Course Report: Hirakawa Country Club

It has been blazing hot in Japan the last few days. Temperatures in some parts of the country have reached 38C and that’s not counting the horrid humidity.  Yesterday alone, 4 people passed away due to the heat and over 300 were hospitalized. While summer is the peak season for most golfers in the West, green fees actually decrease in the months of July and August here due to the extreme heat. However, this year the heat wave has come much earlier than expected.

I was invited to play Hirakawa Country Club on Tuesday and this is a course I can never say “no” to. It’s a top championship course and home annually to the JPGA’s Fujifilm Japan Senior Open. As a private members only course, its not easy to get on unless you know someone and being only 10 minutes from my house I always go when asked.  Due to the extreme heat, it was not busy at all and we were the last group to tee off in the morning. Hirakawa is one of the few Japan courses that does NOT have power carts. You have to walk the course and you must have a caddy. I love walking as I find riding a cart in Japan actually more tiring especially when at many of the courses you HAVE TO stay on the cart path, so you don’t always end up closer to your ball just because you have a cart. Its much better to walk a direct line to your ball with the caddy bringing all your clubs than running from the cart path to the opposite side of the fairway only to find out you’ve brought the wrong club(s).

Hirakawa as always was in pristine condition and the last time I played here was actually with Tourspecgolfer and Tourspecgirl back in February.  So its a lot greener now than it was then. The fairways are like lush carpets and the greens tour level fast. Today however with less groups playing due to the heat they decided to do maintenance on the A Greens allowing us to play with the B Greens which are a tad slower and which reduce the overall course length from about 7000y down to 6700y.

Another great thing about Hirakawa is there is NEVER any waiting around. Pace is always very good as timing is controlled very well by the caddies in each group. Granted it was not busy today, I’ve never really had to wait around at any tee at Hirakawa which is great for maintaining momentum. The heat required lots of ice and lots of fluids and I was downing sports drinks as if they were my last.  I’m sure some of you in hot and cold climates can agree that sometimes balls and clubs can perform or feel differently depending on the temperature. This day was the hottest I had played in some time and it felt like the ball was just jumping off the woods. This was the first time I had played the Ryoma D-1 in this kind of hot weather and the face felt springier than ever. I was driving the ball very well and hitting the woods and utilities very straight and long. I struggled a bit with the irons and wedges but managed to shoot in the 90’s which for me is always a feat at this tougher course.

As always we had our customary 1 hour break for lunch and on a hot day like this cold udon noodles with tempura on the side went down very nicely. As I’ve mentioned before the key is to not over eat especially when the first hole after lunch is a very daunting 530+ yard par 5 where you are always tempted to kill the ball off the tee.

Hirakawa is interesting because of its layout and awesome conditions. There is plenty of water, lots of tough bunkers guarding very fast greens and some beautiful long holes including long par 3’s 4’s and 5’s that make for a challenge.  It’s certainly not cheap but its always a worthwhile experience to play at one of Japan’s nicer courses.

Today’s pictures were taken with the trusty Lumix GF1 and 20mm f1.7 lens. Mostly shot at f8 and f11.

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