Rio unveils Olympic golf course

Rio 2016 organizing committee president Carlos Nuzman said on Sunday the city's new Olympic golf course would leave a lasting legacy and help to spark interest in the sport among local children.

The golf course was officially unveiled by Rio's mayor Eduardo Paes on Sunday, just over nine months before the start of the first Olympic Games in South America.

"It's a big legacy," Nuzman said. "It's a public golf course. There are a lot of young kids - boys and girls - who want to participate to develop golf. It's a chance for golf in a new region of the world to be developed."

Built at a cost of around 16 million US dollars, the course has been the subject of ongoing controversy.

Rio already has two private golf course and some questioned the need to build a new one in a city in which few people play the game.

In addition, environmentalists claim the course has threatened wildlife due to its location directly next to a nature reserve.

There have also been allegations that Paes received political donations from the project's billionaire developer Pasquale Mauro.

Paes, who has been touted as a future presidential candidate, denied the claims on Sunday.

"No, not at all," he said. "But it would not be a problem if he had."

He added: "I think during the Olympic games there's always going to be lots of controversy. But people finally understood that this is a great environmental legacy, that this is a great golf course."

The Rio 2016 Games, to be staged from August 5 to 21, will mark golf's return to the Olympics after a 112-year absence. Endi