The Ryder of scarcity whose course is designed by a Spanish couple

Tension in the Roman Marco Simone venue, headquarters of the Ryder Cup, the competition that is held every four years on the European continent and which represents the big business of the DP World Tour, the old European Circuit, which achieves an increase in its income in about 40% in each of your exercises. Television rights, ticket sales, and merchandising sales account for the majority of the pie.. Since the Ryder Cup was held in 1997 in Valderrama, choosing the venue seems more like an economic auction than a recognition of the merits and efforts of each of the candidates to win the juicy cake created by a seed merchant named Samuel Ryder at the beginning. of the 20th century.

In 2002, the competition was held on the English course of The Belfry, owned by one of the wealthiest Irish families, later sold to American private capital.. In 2006 it was Ireland's turn with The K Club, bought by Irish magnate Jefferson Smurfit.. In 2010, the Ryder Cup landed in Wales, in another luxurious resort, Celtic Manor, owned by another billionaire, in this case the Canadian, Sir Terence Hedley Matthews.. In 2014 it was the Scottish resort of Gleneagles that welcomed Europe and the United States, with the guarantees of the alcoholic beverage production and distribution giant Diageo, the owners of the course.

The flow of millionaires with luxury resorts in Europe had to dry up and the European Tour decided to change its election model and open the possibility for different candidates to show their interest in hosting the Ryder Cup and embark on a cumbersome election process.

On May 11, 2011, in a televised ceremony, the delegations of Portugal, Germany, France and Spain, after years of work, investments, projects and signings (in Spain, Madrid Turismo hired Seve Ballesteros), France was finally designated as the headquarters for the 2018 Ryder Cup. That was a huge mess, and the secret vote of the supposed committee was another pantomime in a process as absurd as it was cruel for the losing candidates.

The push

In the auction for the 2022 Ryder, the interested parties were Germany, Austria, Portugal, Turkey, Italy and Spain. Italy won, a candidacy that was, on paper, a millionaire, with 97 million euros that were going to be provided by the Government as a guarantee for the Rome championship.. Among the commitments made by the Romans was a European Tour tournament that would be held for 11 years (before and after the Ryder Cup) and that had seven million euros in prizes in each edition, two Challenge Tour tournaments (second division) per year and one Senior Tour event for professionals over 50 years of age.

But the story of the milkmaid faded, first with the elimination by the Italian Senate of the regulations that guaranteed the almost 100 million euros promised.. In Wentworth, headquarters of the European tour, all the alarms went off, and there was no choice but to continue ahead.. The 11 million-dollar tournaments were reduced to three and the annual event now distributes only three million, the same amount as the two Circuit tournaments that are played this year in Spain. On the Challenge Tour they maintain one tournament, when Spain hosts three (including the most important of the year that closes the Challenge Tour, that of Mallorca) and Italy organizes one more event on the Senior Tour, the same number as Spain.

Faced with the unexpected economic disaster, the Italian Federation had to increase the membership fee of its members by 25 euros to cover part of the expenses generated by the competition.. Previously, the Italian member of legal age paid 75 euros per year, now he pays 100. In fact, since the election of Rome was announced in 2015, until this year there are barely 4,000 more licensed players in Italy, exceeding the figure of 94,000 players.. Spain has close to 300,000.

The pandemic caused a one-year delay in the Ryder event initially scheduled for 2022, and that allowed the Spaniards Lara Arias and Alejandro Reyes to rebuild a golf course from its ashes to create a course that is already a reference and has received all the congratulations from the players. “It has been quite a challenge,” says Leonese Lara Arias, in charge of the entire project.. The access road was completed a week ago and Marco Simone's field has been ready, in extremis, for the big event. Everything indicates that it will be a Ryder Cup to remember.

Now, with the Ryder Cup of the 2027 edition awarded to the luxury resort of Adare Manor, owned by Irish millionaire JP McManus, which once again saves the ticket to Europe, Spain does not lose hope, and will bid to host 2031.