Valderrama looks for relief. Only once in history has the Ryder Cup been held on Spanish soil, in the unforgettable 1997 edition on the Sotogrande course, in Cádiz, when Seve Ballesteros led the European charge against the United States. And everything indicates that 34 years later, at the 2031 event, the great biennial and team competition in world golf will return to the country of the Cantabrian genius, Olazabal, Sergio García and Jon Rahm, names with capital letters in this tournament. The race for the headquarters reaches the final stretch, which will be decided between the end of this year and the first quarter of next, and a Spanish candidate is progressing many meters ahead. It is the option for the PGA of Catalunya route, today Camiral Golf, in Caldes de Malavella, in Girona, with very advanced negotiations and the approval of all the actors involved in the project. In the wake, the letters from Bilbao, with the support of a high-profile ambassador like Jon Rahm, and to a lesser extent Madrid, waiting.
The Ryder election process changed in 2019 to avoid Olympic-style auctions and large expenses by bids that ultimately ended on deaf ears. Since then, it is Ryder Cup Europe, a body dependent on the European circuit, that directly proposes a candidate as long as it meets all the economic and infrastructure requirements. Madrid and Catalonia had already competed in the last designations, but their projects were frozen or stopped in different sections of the road and the winners of the last bids were Paris 2018 and Rome 2023. The next European station will be Ireland, already designated for 2027 (for part of the US are New York 2025 and Minnesota 2029), and the ball is open in 2031.
Girona takes the lead. The Caldes layout, owned by the Irish millionaire Denis O’Brien, has recently overcome the last obstacle, the reluctance of the Catalan Generalitat to build a third golf course that would join the two existing ones as part of an Urban Plan that contemplated also a real estate development of 185 luxury homes. With that option ruled out, Girona will draw an 18-hole course within the 36 that already exist without the need for a large extra expense, and including the condition of large stands on the tee of hole 1 that will allow thousands of spectators to be accommodated.
Green light for the Catalan project and approval of the Council of Ministers, which last June authorized the Higher Sports Council (CSD) to sign the necessary agreements for the public investment that materializes the Spanish route for a new Ryder. The CSD is working on this project on the Costa Brava and is committed to “the promotion of golf in Spain during the seven years before and five after the event”, and the Government to promote the designation of the tournament as an “event of exceptional public interest” . “This competition enables a present and future economic return that makes the required investment sustainable and profitable,” explained the Council of Ministers. The last edition, in Rome, left an impact of around 1,000 million euros in the Italian capital and its surroundings. In Spain, 1.2 million tourists come every year, attracted by the practice of golf.
The Spanish Federation is in charge of presenting the project, which requires the endorsement of the Government. “Making progress. There are constant meetings for logistics, infrastructure and accommodation. We are optimistic,” Ramón Nogué, president of the Catalan Golf Federation, explains to this newspaper.
Only an unexpected last-minute bump would leave Girona without the 2031 Ryder. In that case, the Bizkaia Provincial Council keeps its card in its pocket, the headquarters of Meatzegi Golf, a course designed precisely by Seve Ballesteros. And he has a winning ace up his sleeve, the public and firm support of Jon Rahm, winner of two majors and today world number three. “I don’t know what I can do, I can’t promise anything, but I would do everything they asked me and everything I could to achieve it. It would be very special to play a Ryder in Bilbao, although I don’t know what the weather would be like in September…,” Rahm commented yesterday in statements collected by the Tengolf website before the final of the European circuit, the DP World Tour Championship, in Dubai. (at Movistar Golf from Thursday to Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.), a throne that Rory McIlroy has almost in his hand. The Northern Irishman, by the way, has resigned from his position on the PGA Tour governing board in the midst of negotiations with the Saudi League, and the Basque rules out replacing him.
Pending Girona is Bilbao, and Madrid also appears as a third option, in danger if the other bets fail. The Madrid option, however, does not present a specific field and the possibility of building a new route seems very complex. Spain, in any case, is accelerating towards a new Valderrama.
You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes inFacebook andxor sign up here to receiveour weekly newsletter.
.
.
_
