Naruo Golf Club

Well, if you've ever wondered what kind of course you would get if you crossed a golf course architect with a mountain goat, wonder no more! It is Naruo. Billed as one of the most difficult courses in Japan, this very hilly layout lived up to its advance billing.

It starts out with a beautiful, benign look as you walk to the first tee.

Your first tee shot over the water yields a nice view back to the tee box.

Then the fun starts. The fairways are generally tight, and all the holes have significant changes in altitude. You are also frequently faced with the need to move the ball significantly either right or left. If you don't, you run the danger of running out of fairway, or at best leaving yourself a long second shot to the green.

This little devil has almost a 90 degree dog leg. The long second shot must have a draw if you want to bounce it onto the green and not into the formidable bunkers standing guard.

This beast is a fairly short par 5, but the approach shot seen above leaves absolutely no margin for error!

This guy is a good example of the toughness of the course. A 454 yard par 4 (from the Member's Tees!!), the fairway runs out at about 235 yards. This means you can't hit driver off the tee because if you hit it well you are down in a huge depression about the size of a football field and about 30-40 feet deep. This leaves you in the best case with a very long, uphill second shot to a well guarded green. Lots of fun!!

The next picture is from the highlight of the day.

This 158 yard Par 3 plays first over a road, up a very steep incline, into the wind and (if you look carefully) a bunker so deep you almost need a ladder to get out of it. I hit a great 5 iron to about 7 feet and proceeded to sink the downhill, left to right breaker for the birdie!

We all had a great day despite the steep terrain. You don't see Art's picture because he won the last two holes of the day causing me my first lost match of the week!

The matches today ended up as follows:

• Durham 2/1/0
• Rathbone 0/3/0
• Cecil 2/1/0
• Slater 2/1/0

Cumulative score through three rounds:

• Durham: 6/1/2
• Rathbone: 1/6/2
• Cecil: 4/3/2
• Slater: 3/4/2

An accident in front of us on the freeway back to Osaka caused a huge backup and as a result it took us almost an hour and a half to get back to the hotel. However, a shower/bath and a great Korean BBQ dinner provided a great finish to the day. No golf tomorrow. We go sightseeing to the Osaka Castle in the morning and then catch the train up to the resort of Kawana where we will play on Monday.