Sakuragaoka Country Club

Overview: Sakuragaoka Country Club follows a green corridor through Tama Hills above the Tama River, with views across the surrounding city and, on clear days, toward Mount Fuji. Shiro Akaboshi's 18-hole parkland design is listed at 6,401 yards and works with the existing slopes rather than flattening them.

History: Sakuragaoka's own chronology points to 1960. Sakuragaoka opened on 1 August 1960 after construction began the previous year. The club's own chronology records a later conversion from two greens to a single-green arrangement, with the main green work completed in the 2010s. That combination of early postwar design and later green refinement gives the course both an established character and a more unified putting surface.

Did You Know? The club's name is a useful clue to the landscape. Cherry trees are part of the setting, and the course's elevated position links those seasonal plantings with long views over the Tama River and the hills around Tokyo. The later move to a single green is more than a maintenance detail: it is the clearest visible change between the club's original layout and today's version.