On course for Olympics

Gil Hanse was chosen in 2012 to design the golf course for the return of the sport to Olympic competition after an absence of more than 100 years.

In winning the prestigious assignment, the 52-year-old American beat some of the biggest names in golf, including Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman and Gary Player.

Speaking just weeks before the Olympics, Hanse discussed building a course from scratch in a country not known for golf, the signature features of his design and the decision by many of the biggest names in men’s golf to pass up the Games.

“We try to build courses that feel like they belong and have a sense of place,” he said. “Our goal was to build a golf course that feels like it sits on that site, which is very sandy, with low scrubby vegetation and has a more coastal feeling than anything.

“The vision was, what does a coastal golf course in Rio look like and how does it blend into its surroundings? There are so few golf courses in Brazil.”

In order to paint a picture for those on the selection committee, the best comparison was sand-belt courses outside of Melbourne, Australia, that have similar vegetation and sandy nature.

There were also a land dispute and environmental challenges brought against the course which landed in the courts. But the biggest challenge within the gates was overcoming a lack of understanding for how to build a golf course in Brazil, alongside a lack of resources at the start of the project to build it efficiently, which Hanse described as ‘the most frustrating aspects’.

The construction ran about 20 months in total from when work first started on the ground to when the grassing was completed. The end result was worthwhile. He said: “Yes, we are 100 per cent happy with what was built. Even though it took longer and was a little bit more of a struggle than we had foreseen, at the end of the day, the results are exactly as we hoped they would be.”

The course is going to become public after the Olympics and some are hoping the sport will catch on in Brazil and capture the imagination of locals. The greens themselves are ‘pretty large’, explained Hanse. “Our anticipation is that by using difficult hole locations where you put the flag, we can create a challenge for the professionals yet still have lots of room on the greens for easier hole locations for everyday play,” he added.

As reported in GolfWeekly, there have been so many top golfers in the men’s game who have dropped out and won’t be playing in Rio.

“From a designer standpoint we are disappointed,” said Hanse. “You’d love to see the best players in the world be there competing on your course. But the field will be still very good on the men’s side. They are giving out a gold medal. I don’t think there will be an asterisk next to the man who walks off with the gold medal.

“But the compelling story is the women. People say, ‘oh, you’re not getting the best players in the world’, well, you are with the women’s players. As of right now we have all the women top players, it’s an amazing showcase for them and the women’s game.”