Wood Friends Shinrin Koen Golf Course (West)

Overview: Wood Friends Shinrin Koen Golf Course's West Course is the longer half of the 36-hole public facility at Shinrin Koen, with an official champion-tee total of 7,055 yards and par 72. Osamu Ueda's routing uses the area's hills to create a varied round of raised greens, water crossings and holes that ask for a careful read of direction as much as distance. The club describes the West as its traditional course, and the scorecard explains why: several holes carry a substantial championship length, but the real test arrives when a player must judge a sloping approach or choose how much of a valley to take on.

History: The broader Shinrin Koen facility began as a public nine-hole course in 1955. The West 18-hole routing was first put into use in 1958, followed by the expansion to 27 holes in 1963 and 36 holes in 1964. The West is the course where the Ueda design history began, according to the current operator, making it the clearest link between the original public course and today's two-course complex. Its long life is tied to a simple idea: preserve enough natural separation for a serious round while keeping the facility open to a broad range of players.

Did You Know? The West card lists the 6th as a 602-yard par five from the champion tees, the longest hole in the published 18-hole layout. The course also recommends the 6th and 12th for driving contests and the 8th and 14th for nearest-the-pin play. That combination of a very long par five and several shorter precision holes gives the West a more varied rhythm than its total yardage alone suggests.