José María Olazábal

José María Olazábal is a Spanish professional golfer and golf course architect, born on February 5, 1966 at Hondarribia, known in Spanish as Fuenterrabía, in the Basque Country of Spain. The house he was born in stood next to the course of the Real Golf Club de San Sebastián, where his grandfather and his father were greenkeepers. As an amateur he became the first player to win all three of the British championships, the Boys, the Youths and the Amateur, and he turned professional in 1985. He won two majors, the Masters in 1994 and again in 1999. In the middle of the 1990s severe pain in his feet cost him the whole of the 1996 season, but he came back to take that second Masters in 1999. He won 23 times on the European Tour, and his official site puts his worldwide total at 33 wins. His highest place in the world ranking was second. He played seven times for Europe in the Ryder Cup, and is remembered above all for his pairing with his compatriot Seve Ballesteros. In 2012 he captained Europe at Medinah Country Club in Illinois, and, four points behind going into the final day, came back to win by 14½ to 13½. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2009.

His course design work is carried out through his own company, Olazabal Design, based at San Sebastián in Spain. The official site says he has been designing courses for more than 25 years and that 23 of them are open for play. His best-known work is the pair of new courses that opened in February 2022 at Costa Navarino in the Peloponnese in Greece; one of them, The Olympic Course, was named the world’s best new course at the 2022 World Golf Awards. At the same awards Olazabal Design was named Golf Course Designer of the Year for 2020. Education City Golf Club in Doha, Qatar, Pula Golf on the Spanish island of Mallorca, which staged the European Tour’s Mallorca Classic from 2003 to 2007, and Club de Golf Costa Ballena at Rota in the province of Cádiz in Spain are also presented as Olazabal Design work.

In Asia, the Olazabal Course at Mission Hills in Shenzhen, China is his design. According to the official site it was the venue for the World Cup from 2007 to 2009 and for the HSBC Champions in 2012. On Velaa Private Island in the Maldives he has also created the Velaa Golf Academy by Olazabal. As a player he won the VISA Taiheiyo Club Masters on the Japanese tour in 1989 and 1990, back to back, and in 2001 he won the Hong Kong Open, then co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour. GoGolf does not at present list any course designed by Olazábal.

See the other golf course architects here.

Photo: Bryan Berlin / CC BY-SA 4.0