France will host The Ryder Cup for the first time in 2018. The historic announcement, which will see golf’s greatest team event return to the Continent of Europe for the first time in 21 years, was made by Ryder Cup Europe at Wentworth Club in Surrey, England.
Le Golf National on the outskirts of Versailles near Paris, the well-established home of the Alstom Open de France, will become only the second Continental venue – following Club de Golf, Valderrama, in Spain in 1997 - when the 42nd edition of The Ryder Cup between Europe and the United States is contested in the autumn of 2018.
Five nations – France, Germany, Holland, Portugal and Spain – had participated in an exhaustive and comprehensive Bid Process – the first conducted by Ryder Cup Europe - to identify the country best qualified to follow Medinah Country Club, Illinois, USA, next year; Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2014 and Hazeltine, Minnesota, USA, in 2016 as host of the biennial contest.
Richard Hills, Europe’s Ryder Cup Director, had led a four-strong Bid Committee, comprising 2018 Bid Director David MacLaren, Ryder Cup Match Director Edward Kitson and Financial Director Jonathan Orr, to examine and evaluate each Bid, including a series of thorough site inspections to the five countries who had confirmed their desire to stage The Ryder Cup in seven years’ time. A sixth, Sweden, had dropped out of the race in the spring of 2010.
The objective of the bid process was to enable Ryder Cup Europe to arrive at the correct sporting and commercial decision in terms of the host for 2018. To this end, the Bid Committee evaluated the five candidates on five specific criteria, namely: (i) a commitment to the development of a world-class golf facility (new or existing); (ii) provision of ancillary facilities, suitable access and infrastructure commensurate with the staging of an international sporting event; (iii) demonstrable government , private sector and golfing community support; (iv) commercial opportunities available to The Ryder Cup, and (v) contribution of the bid country to the development of golf - for example: historical contribution to the professional game, golf tourism, development of levels of golf participation, professional tournament golf at all levels, player participation within past Ryder Cups, and legacy.
The Bid Committee was assisted significantly in their evaluation procedure by three prominent external advisers in Michael Payne, Jaime Byrom and Nick Bitel, who brought considerable experience from their specialist sporting backgrounds, namely the Olympic Movement, FIFA and the London Marathon respectively.
France has hosted 118 European Tour, 60 European Challenge Tour and 12 European Senior Tour events. Ten French golfers have won 24 tournaments on The European Tour and 36 players have gained 51 wins on the European Challenge Tour while Thomas Levet and Jean Van de Velde have represented Europe in The Ryder Cup in 2004 and 1999 respectively.
Le Golf National, an impressive ‘stadium’ course which has received high praise over the past 20 years, will next month stage the 2011 Alstom Open de France for the tenth successive year and the 19th time in total since its inception 1991
Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles
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