Rio, It Never Ends Files: Degraded Golf Just Isn't Catching On...
/While it pales compared to the suffering going on in Houston, the sight of Rio venues a year later is no doubt newsworthy and an important reminder about forcing the Olympics where they just don't fit. Knowing the joyful expressions of athleticism that took place there a year ago and seeing those places now is an eye-opener.
But as chronicled here many times, the continued inclusion of the Olympic Golf Course in slideshows certainly is a continued reminder that rustic, "degraded" golf (essentially dry links-style conditions) just doesn't quite make sense to non-golf media outlets.
Two recent examples of golf's inclusion in the discussion of venues here and here, though there are many more. Meanwhile, the course's Instagram postings tells a much different story than various press outlets wish to tell.
Gil Hanse, architect of the course, had this to say to Golf.com's Joe Passov:
"I'm hearing good things from locals," Hanse said. "Back in March, one of the international news agencies put out something about the state of the Rio facilities—the terrible state the pools are in, the Olympic Park with a chain link fence around it. And they ran an aerial photo of the 'degraded' Olympic golf course. I looked at it and I'm like, 'You can see the mower stripes on the greens. You can see all the bunkers are raked. You can see the fairways are mowed. How is that degraded?' It was definitely a fake news story. Very frustrating."
This was three days ago:
