Forest Ichikawa GC ☆ Follow

Forest Ichikawa Golf Club is an 18-hole, par-72 course located in Obata, Ichikawa-cho, Kanzaki District, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Situated on a gentle hillside terrain covering 1.2 million square meters, the layout was designed by renowned architect Fukichi Kato and opened in July 1996. The course is characterized by its aggressive design philosophy, which maximizes the natural landscape to create a strategic and diverse playing experience. It operates as a public, self-service facility where cart access is restricted to the fairways. The course features a total length of 6,769 yards from the back tees, with a par of 72 split evenly between the front and back nines. The front nine presents a mix of challenging distances, highlighted by the third hole, a 544-yard par-5 dogleg left that demands precision off the tee to avoid out-of-bounds and penalizes misjudged second shots. The seventh hole, a 186-yard par-3, requires a carry over water with bunkers guarding the approach, testing accuracy under pressure. The back nine includes the sixth hole, a 527-yard par-5 that plays uphill to a green protected by out-of-bounds areas, and the seventeenth, a scenic 200-yard par-3 that requires a shot over water. Difficulty is managed through varying tee placements, with the regular white tees measuring 6,332 yards and the back blue tees extending to the full 6,769 yards. The course is designed to reward strategic play, with specific hazards such as bunkers and out-of-bounds zones placed to challenge aggressive approaches. The layout offers distinct character for each hole, with difficulty levels shifting based on the tee selection, inviting players to re-evaluate their strategy with each round.