There are several reasons why Madrid should host the 2018 Ryder Cup \u2013 but one virtually unassailable one: the weather.<\/p>\n
As Miguel \u00c1ngel Jim\u00e9nez noted during a press conference at the Open de Andaluc\u00eda in M\u00e1laga, \u201cMadrid is the best option for the Ryder Cup, and I\u2019m not just saying that because I\u2019m Spanish. It\u2019s the most southern-most city of all the candidates, and the weather is the key at that time of the year (September).\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, no one was unkind enough to note that the first and to date only time the Ryder Cup was held in Spain \u2013 at Valderrama in 1997 (also the first and to date only time it has been held on the Continent) \u2013 torrential rain on the eve of the tournament threatened its scheduled start. But it is now history that Valderrama\u2019s exceptional irrigation system meant there were no delays and it became a riveting contest ultimately won by captain Severiano Ballesteros\u2019 determined Europeans 14\u00bd to 13\u00bd against Tom Kite\u2019s Americans.<\/p>\n
Jim\u00e9nez, who was non-playing vice-captain on that occasion and went on to compete in three Ryder Cups (1999, 2004 and 2008), said there were some other excellent candidates for 2018, including Paris, but concluded that Madrid was the best. \u201cThey are also building a new course in Tres Cantos (translated as \u201cthree edges\u201d, he quipped in an aside to his playing colleagues at the conference table), the best amenities, the gastronomy\u2026\u201d \u201cAnd the vino!\u201d added a press man from the floor, an observation Jim\u00e9nez \u2013 known for his love of the finer things in life \u2013 was only too happy to concur with.<\/p>\n
For her part, Gela Alarc\u00f3, general manager of Turismo Madrid, said the city\u2019s candidature had various other advantages, including solid institutional support from the Madrid regional government, national ministry of sport, Spanish Olympic Committee, and Royal Spanish and Royal Andalucian Golf Federations \u2013 as well as King Juan Carlos, who had agreed to be honorary president of the bid committee. In addition, she said, Spain had an impressive number of top players and hosted the most number of European Tour events \u2013 six this year alone (possibly seven if the World Match Play Championship returns to Finca Cortes\u00edn \u2013 at the moment it is not included on the schedule).<\/p>\n
Jorge Sagardoy, general manager of the Royal Spanish Golf Federation, said he believed that, together with Madrid, the strongest candidates were France and Germany, and also revealed that the European Tour had indicated that the fact the event had been held in Spain before, at Valderrama, would not be an issue in the selection process. \u201cA lot of years have passed since 1997, and we are now in another era.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tres Cantos course is due to be finished in three years; while a decision on the successful candidate is expected to be made in April 2011.<\/p>\n
Among those players accompanying Jim\u00e9nez at the press conference, and lending their support to the bid, were Ignacio Garrido (who competed at Valderrama in 1997, thus joining his father Antonio as a Ryder Cup player); and Gonzalo Fern\u00e1ndez-Casta\u00f1o and \u00c1lvaro Quir\u00f3s, who will both be hoping to make their Cup debuts this year at The Celtic Manor Resort in Wales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are several reasons why Madrid should host the 2018 Ryder Cup \u2013 but one virtually unassailable one: the weather.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mbp_gutenberg_autopost":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golfinspain.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}