Wakasu Golf Links

Overview: Wakasu Golf Links makes its setting part of the round. It occupies reclaimed land at the edge of Tokyo Bay, with water on three sides and a skyline that can include the city centre, Tokyo Disney Resort, the bay and Mount Fuji. The official scorecard lists an 18-hole, par-72 layout of 6,970 yards from the blue tees.

History: Wakasu's golf course opened in 1990. The site was built from landfill created between 1965 and 1974, and the golf course opened in December 1990. Ayako Okamoto and Taizo Kawada supervised the project, using pine planting and shaped ground to divide the holes and soften the industrial origin of the site. Greens and surrounding bunkers were renovated from 2020 onward.

Did You Know? The course contains roughly 350,000 cubic metres of soil associated with construction of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. That unusual link to the city's civic landscape is one reason Wakasu feels more layered than a normal waterfront course. Because the site began as landfill, the planted fairways and coastal sightlines are part of the design solution, not a backdrop inherited from an older landscape.