Golf
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There are people within Brazil who don't want the Olympic golf course to be a success and, unfortunately, social media allows them to mobilise quicker than they ever would have done before
First cut of the fairways - Jacobsen is the equipment of choice Image ©Ransomes Jacobsen
can’t do it on my own. There are people within Brazil who don’t
want the Olympic golf course to be a success and, unfortunately, social media allows them to mobilise quicker than they ever would have done before.
That being said, what do you think the future of golf can be in Brazil? How will the Olympics impact the sport in the country?
That’s what I like when I talk to people. It’s not just about the golf course; it’s what’s going to happen afterward. Will we get golf tourism beyond this or
before this? Yes, but they will come once and they won’t come again. There has to be repeat business, and the
locals are your repeat business. That doesn’t mean it’s a private club, it means that it’s open to the public at a reasonable fee that they can pay, but they need to target the kids to encourage a progressive learning curve for the game of golf. If it is made available in terms of finance,
Neil Cleverly surveying work in progress
It would be a crying shame if the legacy of this golf course gets to the point where the Olympic Games are played on it successfully, but the course goes to rack and ruin
28 I PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015 ”
Part of the maintenance fleet and crew Image ©Ransomes Jacobsen
education and equipment, there shouldn’t be any reason why there couldn’t be a Brazilian major champion inside of twenty- five years. It would take that long because it is a juvenile sport in a well-known country.
Looking into the future, what kind of legacy do you want to leave behind for this course after the Olympics have gone?
It would be a crying shame if the legacy of this golf course gets to the point where the Olympic Games are played on it successfully, but the course goes to rack and ruin. If that happens, a lot of hard work would be wasted. I think it would be harmful for the country, definitely harmful for golf. This will be a legacy golf course, which will be handed over to the city of Rio de Janeiro, and we need to promote it that way from this point forward. The only way we can do that is to provide education and equipment to the junior level free of charge. I openly say that; I don’t mince my words. It needs to be given free and provided free
of charge. We are not going to get anywhere, now or in the future, on this golf course or with golf, if we don’t provide that kind of education.
This article first appeared in Golfdom and is reproduced by kind premission.
www.golfdom.com
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