Rio Olympic golf course progress update (video)
NBC Sports’ Nick Zaccardi posted an update on their ‘NBC Olympic Talk’ (Dec 1, 2014, 2:20 PM EST) with some video of Geoff Shackleford on “Morning Drive.”
YES, grass is growing and hopefully all legal disputes are behind us! Let the grass grow baby! It is summer in the Southern Hemisphere, good grass growing time and there is one more Spring time between now and the start of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio! Only 612 days to go! I can’t wait to find out what test event will be staged there this time next year! I hope to take Gil Hanse up on his offer to return to Rio and play the new Olympic Golf Course!
I visited the Olympic Golf Course when it was still a sandbox on January 17th, 2014, albeit a well-designed one with a stunning championship golf course within the confines of the ocean and the main Avenida das Américas street in the Barra-Da-Tijuca. I met golf course architect Gil Hanse and his team of what I referred to as his ‘Merry Men’—Neil Cameron (from Scotland), Kyle Franz (from Albany, Oregon) and Ben Hillard (from Australia).
I remember them telling me that Ben Hillard was from the Sandbelt area of Melbourne and hearing comments that the new Olympic Golf Course would be similar to the great Sandbelt golf courses of Australia. Little did I know that, now nine months later, I have played four of the eight ‘Sandbelt Melbourne Classic Golf’ courses—Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath, Victoria and Metropolitan on the ‘Golf Journey to Australia.’
All I can say is I think the grass will grow, Gil’s design will come to a competitive and beautiful fruition, there will be tweaks from the text event and on August 5th, 2016 there will be golfers in the Opening Ceremony for the first time in 112 years.
Nobody living in this world (except junior golfers who played in the Youth Olympic Games held in Nanjing, China this past August) has played Olympic Golf. I am curious to learn what the ‘Olympic Spirit of Golf; is and how it will manifest itself in Rio in 2016, hence these Journeys to seek out more history and tradition of golf and learn more about the Olympic Spirit by visiting Olympic Cities (so far Atlanta 1996, Mexico City 1968, Rio 2016, Sydney 2000 and Melbourne 1956).
Grass is growing in Rio on the OGC, life is good, 612 days until Golf returns to the Olympics with a unique Spirit for sure!
Here are photographs from my time in the Sandbox to compare to those in the video:
With Gil Hanse on the OGC. Water hazard that comes into play on Nos. 2,3 & 5 in background.
Mounding around the first green on the Olympic Golf Course.
With Kyle Franz (C) and Ben Hillard (R) on the new Olympic Golf Course in January 2014.
More details from the Nick Zaccardi post from ‘NBC Olympic Talk’ on NBCSportss.com:
Rio Olympic golf course construction is progressing with all but two of the fairways sprigged and grassed, course architect Gil Hanse said, according to Golf Channel’s Geoff Shackleford.
“It does seem likely that the course is now going to be finished,” Shackleford said on “Morning Drive.” “I’m going to say that very carefully.”
The course for the first Olympic golf tournaments since 1904 has seen delays, pushing back a planned Olympic test event tournament from one year before the Games to late 2015 or early 2016.
The course has the right amount of elevation change and will look amazing because it’s in the heart of the city, Shackleford said.
“Hopefully, by the time we get to the Olympics, it will all be forgotten, and the golf course will be the great golf course and test I think Gil is capable of producing,” he said.
