Some clubs are born from a finished construction project and others are born from a single shot. Meaztegi Golf belongs to the second group: Severiano Ballesteros’s honorary drive officially opened our course and, ever since, that black-and-white photograph explains this club better than any layout plan. One man, a driver and the hillsides of Bizkaia in the background.
The shot that opened the course
The photograph tells the whole story without a caption. Seve is caught in his finish, weight already over his left leg and his eyes following the ball, while half a dozen photographers crowd in behind him so as not to miss the moment. That is the exact instant of the honorary drive: the gesture that turns a newly built course into a real golf course.
An honorary drive is not played, it is given. It doesn’t count on any card and it doesn’t touch anyone’s handicap, and that is precisely why it carries so much weight. It is a club’s way of saying who it wants to be, and Meaztegi said it out loud: it chose the player who changed Spain’s relationship with this sport forever to hit the first shot in its history.
Seve’s signature goes beyond the layout
Severiano Ballesteros did not come that day as a courtesy guest. Meaztegi carries his signature as its designer, so the honorary drive was also an author unveiling his own work. Anyone walking these fairways today is walking through his decisions: where to reward the player who takes a risk, where to punish the comfortable option, how to force you to think before pulling a club out of the bag.
That is the difference between a course that is merely signed and a course that is genuinely designed. Seve’s honorary drive was not a photo for the next day’s press; it was the natural continuation of months of work on the ground, and that is why the club still claims it as its birth certificate.
The 1st tee holds the whole story
Every time you stand on the 1st tee you are playing on the legacy of a legend. It is not a brochure line: it is literally the same spot that drive was hit from. It doesn’t matter whether you are here for a club competition or for your first full round; the place where you push your tee into the ground has a memory.
Knowing it changes the routine for a lot of players. They take an extra second before the swing, look down the hole and understand that golf here did not start with an administrative opening, but with an honorary drive struck in front of the lenses. That small, free detail is part of playing at Meaztegi.
Bizkaia provided the stage
The image of the honorary drive shows more than a golfer: it shows the hills, the pine woods and the freshly cut paths of a Biscayan valley. Meaztegi looks nothing like a coastal course or a plateau course, and that day made it clear. The relief is in charge, the Cantabrian wind comes in whenever it feels like it and the green is local.
That contrast still surprises anyone arriving from outside. Seve’s honorary drive was hit in a landscape that needs no make-up, and the course was built respecting those shapes instead of flattening them. You can check it hole by hole in our course guide before you come and play.
What is left of that first shot
What is left is a way of understanding the club. The honorary drive set a high bar: if the course started with Seve, the least we can do is look after it as if he were coming back tomorrow. That means demanding greens, well-tended fairways and a school that teaches technique and etiquette in equal measure.
And above all, a story to share is left. Members tell it to the guests they bring for the first time, the coaches tell it to the children who are starting out and we tell it every time someone asks why this course feels different. A well-chosen first shot lasts for decades.
If you haven’t played here yet, the best way to understand it is to walk up to the 1st tee, look down the hole and hit it. It won’t be an honorary drive, but it will leave from the same place.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly is an honorary drive?
It is the symbolic shot that opens a new course or starts a competition. It doesn’t score and it doesn’t affect anyone’s result: its value is purely ceremonial and it is reserved for a leading figure.
Who was Severiano Ballesteros?
He was the golfer from Cantabria who popularised this sport in Spain and took it to the front line of the world game. After his playing career he worked as a course designer, and Meaztegi is one of his works.
Can you play the course Seve designed today?
Yes. The course is open for play and any golfer can start from the same 1st tee that appears in the club’s historic photograph.
Where is Meaztegi Golf?
In Bizkaia, in the middle of the natural landscape of northern Spain and a short drive from Bilbao. The button above has the exact location on Google Maps.