France won the right to host the 2018 Ryder Cup, wining despite emotional appeals for the event to be awarded to Spain in tribute to Seve Ballesteros.
France’s bid, which centres on Le Golf National course outside Paris, successfully beat rival bids from venues in Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands and Spain. The 2018 event will be only the second Ryder Cup ever held in continental Europe following its staging in Valderrama, Spain in 1997, when Ballesteros masterminded a dramatic victory over the US.
The fact that the event is within easy reach of Paris also made the French bid attractive from a tourism and infrastructure perspective.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 18th, 2011.
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