Golf Club In Rio Throws Its Bucket Cap Into The Olympic Golf Mix

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You can just imagine what the architects backstabbing each other to get the job will think of this. For Immediate Release:

2016 Olympic Golf Tournament: Itanhangá Golf Club Board of Delegates Approves Plan to Host 2016 Olympic Golf Tournament, Garners Support of Pelé

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – May 4th, 2011 – During its monthly board meeting on Sunday May 1st, 2011, the Itanhangá Golf Club board of delegates authorized club president, Arthur Porto Pires Jr., to proceed with the club’s plan to host the 2016 Olympic Golf Tournament.  In a letter addressed to Peter Dawson, president of the International Golf Federation (IGF) sent via e-mail on April 21, 2011, Mr. Pires expressed his club’s desire to host the 2016 tournament.  “The choice of Rio de Janeiro to host the 2016 Olympics is a just reason for Brazilians to celebrate and an opportunity for us at Itanhangá to have our premises considered by [the] IGF and the Olympic Committee to host the golf competition,” said Mr. Pires in the letter.

Itanhangá Golf Club is one of two existing golf clubs within the city limits of Rio de Janeiro that is under consideration to host to the 2016 tournament.  After extensive analysis Itanhangá has emerged as the only existing club with the necessary space to host a championship tournament of this scale.  Itanhangá Golf Club encompasses nearly three hundred picturesque acres centrally located just minutes from the Olympic Village.  The club features two courses totaling twenty-seven holes (an 18-hole tournament course and a 9-hole practice course), a sprawling grass driving range, and an extensive clubhouse area with a spacious modern locker room facility. 

The 18-hole tournament course will require minor improvements including the addition of approximately six hundred yards in order to adapt the course to the contract requirements of the IGF and International Olympic Committee (IOC).

600 yards...minor?

A number of course design professionals including representatives from the IGF have visited Itanhangá and have confirmed the course’s tournament potential subject to the necessary improvements.  

Oh they just want the work!

An initial survey completed by the club has shown that these improvements can be funded through the club’s share of tournament commercial operations revenue and will not require a large expenditure from the government.

In his letter to Mr. Dawson, Mr. Pires highlighted Itanhangá’s track record of hosting professional golf tournaments. “Itanhangá is consistently chosen for major Brazilian and international events for its world-class, though not overly difficult layout, and its spectacular natural setting and beauty,” he said in the letter.  The European Tour chose Itanhangá to hold their first Latin American event in 1999, and the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) has made a yearly tour stop at Itanhangá since 2009.

In addition to providing a major championship caliber venue, Itanhangá’s Olympic project entitled “Olympic Dream Itanhangá 2016,” promises to leave a lasting social legacy on the local community while promoting interest in the game of golf in Brazil.  “In light of the other alternatives that have been suggested for the tournament including the costly construction of a new municipal course on an sensitive wetlands area, Itanhangá felt obligated to offer a solution that is socially, fiscally, and environmentally responsible,” exclaimed Mr. Pires. 

Rory Sabatini, Sean O'Hair Will Not Be A Featured Pairing Any Time Soon

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Then again, when you read about their "heated exchange" and Sabbo's anger management issues, maybe a Thursday-Friday pairing at the Colonial could spice things up!

Stephanie Wei with the particulars on their Zurich Classic dust up that featured no punches thrown.

O’Hair, whose friends describe him as “non-confrontational,” will probably be slapped with a lighter punishment than Sabbatini, whose infamous temper has led to multiple run-ins (to his credit, he’s significantly simmered down). Word is Sabbo may face a multiple-week suspension, which he then has the option to appeal.

It appears the tension may have started at Riviera earlier in the year after an incident Steve Elling details.

At Riviera, Sabbatini berated a Shotlink volunteer who tried to come to the player's aid on the fifth hole after the South African hit a shot into some deep rough. The volunteer left the Shotlink tower, found a ball in the calf-high rough, and marked its location with a beverage container.

When Sabbatini arrived, he lost his temper and screamed at the volunteer, claiming the ball had been pushed deeper into the rough as a result of the bottle being placed in close proximity. According to caddie Frank Williams, who works for Stewart Cink, the third member of the group, Sabbatini had a complete meltdown.

"It was as bad as I have ever seen," Williams told CBSSports.com a few weeks after the incident.

A witness said Sabbatini ultimately removed his belt and threw it to the ground in disgust.

How adorable!

"And now, in this revolution that has left Old Media sports writing gasping for its very life, Wei suddenly finds herself a member of the New Media inventing sports writing all over again."

