Izki (Urturi)

Seve Ballesteros was the architect behind this off-the-beaten-track course back in the early 1990s when he ventured deep into the Basque interior to lay out what many consider to be one of his better designs.

There were originally twenty-seven holes in play at the Izki public golf facility, eighteen on the Urturi course and nine on the Lagrán course, but the 9-holer has since closed, leaving the facility with the main Urturi layout and a small pitch and putt course.

The par 72 course can be set up to play as long as a muscular 7,125 yards from the back tees but such a length is hardly surprising when you consider that seven of the ten par four holes can play in excess of 400 yards.

The best holes on the front nine are played early in the round with a lovely loop of holes from the 3rd to the 6th .In particular, the right doglegged, par four, 5th is a cracker, played from an elevated tee to a fairway that leads to a raised green surrounded by trees.

On the inward half, the 13th is by far the shortest of the par fours on the card but its stroke index rating of 1 is due to the barranca that twice eats into the narrow fairway on the left side of the hole - as intimidating holes go, this one is right up there with the best.

A couple of early editions of The Challenge de España tournament on the European Challenge Tour were held at Izki in 2002-3 but the event moved elsewhere (it was played for a number of years at Tecina in La Gomera) before returning here in 2017.