Golfdom, April 2015

from the archive the Golfdom th Professionals and enthusiasts alike wonder where it is that golf will next take hold and bring more players into the sport Many look to Asia and the billions of potential players in India and China Maybe its Brazil the host country of the upcoming 2016 Olympics featuring golfs return to the games If you go back more than 40 years Japan was the booming golf country In the February 1977 Golf Business Golfdoms name during an identity crisis Mac Hunter took a closer look at the golf industry on the island nation The sport is not as popular in Japan today but it still has some hold on the country Four Japanese golfers are currently in the World Golf Rankings top 100 Only one of them was alive at the time this article was published and the top ranked No 16 Hideki Matsuyama was born in 1992 Who knows maybe someday we will look at Anirban Lahiri of India currently the worlds No 35 ranked golfer as we now look at Japans Torakichi Pete Nakamura who started his countrys own golf boom Golf business in Japan taking lessons from U S By Mac Hunter G olf is a brisk business in Japan at least until it comes down to the business of playing it Indeed one jet age connotation applicable to The Land of The Rising Sun is that for an enthusiast to play some of Japans 1000 courses hes going to have to greet the sun as it peeks over Mt Fuji Japanese golfers are to put it succinctly backed up to the teahouse It may be the only place in the world where a man would need to call to get a starting time on the practice tee But the Japanese arent complaining They happily and homogenously accept conditions as they exist because since the beginning of the Gorufu boom they havent known conditions any different So what if many of Japans 16 million golfers rarely swing a club at any place other than her 5000 driving ranges So what if many of those driving ranges are three decked enclosed edifices where a man simply hits a ball into a net at fairly close range Thats okay too They are keen students of the game They will drive for miles just to see an American give an exhibition which apart from osmosis and voracious reading is one of the few methods available to them for learning the techniques of the swing How did it beGin Golf came to trade conscious Japan through the store window as opposed to America and England where the game is rooted in heredity Mindful of the glut of merchandising that sprang up in this country during the affluent sixties the perceptive and innovative Japanese businessman saw the potential for it in his country Oh the game existed in Japan before But only on a very limited rich mans scale It had roughly the same patronage in Japan as polo in the U S There were possibly 100 courses in Japan in 1957 when Torakichi Pete Nakamura scored what was then considered a major upset in the Canada Cup matches by defeating Sam Snead Gary Player and Dave Thomas of Wales by seven strokes while finishing the tournament 14 under par Not long after Nakamuras victory the Japanese began to realize that golf with its mind over matter and will power demands was ideally suited to their Zen Buddhist philosophy In playing golf a person must learn to control many emotions and make the best expression of himself suggested Tokuchika Miki son of a Zen Buddhist priest In the years since golf has rivaled baseball in Japan for thorough infiltration Originally a game for millionaires it reached into the lower echelons of business executives as they saw their bosses play and then got invited to play themselves Finally it has filtered into the working class with the construction of driving ranges It is a sport that seems to be rising just like the sun 18 Golfdom April 2015 Golfdom com