Wednesday, March 7, 2012 - SCGA Hall of Famer Amy Alcott will team up with American architect Gil Hanse to design the 2016 Olympic golf course in Rio de Janeiro, winning the selection over Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman and Gary Player organizers announced today. Hanse Golf Design was selected over seven other finalists to build the first Olympic golf course since the sport was dropped following the 1904 St. Louis Games.
"It would've been easy to go with somebody famous. Instead, they went with the best," said Nicklaus after the announcement.
The Rio 2016 committee said Hanse Golf Design was "the candidate that most aptly met the selection criteria" issued by organizers, proposing a strong legacy component that prioritized a golf academy to help the sport's development in Brazil.
"Hanse Golf Course Design tackled the challenge of designing a course for use by both elite and amateur athletes, one of the main legacy objectives," the committee said in a statement. "It addressed the environmental sustainability directives for the games and efficiently conformed to the building restrictions on the land." Hanse and Alcott will also work closely with environmental and sustainability engineering firms in the final design process and advocate the use of native vegetation and a minimum of land movement.
Hanse can be credited with the design of a number of Southland courses, including Rustic Canyon as well as the redesign of Los Angeles Country Club. Alcott was recently inducted into the SCGA Hall of Fame, and will soon team up with the SCGA Foundation for the fresh&easy kraft nabisco Junior Challenge as part of the upcoming Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Information from Associated Press was included in this story.
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