Tag: Kasumigaseki Country Club

Typhoon expected to hit near Tokyo on Tuesday, could make for a soggy start to Olympic men’s golf competition

Several inches of rain could fall in Tokyo during the tropical storm, leaving soggy conditions in its wake at Kasumigaseki Country Club.

The Olympic golf competition may be in for a soggy start, as the men are scheduled to begin play Thursday just days after a weak typhoon is predicted to make landfall Tuesday north of Tokyo.

Tropical Storm Nepartak is a mid-grade tropical storm by U.S. categorizations, the Associated Press reported. It could dump several inches of rain on Kasumigaseki Country Club northwest of Tokyo, which is on the eastern, Pacific Ocean-facing side of Japan. Maximum gusts have approached 70 mph, the Japan Meteorological Agency reported, with sustained winds of about 45 mph.

“It is a tropical storm of three grade out of five, so you shouldn’t be too much worried about that, but it is a typhoon in Japan interpretation,” Tokyo Games spokesman Masa Takaya said. “This is the weakest category, but this is still a typhoon so we should not be too optimistic about the impact of the course (of the storm).”

The storm, which is approaching the island nation from the east, is predicted to be gone from the area before the men tee off Thursday morning. But the golf course’s drainage could be tested, and there is a high probability of more rain throughout the next two weeks. The men play July 29-August 1, and the women play August 4-7.

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Check the yardage book: Kasumigaseki East Course for the 2021 Olympic Games

Kasumigaseki Country Club dates back nearly a century, but it was a Fazio renovation in 2016 that prepared the course for the Olympics.

Kasumigaseki Country Club and its East Course, host site for golf in this year’s Olympic Games, was founded in 1929 and renovated a few years later by British designer C.H. Alison before being closed during World War II. The U.S. Air Force took over the property following the war, and the East and a new West Course were re-established in the following years.

The East featured two greens on each hole for decades, with one green covered in a winter grass and the other in a grass that thrived during the warm summers.

All that changed with a 2016 renovation by American architect Tom Fazio and his son, Logan, who converted the private Kasumigaseki’s double greens into single greens. The Fazios also repositioned fairway bunkers to challenge modern professionals, and they reframed several holes in their existing corridors. The greens are now covered in bent grass, with zoysia in play on the rest of the course.

A 2017 aerial photo of Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kawagoe, outside of Tokyo, Japan (Miyuki Saito/Kyodo News via AP)

The course will play 7,447 yards for the men July 29-August 1, and it will play 6,648 yards for the women August 4-7.

Kasumigaseki has been the host of several notable golf events, including several Japan Opens and various top amateur events. It hosted the 1957 Canada Cup, a precursor to the World Cup, and Hideki Matsuyama won the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship on Kasumigaseki’s West Course in 2010. Now the Masters champion, Matsuyama is a favorite in these Olympics.

Thanks to yardage books provided by Puttview – the maker of detailed yardage books for more than 30,000 courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges that players will face this week and next. Check out each hole below (yardages will be adjusted for the women), and follow this link to the club’s website to see drone footage of each hole, with narration by Tom Fazio.