olympic;designeR;choice;imminent

the selection of an architect to design the golf course for the 2016 olympics in brazil has
been curiously shrouded in secrecy. applicants were required to sign a non-disclosure
agreement and all eight finalists have declined to talk about their upcoming presentations.
even the composition and identity of the selection committee was unknown until peter daw-
son, chief executive of the r&a, let it slip that a jury of four—a representative of rio 2016,
one from the city of rio de Janeiro (above) and two from the international golf federation—
will make the decision. dawson, as president of the igf, is headed to rio and is likely one of
the four. a source says the city’s secretary of finance (who reportedly urged one architect
to apply and now has that horse in the race) is another. some prominent architectural firms
didn’t bother to apply. bill coore and ben crenshaw had no interest in compromising a de-
sign to handle spectator traffic. another felt the requirement of establishing a branch office
in brazil and covering travel expenses from a below-market design fee of $300,000, would
make the deal a loss leader. the eight finalists are, alphabetically: tom doak, gil hanse, martin
hawtree, robert trent Jones Jr. (teaming with brazilian golf legend mario gonzalez), Jack nick-
laus (who, with annika sorenstam, has offered to do the design gratis), greg norman (with
lorena ochoa), gary player and the australian firm of peter thomson & ross perrett (with
karrie webb.) four firms will be interviewed in rio tomorrow, the remaining four wednesday.
we expect to see puffs of white smoke by friday. —Ron Whitten (@Ron WhittenGD)