Palm Beach, Florida, USA – Gary Player, the International Ambassador of Golf and eighteen-time Major Champion congratulated Gil Hanse on being awarded the golf course design project for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.
“Congratulations to Gil and his team. He is a gentleman and I know that he will design a golf course worthy of hosting the 2016 Olympic Games,” said Gary Player.
“This is an important project that is not just about designing a great golf course. It is much bigger than that. Golf is returning to the Olympic Games for the first time in more than 100 years and all of us in golf have the responsibility to help make its return a huge success. I, and our entire company, will do whatever we can to help make golf in the 2016 and 2020 Games meaningful, successful and a permanent part of Olympic competition.”
“We would like to express our sincere thanks to the IOC, IGF, GAC and the Rio 2016 Committee for considering our proposal. We really enjoyed being part of the selection process and wish the City of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil all the best in hosting both the 2016 Olympic Games and the 2014 World Cup. Brazilians have a way of making you feel welcome and it is fantastic that the world will have the chance to experience what a wonderful country Brazil is,” said Black Knight International CEO, Marc Player.
“We would also like to congratulate the other finalists. Any one of them would have created a superb design that the golf world would have been proud of,” he added.
About Gary Player Design
Widely recognized as the world’s most successful golf course architectural firm, the Gary Player Design firm established by Marc Player in 1983 today boasts over 325 championship courses spanning the globe. With an ever-increasing number of courses stretching across five continents and encompassing more than 35 countries, the firm is renowned for its select and ecological approach to design. Using natural lakes, marshes and sand dunes Player creates a golfing experience with visual beauty and challenging tests of strategy.
Magazines such as Golf Asia, Travel & Leisure, Golf Digest, Golf Week, Golf World Worldwide Golf, and The Complete Golfer have consistently listed Gary Player courses among the top places to play. Travel & Leisure Golf named Leopard Creek in South Africa one of the top ten Best International Courses; Geneva National was referred to by Golf Week as the best course you can play in America; and Golf, Inc. named Blacksearama in Bulgaria the 2010 International Development of the Year. These awards and accolades are numerous, and for good reason. Gary Player Design doesn’t simply design the course and walk away; they also provide the consulting services that will guide a newly established project through the implementation steps necessary to ensure success. The results are premier golf courses & resorts that provide golfers with a unique style of luxury, the challenge of risk versus reward, and a truly memorable experience.
Although Player’s golfing expertise influences every project, Gary Player Design offers three tiers of golf course design service Black Knight Design™, Player Design™, and Gary Player Signature Design™. On Signature Design projects, Mr. Player is involved in every phase of design and development. With over 50 years of professional golf experience, Player, The World’s Most Traveled Athlete™ has visited and studied most of the great golf courses of the world so he understands that the design of a course takes both vision and sensitivity to the topography. His design philosophy, and also that of The Player Group, is to create challenging courses that enhance the existing resources and retain the natural beauty of the land.
Gary Player, often referred to as the Black Knight, is one of the century’s greatest golfers and one of the original inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame. He is one of only five golfers to ever win the Grand Slam on the PGA Tour and the only golfer to win the Grand Slam on both the regular and Champions Tour. Over the course of his career, Player participated in 438 Tour events, placed in the top 25 in 281 of them, and won 165 worldwide tournaments. Player, whose career earnings exceed $15 million, is a legend in his own time. Currently serving as The Global Ambassador to the World Golf Hall of Fame, he has been a three-time President’s Cup Captain and is ranked by Golf digest as one of the top ten all-time golf greats.
For further information on Gary Player Design, Player Real Estate or Black Knight International, visit www.garyplayerdesign.com or contact Scott Ferrell at + 1-863-477-2720.
About Gary Player
Gary Player has won 165 professional golf tournaments worldwide, including nine major championships on the regular PGA Tour and nine on the Champions or Senior Tour. He became the third man to capture golf’s coveted Grand Slam (after Ben Hogan & Gene Sarazen) when he won the US Open in 1965 at the age of 29. Since then, only Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have joined this elite group.
Off the course, Player has an unparalleled resume that includes over 40 years in the golf course design business and a portfolio of more than 325 golf courses worldwide; his philanthropic efforts have raised over $35 million for underprivileged children’s education globally through the efforts of The Player Foundation; has bred over 2000 winning racehorses on the Gary Player Stud Farm in South Africa; and in 1995 he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from St. Andrews University. In recognition of his achievements in golf and his dedication to charity, Player has also received numerous awards including the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award, South Africa’s Sportsman of the Century in 2000 and the 2006 Payne Stewart Award from the PGA Tour.
Gary Player also currently serves as the Global Ambassador to the World Golf Hall of Fame and has been dubbed the Black Knight and the World’s Most Traveled Athlete ™ with over 15 million miles or over 25 million kilometers traveled.
Contact:
Guy DeSilva
Media Director
Black Knight International
+1 561 624 0300 x642
guy@garyplayer.com
Debbie Longenecker
The Player Group
debbie@garyplayer.com
+1 561 624 0300
www.garyplayer.com.
