Nicklaus, Norman battling for 2016 gold

The ancient game of golf is on its way to the ultimate global forum -- the Olympics. Next up: building a golf course worthy of the occasion. By the end of next week, after months of jockeying, a winner will be chosen in a worldwide competition to create the course that the world's elite golfers will play at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. Eight of the biggest names in golf design, including Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Gary Player and Tom Doak, will make their final, 45-minute presentations to the selection jury on Tuesday and Wednesday. Soon after, a contract will be awarded for what is without question the most glittering golf-architecture prize of the decade. Designing and constructing championship golf courses is a major aesthetic and engineering undertaking. The courses are unique among sporting venues for the way they seamlessly blend competitive challenges into a natural, or natural-seeming, landscape. The best are considered by players and golf cognoscenti to be works of art. This course bears an additional burden. Golf's ruling bodies made a full-court press to get the game into the Olympics -- for the first time since 1900 and 1904 -- in the hope that the showcase will inspire a surge of interest around the world. Golf needs a global audience: The game's growth has stalled in the US and Western Europe, but the industry sees a vast potential for expansion in the burgeoning middle classes of Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and elsewhere. "Ideally what you'd want," said one of the contending architects, "is a course that would deliver the kind of thrilling finale that Augusta National traditionally serves up at the Masters." That is, two or three competitors under knee-buckling pressure battling on the last few holes. The jury comprises representatives from Rio 2016, the city of Rio, the company that will run the course after 2016 and the International Golf Federation, whose mission in part is to foster the game's global growth. The jury has not publicly stated its criteria, except that after the Olympics the course must be operated as a public facility with a teaching academy. Despite the secret criteria, some golf observers suspect there is a front-runner: Nicklaus, primarily for political reasons. The Golden Bear was one of the earliest and most vocal advocates for golf as an Olympic sport, and in making his bid he shrewdly teamed with Annika Sorenstam, the former longtime women's world No. 1. Norman, not to be outdone, recruited Lorena Ochoa, the recently retired women's world No. 1, to be his partner and co-marketer. Ochoa, from Mexico, plays well in South America but has limited hands-on design experience, even though her brother Alejandro is in the business. Three other finalists also have international chops. Robert Trent Jones Jr., whose father designed more courses around the world than anyone else, signed up a beloved Brazilian golf pro, Mario Gonzalez, as his partner. Gary Player of South Africa, a nine-time major champion and prolific designer, is a tireless health nut and promoter of physical fitness, which aligns with Olympic ideals. Peter Thomson, who won the British Open five times between 1954 and 1965, is teaming with his fellow Aussie and frequent design collaborator, Ross Perrett. Groundbreaking is scheduled for October, with construction to be completed two years later and a big-time test tournament mandated on the course in 2015.