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On 24 May 1903, an Englishman called Arthur Hasketh Groom opened the first golf course in Japan, on Mount Rokko, overlooking Kobe, the capital of the Hyogo prefecture. Legend has it that one of the Kobe Golf Club's first European patrons broke his favourite driver and was forced to find a replacement. The famed Japanese sports merchandiser Rihachi Mizuno wouldn't begin importing American and European clubs into Japan until 1906, so finding a new one proved impossible.
Photographer: Megumi Seki Writer: Saul Taylor
Tokyo
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