Carved through a forest of oak trees outside Sapporo, and built on nicely rolling terrain, the Classic course at Hokkaido is a very disappointing resort style track with little to admire and a number of really poor holes. Examples include the crazy narrow short par four 9^th, and the ridiculous split fairway 10^th that offers no incentive to play down the left side as the second shot from there is impossible and the right side is easier and shorter anyway.

Throughout Hokkaido the golf is standard resort fare, there is lots of water, lush surfaces and flowery shaped bunkering, but many of the traps seem randomly placed and the long, narrow greens are tilted in all manner of way to provide mere eye-candy or to annoy. The green on the long par three 13^th is especially odd, the target is wide and cut with a single central bunker that makes the left wing crazy tight and almost impossible to hit from 240 yards.

There are so many problem areas and poor holes here, the site is nice and the plantings are pleasant enough but this is not a track that Jack Nicklaus is likely to be outwardly proud of.