Spanish publisher Turner Libros is launching the first detailed study of the work of golf architect Javier Arana.

Arana, the designer of many of Spainʼs top courses, including El Saler, often ranked among the best in continental Europe, has remained unknown, despite being arguably the greatest designer Europe has yet produced. The author of The Golf Courses of Javier Arana, Spanish golf historian Alfonso Erhardt Ybarra, wrote his first monograph on the architect in the pages of GCA in 2009.

The 300-page large format book, which is being published in both Spanish and English, is divided into two sections. The three chapters of the first part cover Aranaʼs career as Spainʼs top amateur golfer, his apprenticeship with Tom Simpson and his design career, and finally an overview of his design philosophy. The second part covers each of his ten best courses individually, with a detail of each club’s inception and a brief overview of the course and its most iconic holes.

The book will be available from mid-December, priced at €60. Golf architect Tom Doak has written the foreword.

Read the 2009 GCA profile of Arana.