IN JAPAN, A HOLE IN ONE'S POCKET

ABIKO, JAPAN -- Noriaki Yamashita's tee shot fell softly toward the 15th green, bounced once, bounced twice, then plopped into the cup for a hole-in-one. Peering down at his ball, innocent only in its cute little dimples, Yamashita "knew something terrible had happened."

A hole-in-one is golf's ultimate prize, but the Japanese call a hole-in-one arubatorosu -- an albatross. Those who score one are required by custom to buy drinks, dinner and other presents for club members and friends, all of which easily adds up to $10,000 or more.

So the pragmatic Japanese are turning to hole-in-one insurance. Now almost 4 million golfers in this golf-crazed country spend more than $210 million a year on insurance policies to guard against the perfect tee shot.

The Japanese believe those who receive good fortune have an obligation to share. At a Japanese wedding, guests not only bring a present, but they also receive one from the wedding couple. When a professional baseball team owned by a department store company wins the national championship, the store holds a big sale.

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So last July when Yamashita, 55, scored the first hole-in-one of his life, he did two things: He called his insurance company, then he went shopping.

By the time he had bought golf shoes for 30 friends, golf bags for 30 others and sport towels for 60 more, taken 15 friends out to dinner and tipped his caddie, he'd spent about $13,000 -- considerably more than the $5,000 worth of insurance he carried at the time.

In the United States, there is a similar tradition, though it is not as elaborate. Typically the golfer buys a round of drinks, and that is sometimes paid for out of a common club kitty.

"At first my wife was really stunned," Yamashita said. "But even though it was more than I expected to pay, she was willing to admit it was necessary. The Goddess of Golf had smiled on me, so it was a good idea to say thank you."

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Still, to guard against any further largess from the goddess, Yamashita doubled his insurance. Good thing. When he hit his perfect 5-iron off the 15th tee two months ago -- a rare second hole-in-one -- his new $10,000 policy covered just about everything.

Golf is wildly expensive in Japan, so the big penalties for a hole-in-one are not totally unexpected. At Yamashita's club, the Abiko Golf Club, a premier course northeast of Tokyo, new members must pay a $20,000 entrance fee and buy $500,000 worth of the club's stock, which they can sell if they ever leave.

The annual fee is $750, plus about $120 every time they play 18 holes. As a result, many casual Japanese golfers take weekend flights to Hawaii, stay in a nice hotel, eat out, play several rounds of golf and still spend less than they would have on a club membership. And there's no $10,000 penalty for hitting the best drive of your life.

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Those who score a hole-in-one can choose what gifts they will give and how much to spend. But in custom-conscious Japan, being stingy with hole-in-one gifts is an unforgivable faux pas, like tipping the paperboy 25 cents at Christmas or bringing a $2 bottle of wine to a fancy dinner party.

At Abiko, the names of those who hit holes in one are engraved on a big board in the club's lounge. Masakuza Nomura's name is there for an uninsured 1976 hole-in-one that cost him thousands of dollars. Nomura chose to have 150 commemorative bath towels made, with his name, the date of his hole-in-one (Nov. 21, 1976) the hole (No. 15) and the club he used (a 6-wood).

"I quickly got insurance, but in 20 years I've never gotten another hole-in-one," Nomura said.

Nomura said that when he joined his club in 1955, those who scored a hole-in-one would take a group of club members to an expensive bar in Tokyo's pricey Ginza neighborhood. That started getting extremely expensive as Japan's economy boomed, and hole-in-one insurance began showing up in the 1970s.

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Today few serious golfers would be caught without it. Most golfers in Japan spend between $50 and $200 a year for their golf insurance, which also provides coverage for theft and for damage or injuries caused by a their golf shots.

Nobody knows the perils of the hole-in-one better than Masatoshi Hamaguchi, 66, who in the last 30 years has scored nine of them, but has had insurance for only the last two. "Every time, I figured it couldn't happen again," Hamaguchi said.

Masahiro Nomura, the son of Masakuza Nomura, has scored two holes in one in his career, including one in March that cost his insurance company 130 alarm clocks, a $2,000 dinner at a blowfish restaurant and a $500 tip for his caddie.

Nomura, 42, a small business owner, said that despite the costs, Japanese golfers still try as hard as anyone else to score holes in one; they just make sure their policy is up to date.

"It's a good custom," Nomura said, "as long as there is good insurance." CAPTION: Noriaki Yamashita shows off the ball that cost him $13,000 in gifts when he sank a hole-in-one.

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