Fuji from every hole. The layout was designed to take advantage of the natural terrain, with the front nine winding around a valley and the back nine featuring significant elevation changes. The course measures 6,832 yards from the back tees, with a Course Rating of 72.6 and a Slope of 130. The design is characterized by its strategic use of natural contours and vertical hazards. The front nine begins with holes that wind around a valley, with the second, fourth, fifth, and sixth holes presenting uphill approaches that require precise elevation control. The back nine is dominated by the thirteenth hole, a 581-yard par-5 that plays downhill toward Mount Fuji with a 57-meter drop from tee to green. Other significant elevation changes occur on the first, twelfth, and seventeenth holes. The course features a single green complex that averages 780 square meters, with the largest reaching 1,100 square meters. Many greens are tiered, with the seventeenth green featuring a 1.8-meter drop, which can significantly complicate putting. Fuji Country Club was established in 1958, following the initiative of Gotemba's first mayor, Shunichi Katsukoshi, who sought to develop the area for tourism and recreation after the departure of U.S. military forces. The club was founded by a group of prominent Japanese business leaders, including former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida and Yasushi Ishii, with Shiro Akehoshi serving as the course architect. The clubhouse, designed by Antonin Raymond, is one of the oldest surviving modernist structures in Japan. The course has maintained its original single-green design since opening, with natural undulations and dense plantings of pine, cedar, and cypress trees defining its character.