Ryder Cup 2022.....

Jawgap

.....Rome!

An interesting choice!

Rikand

http://www.bbc.com/sport/golf/35091109

Great idea!

Italy will host the Ryder Cup for the first time in 2022 at the Marco Simone course in Rome.

It will be the 44th edition of the biennial team tournament between Europe and the United States of America.

Europe has held the event outside of England on only five other occasions - Muirfield (1973) and Gleneagles (2014) in Scotland, Spain (1997), Republic of Ireland (2006) and Wales (2010).

Europe defend their title in Minnesota next year before France hosts in 2018.

Italy beat Austria, Germany and Spain in the bidding process and European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley said: "History has shown time and again that the Ryder Cup is pure theatre with the players the stars, and there is no question that the Eternal City of Rome will provide a wonderful backdrop for one of the great occasions in world golf.

"We have exciting plans for the development of The European Tour and our international schedule for the benefit of all our players, and Italy shares this ambition. Their commitment to the Italian Open will provide an inspiring benchmark."

The Marco Simone course, 17km from the centre of the Italian capital, will be reconstructed to meet the standards for the tournament.

coylemj

Their commitment to the Italian Open will provide an inspiring benchmark.

As with Mickey Smurfit and the 2006 Ryder Cup, money talks - the 'commitment' referred to involves guaranteed prize money of $7 million for the Italian Open for 11 years. Job done! Clearly the press release didn't want to get involved with the grubby financial details but that's what was involved, hard cash.

slave1

Pfff, with respect Italy has relatively poor European golf pedigree

DeBurca

slave1 wrote: »

Pfff, with respect Italy has relatively poor European golf pedigree

Amen to that

Roger_007

The most worrying part of the announcement is:
"..The Marco Simone course, 17km from the centre of the Italian capital, will be reconstructed to meet the standards for the tournament...."
This means that they do not presently have a course which is up to standard. In any case it takes many years for a course to mature after creation or major reconstruction.

PARlance

Roger_007 wrote: »

The most worrying part of the announcement is:
"..The Marco Simone course, 17km from the centre of the Italian capital, will be reconstructed to meet the standards for the tournament...."
This means that they do not presently have a course which is up to standard.

It's hardly worrying. It's 7 years away. There are very few courses that are Ryder Cup standard straight off the bat.

Roger_007 wrote: »

n any case it takes many years for a course to mature after creation or major reconstruction.

They're not creating a new course and there's no mention of major reconstruction. These guys know what they're doing.

coylemj

slave1 wrote: »

Pfff, with respect Italy has relatively poor European golf pedigree

I believe the European Tour made a commitment a few years ago that they would move the Ryder Cup around mainland Europe such that it can't come back to GB/Irl until 2034 at the earliest which leaves 2026 and 2030 open for Germany and Spain to bid for when they come up.