Tama Hills Golf Course manager Patrick Bowman, right, and superintendent Eric Van Gorder assess the break on the newly shaped 18th green at the U.S. Air Force course in Tokyo, Japan, March 21, 2025. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)
TAMA HILLS GOLF COURSE, Japan — Eligible golfers in the Japanese capital will soon be able to putt on the same type of greens that professionals play on at The Masters.
Tama Hills, an 18-hole, 6,600-yard course operated by the U.S. Air Force near central Tokyo, is preparing to open a new set of greens sewn with high-quality bent grass.
Penn State University developed the turf variety that also grows on Augusta National Golf Club, Ga., where The Masters Tournament is played, and at other top courses such as Pebble Beach, Calif., and Oakmont Country Club, Pa.
Tama Hills, built on the site of a World War II-era ammunition depot just over 12 miles from Shinjuku’s glittering skyscrapers, began renovating one of its two sets of greens in late 2023, according to course manager Patrick Bowman.
The new greens cost almost a million dollars, paid for with non-appropriated funds earned from green fees, memberships and other sales, Bowman said.
“It’s something that happens every 10-15 years in the U.S. but it’s the first time it has been done at Tama since the course opened,” he said.
The course opened in 1969, and since then the bent greens – the areas around the holes where golfers putt - have suffered heat damage and infiltration by other types of grass over the years, Bowman said at the clubhouse March 21.
During the green replacement project, the course stayed open, but golfers were restricted to Tama’s less-fancy but fast-growing korai grass greens.
The course planned The Masters at Tama, an annual two-day tournament the final weekend in March, on the korai greens.
The bent greens became lush in the latter part of March, but Bowman said the course will give them a few more weeks before a grand opening.
“I’m not in a rush to get the greens open,” he said. “I want them to be healthy and well received by the customers.”
There are 17 inches of sand-and-peat-moss soil beneath the renovated greens. The original greens only had 5-6 inches of soil under them, so grass roots couldn’t go deep enough to stay healthy during hot summers, Bowman said.
The new greens meet United States Golf Association standards. They’re heat tolerant, disease resistant, and include new drainage and a gravel base, according to course superintendent Eric Van Gorder.
They have similar shapes to the old ones, but a few are larger and some have improved contours. For example, the 18th green has gone from a steep slope to a two-tier green, Van Gorder said.
The course, which also recently upgraded its carts to models with GPS-linked monitors designed to speed up play, caters to U.S. airmen first and foremost but tries to provide the high standards people would find at a golf resort, he said.
Tama Hills has hosted PGA legends like Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Chi-Chi Rodriguez and plenty of other celebrities, from sumo wrestlers to baseball players. Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre played a round with service members in 1998 when he visited Tokyo for a game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
It’s also been popular with U.S. ambassadors to Japan and other diplomats. The highest-ranking politician to play there was former Vice President Dan Quayle.
