Members and guests of the FCCJ enjoyed an exceptional day for the Autumn Golf Tournament. The weather was warm and the sun shone all day at the U.S. Air Force Tama Hills Golf Course on Nov. 23.

Makoto Sato (members division), Katsuji Harada (guests) and Michiko Sieber (women) emerged as the winners.

One innovation this year was to have the awards presentation and party on a different day and location from the tournament itself in order to reduce the temptation to drink and drive. By doing so, nobody got a ticket and all the participants could enjoy drinks and good company at the Club (which also benefited from the sales) on Nov. 25.

As everybody knows, the golf business is in bad shape, especially in Japan, so we were fortunate that Kosaku Yoneyama, chairman of Yonex – which sponsors Ryo Ishikawa – kindly donated most of the prizes for our tournament. This also helped reduce the cost for participants. Members paid ¥18,000 and guests ¥19,000 for golf, cart and the post-tournament party, compared with ¥21,000 and ¥23,000, respectively, at our last tournament at Tama Hills GC in May 2005.

Future FCCJ golf tournaments will be held at Tokyo Golf Club, Musashi CC, which recently hosted the Japan Open, and Raysum Spa and Golf, where the 2008 Japan National PGA Championship was held.

The Sports Committee is planning a ski trip for early 2010 as well as a soccer game in the spring between Club members and older members of the Democratic Party of Japan.

We hope you will join us.

Duke Ishikawa
Chair, FCCJ Sports Committee