Rio favela seeks to improve kids' lives through golf

Saturday is not a school day, so kids in Rio de Janeiro’s City of God favela are fill dirt ros playing soccer or pretend to be cops and robbers around dangerous alleys.

All while, parents are watching over m, hoping ir children don't get scouted by drug dealers seeking messengers and delivery boys.

Anor one is watching m. Marcelo Modesto was born in a calmer City of God than infamous one of 2002 film. He's aiming to take some kids off favela streets and try and turn m into professionals of a sport many Brazilians deem elitist, exclusive to white people.

Golf.

A cdie for four deces, 54-year-old Modesto has opened a golf training ground in most violent area of favela. Without public or private funding, from just a sheer passion for sport, Modesto has attracted 100 kids to ground in hope of starting some on path to becoming professionals, or doing something professionally clean to get off favela streets.

City of God golf training ground is part of a program that hopes to develop children from one of Brazil’s most violent favelas into budding golfers who are invited to use course from Rio Olympic Games in 2016.

ir introduction to golf is rudimentary, at best.

City of God training ground is only 1,600 square feet (150 square meters), half size of your average putting green. A community center once filled site. Interested kids, who are mostly Black, play with donated clubs and balls. Inste of holes, y hit buckets. As a warmup, y swing wooden sticks around ir backs.

And no matter how intense practice gets, y remain alert for any sound of gunshots.

“I have friends who died, ors were jailed. y didn’t have opportunities like those I have h with golf,” Modesto told Associated Press during a recent Saturday practice, only hours after his shift as a nightwatchman. “Once you get ball and start swinging, you fall in love. And so have se kids.”

Modesto saw golf as a good idea for City of God kids from his own introduction. When he was 20 and h just left Army, criminals came to him as a potentially great asset; he was a young man who knew how to fight and shoot. Plus, he h a connection with favela.

“That shook me,” Modesto mitted.

What changed his life was an invitation to work at a golf club.

“I am very grateful to golf. It was like a second family. Club members were like far I never h," he said. "I learned how to speak well, I was distinguished here. I got clos from club members, went out with best looking girls here. I became a reference.”

Modesto hopes to spre initiative into or Rio favelas so at least 60 children can go to city’s Olympic golf course by February to take classes and be fed. Two have alrey been selected.

Ray de Souza Teixeira, aged 13, is alrey sure he will become a professional golfer even though he started playing on a proper course only last week. Teixeira's grip of a club reminds Modesto of Tiger Woods.

Teixeira played rounds at Olympic course on Monday, and was suitably dressed in khaki shorts, white shirt and black sneakers.

"No one h ever told me this existed in Brazil, only rich knew about it,” Teixeira said between rounds.

"I want to play a professional tournament and win so I can take my family out of favela. Life re is too difficult.

“Whenever I hear gunshots, someone dies. Whenever re’s a police raid, someone dies. It is very b when re’s police raids, re’s protests after that, too. Golf is my joy now.”

Olympic course has seen little action since Games, at high risk of becoming a white elephant in a country where golf is not beloved. Many clubs have restrictive membership, and Brazil only has about 20,000 players, a figure that hasn’t changed much since Olympics.

But none of that matters much to housewife Leijane Silva, 50, who is also a volunteer with City of God golf project. All she wants is for her daughter Sofia and or kids to stay away from crime.

“I just want se children to be out of streets," she said. "y develop anor perspective here, y understand sport better. I am very thankful that my daughter is here.”

Jack Correa, vice-president of Rio’s Olympic golf course, believes kids won’t be frustrated if y don’t become professional golfers because re’s or activities around golf that can attract m.

“More than 80% of our association today is former cdies. bubble was burst,” Correa said. “ Olympics did push sport forward. Now anyone can play, get to know sport.”

Modesto believes golf project can also improve views of many Brazilians about children coming from City of God. He has ambitions of two ditional pieces of land so he can build a course, d two tennis courts and, if possible, a swimming pool.

“Golf was light at end of tunnel for me," he said. "I hope it will be just same for some of those kids. I jokingly tell people in power here that y will have to import workers in future because children of City of God will be too busy with sport.”