Victoria's Dale Jackson Provides Daily Olympic Golf Blog
Posing Beside The Iconic Olympic Rings In Rio de Janeiro, Victoria, BC's Dale Jackson Has Arrived For The 2016 Olympics In Brazil And Will Blog On The Return Of Golf To The Games - All Images Courtesy Dale Jackson Unless Otherwise Noted
Victoria's Dale Jackson is in Rio as a golf rules official for the 2016 Olympic Games and is providing a daily blog on what he sees and experiences as Canada attempts to defend its Gold Medal from the 1904 Olympic Games the last time golf was a part of the quadrennial event.
Jackson has been involved in giving back to the game as a rules official since becoming interested in this vocation more than 15 years ago. Since then he has risen through the ranks to become a Level Four Rules Official and serving as Managing Director of Rules and Competitions for British Columbia Golf from 2003 to 2007.
More recently, Jackson has been active at the national level and since 2013 has been the Chair of the Rules of Golf and Amateur Status Committee for Golf Canada.
Within Canada, this involves heading a group of volunteers who deal with issues ranging from ruling on applications for amateur status reinstatement to developing ways to increase the number of certified rules officials.
Internationally, this means that Jackson is intimately involved with deciding rules issues at the highest levels representing Golf Canada on the Joint Rules Committee and as an Advisory Member of the R&A’s Rules Committee.
Dale Jackson's Day One Golf Blog
Djackson99's Traveller Profile
Day 1 At The Course
At last, after over 28 hours of travel, I arrived at the front door of my hotel in Rio. To my pleasant surprise the hotel is very nice, new, comfortable, located on the beach, free internet, what else could a newly-minted blogger want?
The trip, other than being really long, was uneventful, one slight delay but nothing serious. After a good supper, I managed to get in about 7 hours of sleep and awoke feeling pretty good, not as razor sharp as I would like but more than acceptable.
I have just returned from the golf course so let's get right to some first impressions and observations. The most important statistics of the day.
Number of mosquitos reported by my colleagues and I = zero!
Number of capybara sighted = one (see photo)
Any Opportunity To Legitimately Post A Picture Of A Capybara Should Be Taken
Capybara are the largest rodent in the world, weighing in at over 100 pounds. They are not what one would call an attractive animal but I am sure their mothers love them.
Time from hotel to golf course = 13 minutes, this being a vast relief, given the estimate of 45 minutes given provided prior to arriving here.
My first day was spent walking the golf course. One of the the pre-tournament priorities for a rules official is to get to know the course. While the players map out their strategy for each hole, we are concerned with how the course is marked, where is the Out of Bounds, are there any unusual areas, what Temporary Immovable Obstructions (TIO) are likely to come into play, and so on.
So after arriving at the course and renewing friendships with many officials from all over world, I set out with friends from Australia and Thailand down the first hole. The golf course revealed itself to be a really interesting layout, each hole unique and challenging. It is built on a very flat piece of land but the architect, Gil Hanse, did a fabulous job of creating mounding, swales and ridges to lend interest, strategy and challenge to the course
The View From Dale's Hotel Room
For the golf course cognoscenti, it is very much like one of the famous sand belt courses around Melbourne. It will be interesting to see how the best players in the world make their away around. Of special note is the finish, 16 is a short, drivable par 4, 17 a short par 3, with some great hole locations and 18 is a par 5, reachable in 2 by most players.
Taken together, they raise the prospect of a dynamic and exciting finish on the last day.
Tomorrow we have our formal rules meeting, where we will go over the local rules for the competition and make sure everyone is on the same page regarding some of the more esoteric details of conducting a high level championship and then go on a course tour in organized groups.
At that time we will also receive our assignments for the first two rounds. At this tournament, like The Open and U.S. Open we will walk with one group. It is always exciting to see who you will be accompanying. On the more social side of things, I have enjoyed a Brazilian Cabernet and a Uruguayan “Tannat”, both quite good. The sacrifices one must make!
So my first day in Rio is done. Back to you tomorrow.