When the first Olympic golfers in more than a century teed off Thursday at the Rio Olympics, they did so on a course designed by a Cornell University alumnus.
Gil Hanse, along with Cornell horticulture professor Frank Rossi, were selected to design the course in 2012 over other names including legendary course designers Jack Nicklaus and Robert Trent Jones II. Hanse was tapped to be architect for the Brazilian course primarily for his environmentally sustainable designs, the Cornell Chronicle wrote at the time, part of a major push by Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes to be a “Green Olympics for a Blue Planet.”
Located next to a wildlife preserve, the course has already become popular with the native capybaras (a large rodent) and will one day serve as a municipal golf course open to the public.