50 The twin green system is still commonplace in Japan, even though one of the primary factors for its initial development is now largely irrelevant. The Japanese climate has distinct extremes, with temperatures regularly plunging below zero in the winter and well into the 30s, along with high humidity, in summer. As such, many early courses were built with two greens per hole, one with bentgrass for winter use and another with korai, a zoysia grass, for the summer. Thanks to advances in golf turf science, however, strains of grass that can withstand Japan’s temperature extremes have now been available for many years, and clubs across the country have converted to single greens. But there are still good reasons for retaining twin greens (usually denoted simply as ‘A’ and ‘B’), if the circumstances are right: by alternating between each, foot traffic is spread and conditions can be maintained at a higher standard; twin greens offer the golfer variety, and the potential for a distinctly different experience from one day to another. Tradition shouldn’t be forgotten either – the sight of two greens at the end of a fairway is a distinctly Japanese golfing experience (although it is common in Korea too, and famously occurs on two holes at Pine Valley). When golf course architects Rees Jones and Bryce Swanson first visited the Shizuoka Country Shimada course, they could see that the circumstances were ideal for preserving tradition, albeit with the same grass type on each green. “It’s a really good layout,” says Swanson of Shimada, which was designed in the 1960s by Kinya Fujita, who thirty years earlier laid out the original two courses at Olympic venue Kasumigaseki in Tokyo. “Most holes are lined with majestic pine trees, and the course runs from some f lat ground to some interesting topography that has a really wonderful feel to it.” Crucially, the expansive nature of the property meant that no compromises had been required to accommodate two greens on each hole. Ample space means a different challenge is presented by each green. “They can be a club or even two clubs different,” says Swanson. That is evident throughout the scorecard, including Placement from the tee is critical to opening up the ideal angle of approach on the closing hole, a 400-yard par four where the left green is protected by a specimen tree SH I ZUOKA COUNTRY SH IMADA GC
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