How the Atlas is made.

The Atlas is built in three stages over the course of a calendar year.

In spring, each Academy member submits a regional shortlist drawn from their territory. The combined shortlists become a working longlist of roughly forty Japanese courses.

In summer and autumn, members walk the longlisted courses on foot — without carts, without scoring grids, often anonymously. Each candidate course is visited by at least one Academy member, and each Three-Flag candidate by two.

In late October, the Founders convene with the Academy in Kobe and finalise the Atlas. Names are placed on every entry. The Atlas is published at the Inaugural Gala in November.

We do not use a scoring grid, but the Academy is asked to consider every course against five pillars. A Three-Flag course must be remarkable on all five. A Two-Flag course must be remarkable on at least three. A One-Flag course must be remarkable on at least one.

Routing and strategic interest — what the architect asks of you, hole by hole.

Greens and shaping — the surfaces you putt to and the contours that defend them.

Walking integrity — whether the course was designed for feet, and whether it can still be played that way today.

Conditioning philosophy — not how green it is, but what choices the superintendent is making about water, grass selection, and time.

Sense of place — whether the course belongs to its landscape, or whether it could have been built anywhere.

A course is eligible for the Japan Edition if it is operational, accessible to at least one Academy member in the previous twenty-four months, and located within the geographic boundaries of Japan.

There is no minimum age requirement; a course opened in 2024 is eligible for 2026. There is no requirement to be open to the public; private membership clubs are eligible on equal terms.

A course need not be nominated to be considered. Some of the most quietly important courses in Japan have never been put forward by their clubs, and we make a point of seeking them out.

In addition to the Atlas, the Guide awards nine annual recognitions: Best New Course, Best Restoration, Architect of the Year, Hole of the Year, Best Walking Course, Best Public-Access, Best 19th Hole, Sustainability Award, and Founders' Choice.

The full list with eligibility for each is published on the Awards page.

Sub-awards are announced at the Inaugural Gala in November. They may be given to a course not flagged in the main Atlas; eligibility for a sub-award does not require an Atlas entry.

Every entry in the Atlas carries the names of the Academy members who assessed it. The Founders sign every published Guide.

No course is included in the Atlas in exchange for advertising, sponsorship, hospitality, or any other consideration. We do not accept paid placements. We do not run sponsored content in the Journal.

Academy members who hold a paid consulting role at a course must recuse themselves from the assessment of that course; the recusal is noted in the published entry.

A course may be removed from the Atlas only with a stated reason published in the Journal at the time of removal. We do not silently drop entries.

We welcome recommendations from members of the public, clubs, architects, and the press. Recommendations should be sent to hello@thebestgolfawards.com and should include the name of the course, a sentence on why it deserves consideration, and — if you have one — a contact at the club.

A recommendation does not constitute inclusion. Recommendations are read by the Academy and added to the longlist for the following year's assessment.

We do not score on conditioning, ambience, or memorability out of ten. We do not aggregate ratings from a public crowd. We do not accept compensation for inclusion. We do not silently move courses up or down between editions without a published reason.

And we do not pretend the Guide is anything other than what it is — a curated editorial atlas, made by named people, defensible only on the strength of the writing and the walking that went into it.