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Dave Kindred looks at the changing guard in media and focuses on golf blogger Stephanie Wei to ponder what it means to be a credentialed journalist in the world of blogs, video and newspapers on the brink. Very interesting to read an old guard guy starting to warm to the changing nature of the profession.
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Phil Buys An Arizona Course And Other Notes About The State Of AZ Country Clubdom

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Thanks to reader John for Peter Corbett's look at the state of golf clubs in Scottsdale and he reports a lot of membership and dues numbers, very little of it encouraging for developers but great for golfers. He also reveals this recent course purchase:

"This is about the low-water mark I've ever seen," he said.

Scottsdale's Sanctuary Golf Course was sold in the past month to Phil Mickelson and his agent, Steve Loy, for $2.2 million, a price far below its value of five years ago, Garrett said.

Brad Klein, a GolfWeek magazine editor, said the problem at Phoenix and Scottsdale golf clubs is that real-estate development subsidizes the golf operations.

When members take over the golf cub from the real-estate developer, they are forced to cut operating costs or tax themselves to maintain the courses at a high level, he said.

"There is a statement in the industry that the third owner makes the money," Klein said.

The third owner buys a course for $4 million that costs $20 million to build and $4 million to operate annually, he said.

“I was just trying to stay ahead of the field, which in hindsight probably wasn't a good thing."

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Robert Jones on Rory McIlroy's refreshingly candid comments about the Masters during his Wells Fargo Championship press conference.

“First thing I don't think I was ready — that was the most important thing,” the young Ulsterman said at Quail Hollow, the course where he shot a magical 62 to win his first PGA Tour title a year ago.

“I displayed a few weaknesses in my game that I need to work on.

“But I think you've got to take the positives — for 63 holes I led and it was just a very bad back nine that sort of took the tournament away from me, I suppose.

“But what can you do? There are three more majors this year and hopefully dozens more that I'll play in my career.

“I was just trying to stay ahead of the field, which in hindsight probably wasn't a good thing.

Warning: A Review Of This Site

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Stephen Goodwin reviews this very website…in depth!  Just what you were hoping for right? A blogger covering himself.

I don't know why Goodwin refers to the site in the past tense throughout, perhaps he knows something I don't. I plan to be here a while and thank him for the robust analysis of the site, including this criticism.

And he’s at his best when he decides to commit fully, quoting at length from a press interview or an article, interrupting with deft remarks that expose the lack of logic, deflate the hype, mock the pretension.  That’s the GS that this reader looks for — intellectually engaged, hackles up, a writer zeroing in on a meaty subject.

I’m not keeping track, but it seems to me that he’s done less of this lately, and I don’t want to think that it’s because he recently joined forces with Golf Digest.

Ask and you shall receive. Goodwin goes on to look at my "core concerns."

1.  The designers of the Golden Age were geniuses whose wisdom, like that of the Founding Fathers, will never be reproduced.

Nor were they slave owners.

2.  The best golf hole ever designed, by far, is No. 10 at Riviera.

If you can name a better "designed" hole that doesn't rely on an ocean or some other natural feature, I'm all ears!

3.  Tiger Woods is to golf as Sarah Palin is to politics, a source of endless fascination; no word or deed, no gesture or expression, should go unreported.

He is pursuing history and he does have a pretty nice track record suggesting it's a pursuit worth watching! Certainly more fun than watching Ben Crane play golf.

4.  The PGA Tour is run by suits with small minds, all of whom communicate — or rather, fail to communicate — in an obscure language called M. B. A. Speak.

Oh that's not true. They wear Oxfords around the office and they are not small minded, they just are not that interested in golf.

5.  To set up a course for a major championship is at least as complcated as rocket science or brain surgery.

Actually, if you've been reading you'd know it's not that complicated, we've just had a lot of bunglers trying to offset faulty equipment regulation who've made it look that way!

6.  The most prolific and sought-after contemporary designers — Tom Fazio, Jack Nicklaus, and Rees Jones — have yet to design a respectable golf course.

Works for me!

7.  The failure of golf’s governing bodies to rein in manufactures and set limits on the flight of the golf ball is an ongoing disaster.

Pretty much.

8.  The FedEx Cup is the most lame-brained, ginned-up competition in sports.

It has surpassed the BCS for those who know what the FedExCup is.

9.  TV coverage of golf is dull enough to put Zombies to sleep.

No one said I was original.

10.  Somebody needs to take the current business model of golf out behind the barn and kill it with an axe.

I'm such a lone wolf on that one!