Segovia Golf Club - Japan

Segovia Golf Club, located in Chiyoda, Ibaraki, was built at the end of the 1980s. The course was designed by the late Desmond Muirhead, who was Jack Nicklaus's partner when the Golden Bear was getting started in course design. An urbane and controversial figure with eclectic tastes, Muirhead took a long hiatus from course architecture in 1975 to open an art gallery in California and pursue his interest in collecting Japanese Kakiemon and Oribe porcelain. Muirhead returned to golf in 1986 and began designing courses with literary and artistic motifs, his creations including a hole shaped like a mermaid with fish-shaped bunkers and an island green in the form of an ark. He did much of his work in Japan, building highly stylized, thematic courses. Segovia takes its inspiration from Spanish themes, with holes named Miro, Gazpacho, and Costa Brava.