The timeline for completion of the golf course that will host the 2016 Olympics is "in order" according to comments made by PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem Wednesday in Australia on the eve of the ISPS Handa World Cup.
Finchem acknowledged earlier concern about several delays, primarily over land rights, in the construction of the venue. But he said the components of the irrigation system for the course, which is being designed by Gil Hanse, have been loaded onto a ship in Los Angeles headed for the Panama Canal.
The course is being built at Venue Reserva de Marapendi outside Rio de Janeiro, which will host the first Olympics to feature golf since 1904. The course was originally scheduled to be completed next year but Hanse now says 2015 is a better estimation.
"So hooray, we will now have some water on the property," said Finchem, who plans to go to Brazil in the spring to look at the course. "Actually the progress is reasonably good. We think the timeline is in order. We were really concerned there, as you know, for a good period of time. ...
"But I think Gil Hanse from all indications is doing a good job working with our architects and we are excited about it. This is first foot in the Olympics so we hope to have a first-class playing ground for that event."
Finchem also said the International Federation of Golf supports the addition of the game of golf to the Paralympics in 2024.
That mission is dear to the heart of Dr. Haruhisa Handa, the Japanese businessman and philanthropist whose International Sports Promotion Society sponsors the World Cup for the first time this week. Handa has long been involved in encouraging the blind and disabled to play golf.
"We are aware and admirative of his effort to reach out to individuals with physical challenges with the game of golf and his efforts to try to, now that golf is on the Olympic program starting '16, to add golf to the list of sports played in the Paralympics," Finchem said.
"We certainly support that initiative and effort and the International Federation of Golf, which is the governing body for golf in the Olympics, has discussed that initiative and what is involved in it.
"While our major focus right now is preparing for 2016 and then 2020, because the vote for whether golf stays in the Olympics comes after the ‘16 Olympics, we think a 2024 launch to golf in the Paralympics would be appropriate and I think our Board and the International Federation of PGA Tours certainly are supportive of that."
The World Cup, which began in 1953, is being contested this week under an Olympic-style format that features 72 holes of individual stroke play with participants chosen based on the Official World Golf Ranking.
There will be a team component, though, which will not be part of the Olympics with the two best scores from each country determining the order of finish. In the past, the World Cup has been contested with two-man teams playing Foursomes and Four-balls.
Finchem said it was too soon to decide whether the team aspect of the World Cup has been "lost."
"We haven’t played yet so let’s see how that plays out and then we will see," he said. "We feel like these are concrete steps. We feel like the tournament is more marketable. We think that it has a better chance of fulfilling its mission which is to create more interest in the game in unique ways.
"But we will see. If we go down this road and it doesn’t work, we will adjust but we are going to give this every chance to work and we are excited, as you are, to see what happens this weekend."
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