"I'll lay down kids in the middle of the fairway if needed."
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"I'll lay down kids in the middle of the fairway if needed," golf course president Vicky Whyte told The Associated Press this week, vowing to protect the course until the end.
The city of Japeri is last in the state's human development rankings, and the golf school at the course helps more than 100 poor kids — aged 7 to 17 — by providing them with education, food and clothing, along with golf classes. Two times a week they spend half a day at the association and have free access to varied classes and activities. Whyte said there were some 40 kids on a waiting list to participate in the project.
She said the school was key for the future of Brazil's golf, and that many of the kids who have been with the association are now appearing in Brazil's junior rankings, becoming players that may end up representing the country when the Olympics finally arrive in 2016.
Here's the worst part, which would seem to perhaps indicate that the awarding of the Olympics to Rio may have influenced a change.
Whyte said the Japeri Public Golf Association made a deal with the city through a bidding process in 2002 that secured its use of the land for 25 years, with an option to extend the agreement for another 25. The course opened to the public in 2005.
"It seems city officials betrayed us," Whyte said. "They should have talked to us to try to re-negotiate the deal."
City officials said they couldn't do anything to stop the state from taking over the land. The city's press office said in a statement that the current administration would do everything possible to keep the golf course running.
But if nothing can be done to keep the state from destroying the course, Whyte said she wanted authorities to build another course on an adjacent piece of land or pay for the new course to be built.
