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Around & About

Stands dotted around the Valderrama course have capacity for nearly 10,000 spectators. More than 2,000 are able to watch the players on the practice ground, while other stands are erected at the first and 15th tees and second, fourth, seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th, 16th and 18th holes. Access to the stands is free - with no special pass required, except for selected sections.

Parking in the area beside the main road (the other parking area is on the Arenillas road) costs 2.000 pesetas a day, including a bus service for spectators to the entrance at the fourth hole. Weekly tickets for the internal bus service in Sotogrande cost 6.000 pesetas - available at the Asociacion de Comunidades de Sotogrande, office of the Real Federacion Española de Golf at Valderrama, Sotogrande Golf Club and Sotogrande Beach Club.

Glass utensils are prohibited from use on the course. Instead, Eastman Chemical España is providing 500,000 cups of different sizes that, for the first time in Cup history, are being collected and recycled. A total of 150 volunteers from the Junta de Andalucia (Regional Government) and 80 Limpasol employees are responsible for collecting them from 150 rubbish bins.

Radio receivers are available for 2.000 pesetas each, with narrations in Spanish arranged by the Real Federación Española de Golf.

A Ryder Cup Golf Festival is being held in the Sotogrande port from Monday, September 22, to Saturday, September 27 (closed on the Sunday, the final day of Cup play), open from 12.30 pm to 1 am. The festival features trade exhibitions, an Andalucian pavilion, corporate hospitality tents, practice facilities and bunker zones and restaurants and bars.

Algeciras port is also hosting a Golf Fair, at Llano Amarillo from September 19 to 27. The fair includes a horse show, 27-hole mini-golf area and swing analyser and virtual golf, commercial and institutional stands and tents and the customary fair attractions and entertainment.

The luxury train Al-Andalus, built in 1928-29 and whose wagons were used by the King of England for his trips from Calais to the Riviera, becomes a hotel on wheels during Ryder Cup week. Passengers board the train on September 21 for a trip to Granada, Cordoba and Sevilla before returning on the 25th to Algeciras, from where each day they travel to Valderrama for the golf.

The accommodation offer for Ryder Cup visitors also includes five cruise ships - the Queen Elizabeth II, Sea Goddess II, Radisson Diamond, Funchal and Club Med.

The Ryder Cup is being retransmitted by the United States armed forces to one million overseas soldiers in 150 different countries.

Nearly 2,000 people applied to be volunteers for the Ryder Cup - 10 per cent of them non-Spaniards. More than 40 per cent had previously worked for similar sporting events, though in the end their number for Valderrama had to be trimmed to 1,188.