Hanse's already got a plan in place

The announcement on March 7 thrust Hanse, 48, of Malvern, into the international golf spotlight, especially because his company was chosen over seven other finalists that included companies led by World Golf Hall of Fame members Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Greg Norman, and Peter Thomson.

He's already got a strategy in position if pretty much everything would go to his head.

"I told our little ones, 'Listen, easily start acting differently, you should supply a difficult time, call me about it,' " Hanse said Thursday in a interview at his home.

Named Golf Magazine's architect of the year last year, he's got two courses for the international stage - TPC-Boston, a yearly stop for the PGA Tour playoffs, and Castle Stuart, home in the Barclays TaylorMade R11S Driver Scottish Open at Inverness - as well as local courses Inniscrone, Applebrook, and French Creek.

The Olympic assignment implies that he has to design a course that will accommodate the women's and men's competition while addressing a practice area, clubhouse, and access issues like security. But another matter arises as soon as the Olympic flame is extinguished - an anticipated golf boom in Brazil along with other countries in which the sport gets little notice.

Hanse recalled that Antony Scanlan, president with the International Golf Federation, told him, "I wouldn't like to scare you, but there's a lot of responsibility here."

"This will be the face of golf," Hanse said. "I said during my presentation, 'I never watch figure skating, but in the Olympics, I'll watch figure skating.' You'll find likely to be a bunch of people that never watch golf, maybe not have seen golf. But as it's the Olympics and also, since it casts a really wide net to all or any corners worldwide, this will be a chance for individuals to see what golf seems like.

"From our perspective, we're just presenting takes place. We're not going to be the ones out there competing. Players will be the most important part of this. But men and women will be watching them play our Taylormade Rocketballz Irons course as there are a tremendous amount of responsibility in regards to what seems like."

The committee said Hanse's presentation, manufactured in addition to design partner Jim Wagner, "addressed the environmental sustainability directives for that Games and efficiently conformed towards the building restrictions around the land."

And fans of Hanse's work, for example PGA Tour star Phil Mickelson, were happy in the selection.

"I think he's one of the best architects in the commercial," Mickelson told reporters the afternoon the announcement was developed. "He learns how to create a the game playable for your average player but challenging to the good player.

"I provide the Olympic committee a lot of credit given it would have been much easier to go with a major name. And instead, they chose the most effective. I believed that's pretty cool."

The 230-acre site is made up of sand that will be an easy task to move around, Hanse said, and has lower-growing discount golf clubs trees on the property with larger trees bordering the land. The mark date to finish from the course is January or February 2014.

Hanse said he can look at the designs of another finalists and contact them if they have something he likes "because ultimately this can be larger than us. We're trying to find it to be the most effective the game it is usually."