A toucan came swooping down and landed on the fairway. Nobody batted an eye – except the guy from Houston. “We don’t have any birds on our courses,” he remarked.
Besides the occasional toucan, on any given day one might spot on Rio’s links soccer star Ronaldo, former Central Bank President Armínio Fraga or popular musician Jorge Benjor.
Golfers in Rio de Janeiro take things like toucan and celebrity sightings for granted. What they don’t necessarily take for granted are their starting times. Unlike that other sporting export from the British Isles, soccer, golf has been slow to catch on in Brazil. Japanese immigrants and businessmen helped popularized the game in São Paulo, but in Rio de Janeiro only now is the game getting the attention it enjoys elsewhere around the world.
Rio de Janeiro has only two quality golf courses: the Gávea Golf and Country Club, in the São Conrado district, and the Itanhanga Golf Club, further south in the Barra de Tijuca district. Both are private clubs open only to members, their guests and the guests of a select group of luxury hotels.
Gávea is a short par 68, 6,000-yard, course where players can expect to use their irons more than their drivers. Founded in 1921 and designed by the Scot Arthur Morgan Davidson, then only 20, it runs between a seaside peak called Gávea Rock (Pedra da Gávea) and the Tijuca National Forest. The front nine are played at the foot of the mountains, holes 10-14 at seaside, and 15-18 back astride the hills. The par-three hole five was rated as one of the world’s most beautiful by Golf Illustrated magazine. Grand Slam winner, South African Gary Player, holds the record for the lowest round on at Gávea and PGA pros Tom Watson and Billy Casper has also played the course. The clubhouse is a colonial farmhouse. “Gavéa does not forgive easily,” says Michael Nagy, of Corporate Golf Brasil. “You have to keep focused.”
Itanhanga is a par-72, 6,600 yard course that hosted a stage of the European PGA tour four years ago. Founded in 1933, the course was played by President Getúlio Vargas, a populist strongman who committed suicide in 1954. Gene Littler and Gary Player have also played there. “The greens are small,” according to Nagy. “It is target golf.”
Only in 2004 did the Brazilian government tourism board launch a program to encourage golf tours, called “See Brazil Playing Golf.” The golf crowd is now considered a “strategic segment” for Brazilian tourism, says José Francisco de Salles, research director for Embratur, a federal tourism agency.
Blueprints are ready for several public courses in Rio de Janeiro, including for a caddy’s course in the poor outskirts of town called the Baixada Fluminense. “Rio should have two or three more courses,” says Nagy.
Golf in Rio de Janeiro
Gávea Golf Club - A private club, but guests at selected hotels are allowed to play. Green fee: R$310. Estrada da Gávea, 800, São Conrado. Telephone: 3322-4141.
Itanhanga Golf Club - Private club but open to guests of selected hotels. Green fee on weekdays R$250 and on weekends R$300. Estrada da Barra, 2.005 Telephone: 2494-2507.
Samba Golf is a new website dedicated to golf in Brazil.
Rio for Partiers - a guidebook with attitude.
Rio Botequim - a guide to Rio de Janeiro’s top down-home bars called botecos (in Portuguese).
BrazilMax Pledge Drive - Did you like this article? Consider making a contribution to BrazilMax.
