Japanese Courses, Fujiyama, Mount Fuji, Japan

India golf course Royal Calcutta, Tollygunge, Calcutta.

Golf is enormously popular in Japan, where it has become a status symbol with the membership of the top clubs costing hundreds of thousands of yen.

The terrain is not generally suited to the construction of golf courses but the Japanese have solved the problem by cutting the tops off mountains and filling in the valleys to create fairways.

The first course in Japan at Kobe, which was created by Arthur Groom in 1903, was built in this way and many others followed. A number of the leading golf-course architects have worked in Japan, among them Pete Dye, who laid out the course at Mariya in 1987. This is one of the most testing courses in Japan with many water hazards and an island green on the short 17th. It is set in lovely rolling country and the immaculately maintained fairways are surrounded by pine forests which give the course a great feeling of tranquility and calm. Other good Japanese courses include Yomiuri, Fujiyama, which lies at the feet of Mount Fuji and Gotemba.