Itanhangá

Following the Brazilian revolution in 1930, the country opened up to foreign influences, particularly on the leisure front. The renowned Canadian architect Stanley Thompson was commissioned to work on several courses around the country at that time, including São Paulo and Gávea.

In the book Stanley Thompson and Icons of Canada , the author writes: “The plum job during Stanley’s six months in Brazil was the de novo construction of Itanhangá GC. Until 1935 Gávea had been the only golf course in Rio and there was now a demand for another course. The construction work was hot and grinding under the blazing Brazilian summer sun.

Once it became clear that Jones wasn’t coming [Robert Trent Jones refused to travel after being cabled by his design partner Thompson to join him] Stanley’s brothers Nicol and Bill came down to Brazil to help. Later, overseeing much of the work for Stanley, was civil engineer J. F. ‘Hennie’ Henderson, who Stanley sent for from Toronto.”

Patronised by President Getúlio Vargas when the initial nine holes were completed in 1935, Itanhangá became one of the most exclusive clubs in the country. The sporting complex is situated in the up-market suburb of Barra da Tijuca in the shadow of Pedra da Gávea, where the lush natural beauty of the landscape offers members and selected guests a secluded tropical site to play golf.

Measuring a modest 6,178 yards from the back tees, today’s main course at Itanhangá sits in a beautiful valley where the tight, tree-lined fairways have been intuitively routed around ponds and streams to make maximum use of a relatively small tract of land. All five par threes on the card are wonderfully constructed short holes and the lengthy back-to-back par fives at 15 and 16 threaten to derail golfers late in the round.

The Brazil Rio de Janeiro 500 Years Open was held at Itanhangá in 2000, the first of two European PGA Tour events held in the country that year to mark the discovery of Brazil by Pedro Alvares Cabral in 1500. Roger Chapman won the event when he overcame Padraig Harrington in a playoff but the big Irishman would go on to win the other commemorative competition at São Paulo a week later.

Not to be outdone by the male professionals, the LPGA organized the 36-hole Brasil Cup at Itanhangá in 2009 when fifteen professional women and an amateur lady competed in a tournament over two days. None of the $500,000 in the prize purse counted on the official Ladies Tour money list but that meant little to Scotland’s Catriona Matthew who won the event with a score of six under par, pocketing $100,000 of the prize money in the process.

In 2018, the club embarked on a renovation of the golf course, starting with holes 10 to 18. This involved re-ordering holes 11-14 for safety reasons so there are now back-to-back par fives at the 11th and 12th. The work involved architect Agustín Pizá installing new USGA-spec greens and he described the project as one where “some holes will require make up, some will require botox and others will require surgery!”