Javier Arana

Javier de Arana e Ybarra, (5 January 1905 – 14 January 1975) also known as Javier Arana, was an amateur golfer, sailor and golf course designer born in Bilbao, Spain. Sports career Javier was the older child of Luis Arana y Urigüen and Lola Ybarra's three sons. He was introduced to sports at a young age by his father, a leading sportsman. Luis was a successful businessman who was deeply involved with the introduction of sports to Bilbao at the beginning of the 20th century, practising football, athletics, sailing and golf. Javier himself started playing golf at the age of 10 years, in the 11-hole course of the Real Sociedad de Golf de Neguri, which was a mere 500 meters from his summer home in Las Arenas, Guecho. During his youth, he split his time between golf and sailing, where he became an expert sailor representing Spain at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games in the 6 metre class. However, he found greater success in golf and gradually abandoned sailing at the beginning of the 1930s. His first relevant golfing victory took place in 1926, when he won the first of his five Vizcaya Championships (1926, 1929, 1931, 1933 y 1935). Since then, and until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil war in 1936, Javier together with his brother Luis Ignacio, became the leading Spanish amateur golfer, as well as one of the best players in Continental Europe. In Spain, Javier was a three-time winner of the International Spanish Amateur Championships (1928, 1933, 1934) and a four-time winner of the Copa Nacional Puerta de Hierro (1928, 1929, 1930 y 1934). In the international arena, he won the Southwest France Championship (1933), the French International Amateur Championship (1934) and the Belgian International Amateur Championship (1935). He was also runner-up to the French International Amateur Championship (1935) and the Swiss International Amateur Championship (1935) and played in the Open Championship in 1934 played in Royal St. Georges, where he was unable to qualify for the final rounds after two rounds of 78 and 77 strokes. Javier also played a critical role representing Spain in its annual matches against France and in the Spanish national team's maiden European tour of 1935, visiting the France, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. The Spanish war brought national golf competitions to a halt until the autumn of 1939, interrupting a promising career in the international amateur scene.