SAO PAULO -- American architect Gil Hanse will design the 2016 Olympic golf course in Rio de Janeiro, winning the selection Wednesday over Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman and Gary Player.
Hanse will team with Hall of Fame player Amy Alcott to build the first Olympic golf course since the sport was dropped after the 1904 St. Louis Games. Organizers picked Hanse Golf Design over seven other finalists.
"I'm still a little bit stunned by the whole thing," Hanse told The Associated Press by phone from Miami. "We are obviously very honored, very humbled by the selection. It was a thrill just to be in the competition with these great designers. I'm excited that the selection panel felt that our efforts were the ones that best matched the criteria set by organizers."
The announcement by Rio 2016 organizers was made at the site where the new course will be built, in the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood, which will hold most of the Olympic venues.
The Rio 2016 committee said Hanse Golf Design was "the candidate that most aptly met the selection criteria" issued by organizers, proposing a strong legacy component that prioritized a golf academy to help the sport's development in Brazil.
"Hanse Golf Course Design tackled the challenge of designing a course for use by both elite and amateur athletes, one of the main legacy objectives," the committee said in a statement. "It addressed the environmental sustainability directives for the games and efficiently conformed to the building restrictions on the land."
Hanse said his group's "respect for the land" made the difference.
"We like to build golf courses that are very environmentally sensitive," he said.
The other seven companies that made the final shortlist: Gary Player Design, Greg Norman Golf Course Design, Hawtree Ltd., Nicklaus Design, Renaissance Golf, Robert Trent Jones II and Thomson-Perret Golf Course Architects.
American Gil Hanse to design 2016 Olympic golf course
Chosen over Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman and Gary Player.
