Rio Olympics 2016 course decision…

[Howard Riefs]

Gil Hanse selected.  

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/wires/03/07/2090.ap.oly.rio.2016.golf.course/

Big upset.

[Ross Harmon]

Wow. Big upset indeed. Congrats to Gil though!

[Niall Hay]

WOW! 

[Alex Miller]

WOW. Was the decision made in the last couple days, or months ago? Could Trump-Doral have had any impact? What will Amy Alcott bring to the table?

[Jim Colton]

Congrats to Gil!

[Craig Van Egmond]

I would not have bet on Gil Hanse..  

Congrats!

[Niall Hay]

Agreed, quite a surprise.

[Jud_T]

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

[Garland Bayley]

Does this mean Castle Stuart trumps Pacific Dunes?

Does this mean a relatively featureless site at Rustic Canyon trumps Old MacDonald?

Congrats to Gil and to Ian Andrew who advised.

[Jud_T]

For the GCA crowd, many of us would have liked to have seen Tom get the nod for a variety of reasons, but this has got to be the next best thing.  Now we actually have a reason to watch the games...

[Scott Macpherson]

Congratulations to Gil.

I've played Rustic Canyon and Castle Stuart, both are very good and appropriate to what's required of them. I like the message in his press release. The best golf courses do have an air of 'joyfulness'. Well done, and I look forward to seeing the Rio design.

May I offer my commiserations to the other teams, especially The Doak team and the Perrett/Thomson team. I believe both those groups would also have produced high quality courses.
 

[Kalen Braley]

The winning routing:

[Bill Seitz]

Typical IOC, just going with the biggest name.  

Congratulations to Gil!

[Ian Andrew]

Garland,

I did not advise, he needed none for me.
I helped him though some technical issues he had.

[Andrew Brown]

WOW. Was the decision made in the last couple days, or months ago? Could Trump-Doral have had any impact? What will Amy Alcott bring to the table?

I had dinner at a table with Peter Dawson at St Andrews February 7th. I told him they had a lot of curious people waiting to find out and that putting it off for a month was a tough wait. He smiled and replied "We've already decided who the architect is." Sadly, then the conversation turned to golf Rules, which considering it was a Referee's School, was okay with the non GCA interested people sitting at the table.

[PCCraig]

Wow. Congrats to Gil and his team for the win.

[Evan Fleisher]

Outstanding "win" for Gil...congratulations.

[Mike Tanner]

Congratulations to Mr. Hanse. I wonder if he'll be picking up any Portugese slang after taking up residence during construction. And thanks, Kalen, for posting the routing.

[Stuart Goldstein]

Big upset.  Thought Jack had it locked up.

[Geoffrey_Walsh]

I couldn't be more thrilled.  Congrats to Gil and Jim!  My time with them working on the Cobb's Creek initiative has reaffirmed that while they are talented designers, they are even better people.

The gold medal comes to Philly!

[Adam_F_Collins]

Watching his news conference, I thought it was really interesting that he said that he would like to sit and talk with other architect teams who submitted proposals, and specifically mentioned Tom Doak as someone he admires, and would love to hear what his thoughts about the job and site were...

Interesting.

Adam

[David Harshbarger]

Great news and congratulations.  I have to say the routing is a thing of beauty.  Wow.  All the shared fairways, what looks like real pro-level risk/reward with the greens tucked by the water on 2 and 5, the tempting drivable 4 9th, and what looks like a bang-up finishing hole, 18.

Will definitely be watching.....

[Dan Herrmann]

Adam,
Remember, Gil once work for Tom back in the day...

[Howard Riefs]

Geoff Shackelford presents some of the factors that “aided Hanse’s bid even as he was arguably the least well-known finalist”
http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2012/3/8/gil-hanse-wins-olympic-course-design-competition.html


*  “R&A Chief Officer Peter Dawson, publicly praised the 48-year-old designer's work at Scottish Open host Castle Stuart.”

*  “Strongly supported by the PGA Tour, whose Design Services division guided the Rio Organizing Committee.” 

*  “Among the first architects to visit the Rio site a year ago before the design contest was opened to all interested bidders last fall.”

*  “Impressed Brazilian Golf Advisory Board member and jury panelist Arminio Fraga with a design approach respecting the environmentally sensitive land while fitting Rio’s goals of creating a sustainable design meld with its native surrounds.”

*  “Allied himself with LPGA Hall of Famer Amy Alcott, whose enthusiasm for the public golf component of the project reportedly impressed the panel, as did support from environmental consulting firm, The Larkin Group.”

*  His presentation in Rio was “reportedly boosted by a video endorsement from former USGA Executive Director David Fay, one of golf’s biggest Olympic advocates during his stint with the International Golf Federation.”

[PCCraig]

It's actually an incredible pick as Gil has only 9 original designs to his name. Compared to however many Nicklaus, Norman, etc... have.

Overall, he's a great compromise as he has experience working on tournament level designs (TPC Boston, TCC Brookline, Winged Foot, Castle Stuart, etc.), but is a modern day "minimalist" who favors public golf, environmentally favorable designs, and little earth moving.

So, I suppose it makes perfect sense?