Olympic golf course architect uses Melbourne sandbelt as inspiration

Olympic course designer tours the sandbelt golf courses.

Eyebrows were raised when golf course designer Gil Hanse got the nod to design the golf course for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. He and his course design company successfully outbid more highly profiled design such as those lead by Greg Norman, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.
Hanse has recently been in Australia to get his first look at Australia’s sandbelt golf courses in Melbourne which are a source of inspiration for the new golf course in Rio which is on a similarly flat piece of land.

Darius Oliver from Planet Golf recently interviewed Gil Hanse and his design partner Jim Wagner and chatted about the new golf course and their opinion of what they saw first-hand in Melbourne.

I mean it seems like every hole and every shot and every look needs to be like Pamela Anderson. You’ve got to have the fake boobs and the big lips and everything has to be overdone and I just don’t know what kind of words they use to describe what they’re trying to do.

Even if you’re not hugely into golf course design specifics it’s a great read. and if this golf course is going to have the sandbelt courses as inspiration, I can’t wait to see what the finish product will look like in 2016.

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