Rio on My Mind

Switching to his Golf Digest hat, Geoff Shackelford provides a somewhat alarming update on the progress of the Rio Olympic golf course:  His grab:

Imagine a painter who can only pencil in his vision but is prevented from applying paints to a canvas. That's the state of the Olympic golf course in Rio de Janeiro fewer than 1,000 days before golf returns to the Games for the first time in more than a century. 

Take your pick for the reasons the project lags a year behind : ownership squabbles, financing questions, lawyers, logistics, cultural differences—we only want to know if the course will be any good. And in architect Gil Hanse's mind, that hurdle has been cleared.

"We're excited about what's already in the ground but just need to get it finished," Hanse said after a recent trip to Rio.

The good news is that Hanse is sounding increasingly excited about the quality of the site, as per the following:

What was thought to be a nice site has, after the removal of shrubbery and the creation of two lakes, turned out to have world-class potential thanks to both big and subtle ground features. Ty Votaw, executive vice president of the PGA Tour and VP of the International Golf Federation, has seen the property before and after vegetation was removed. 

"I was struck by all of the elevation changes hidden by the ground cover, and to see how the holes are configured with the prevailing winds," Votaw says. "It has the potential to be something special."

And this last bit from Gil (hope I haven't pushed the limit on fair use):

Hanse is pleased with how the wind "blows all the time" at the site. "Wind is really going to be a factor on the course," he says, "especially at the time of year the Olympics are played."  

So, to sum up, we have a description of the golf course which triggers eager anticipation from souls whose judgment we value (as an aside, be sure to click through to the Golf Digest piece if only for the spectacular aerial photo).  But we're not sure if it will be ready on time.  

Oh, and we have a dreadful format, 72 holes of stroke play, which we only see that 50 weeks out of the year.  My rule of thumb has always been that a sport belongs in the Olympics if the Olympics immediately becomes the most important competition in that sport.  Admittedly there are some exceptions for one-offs such as the Dream Team, but we're not even close here and haven't created a competition that will at least differ from what's on offer every other week of the year.  I was pleased to see them hire Gil Hanse in lieu of bigger names, but how does this end up as anything but a big yawn?

Anyone see this differently?