Izki Golf (Urturi)

Overview: Izki Golf’s Urturi course is an 18-hole, par-72 layout in the wooded mountain country of Álava, set across 98 hectares within the Izki landscape. Severiano “Seve” Ballesteros designed the course around broad fairways, native oak, beech and holly, giving the routing a clear relationship with the surrounding woodland. The official course page lists 6,516 metres from the longest tee, about 7,126 yards, while the stored directory figure is a separate 6,300-yard reference. The design mixes generous starting lines with strategic approaches, changes of direction and water that becomes more influential near the finish.

History: Izki Golf was inaugurated in 1994 as a public golf project in the Montaña Alavesa. The Royal Spanish Golf Federation identifies Urturi as an 18-hole, par-72 course designed by Severiano Ballesteros and describes it as Spain’s first fully public 18-hole course. Ballesteros’s design company had been founded in 1986, and Izki became one of the projects through which his ideas about natural surroundings and strategic alternatives were expressed. The Urturi course is distinct from the separate nine-hole Lagrán directory record at the wider Izki complex.

Did You Know? The 18th hole is a par five whose approach is defended by a stream in front of an elevated green. The official hole guide gives the longest version as 512 metres, so the closing hole combines the full scale of the course with a final demand for accurate positioning. It is a fitting example of how Izki uses natural drainage and woodland edges as part of the design rather than treating them as decoration.