MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) U.S. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem says progress on construction of the troubled course for golf's return to the Olympics at Rio in 2016 is "reasonably good" and that he would travel to Brazil early next year to check on its progress.
The course at Venue Reserva de Marapendi has been plagued by delays over land rights. It was originally scheduled to be completed by 2014 but American architect Gil Hanse, who is designing the course, admitted in July that it would not be tournament-ready until 2015.
"The progress is reasonably good, we were really concerned for a period of time," Finchem said at a media conference Wednesday on the eve the World Cup at Royal Melbourne. "Gil Hanse from all indications is doing a good job.
"I was told yesterday that the irrigation system for the golf course had boarded a ship in Los Angeles and was headed for the Panama Canal. So we'll have some water on the golf course."
Hanse was given the job of building the course for golf's return to the Olympics for the first time since 1904.