Six months after the Rio Olympics golf course was scheduled to break ground – before a land dispute halted the project – designer Gil Hanse and crew are down in Brazil Tuesday morning prepping to finally begin construction on the project.
Hanse’s team is onsite to clear non-native vegetation by hand, according to Golf Week. Then they’ll clear the lines and move dirt to shape the course before planting some Zeon Zoysia – chosen grass of the Olympics – and watching it grow over the fairways, tees, and rough.
So long as there are no more delays, Hanse’s group believes the course could be ready in as few as 18 months, and could host a pro tournament in August 2015 to give the world’s top competitors a taste of the links style course before they return for the Olympics the following year.
The 240-acre project will cost about $30 million overall and live about three miles from the Olympic Park when golf returns to the Olympics for the first time since the 1904 St. Louis Games.
The IOC offered a peek of at the course design to its Twitter followers last week which you can see here.
