Kobe Golf Club

Kobe Golf Club

Kobe Golf Club (神戸ゴルフ倶楽部), high on Mount Rokkō in Nada Ward, Kobe, keeps two buildings registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on October 7, 2014: the clubhouse of 1932 and the Chamber of 1924 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Both belong to the club.

The club traces its course to Arthur Hesketh Groom, a British merchant who built the first summer house on Mount Rokkō and, with friends, cleared the first 4 holes by hand, finished in the autumn of 1901. The club was founded on February 27, 1903, and the course opened on May 24 that year; it is the oldest golf course in Japan and reached 18 holes in 1904 (Kobe Golf Club).

The Two Buildings

The clubhouse is a single-storey clapboard building with white sash windows. A tiled fireplace sits at its centre, with dining room, lounge and locker room around it, tall panelled dadoes and boarded ceilings showing decorative beams (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Chamber began as the Thursday Club, a retreat of young Osaka businessmen that the golf club bought and remodelled; its low profile and shallow roof sit quietly on the mountain (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Each building is described on its own page.

Visiting

The club says the course is open from mid-April to mid-November, and guests normally need to play with or be introduced by a member. No official information on public tours of the buildings was found.