Golden Valley Golf Club Scorecard and Tees

No American architect has had a greater impact on the Japanese golf scene than Robert Trent Jones Jr. Arguably his masterwork among more than a dozen courses done during the country’s golf boom is this dramatic sculpture in the hills 20 miles northwest of the port city of Kobe. The contrast of visual release and ground feature tension might best be described as “open sky meets angry earth.” Befitting a Japanese garden, many of the playing areas adjoin ornamental ponds and streams, with the highlight at the par-5 18 th hole, a double-forced carry dogleg against the backdrop of a towering hill.