The five candidate countries who submitted their Official Bids to stage The 2018 Ryder Cup by the end of April have now undergone a comprehensive and exhaustive Bid Review with The Ryder Cup Evaluation Panel.
Following visits to The European Tour headquarters at Wentworth Club in England over the past three weeks, France, Germany Holland, Portugal and Spain will now re-assess their bids before the process reaches conditional contract stage by the end of 2010.
Earlier this year, The Ryder Cup Evaluation Panel visited all five potential venues over a three week period recently to accept the Bid Documents, evaluate the progress being made by each country and to make site inspections of the potential venue for 2018.
Over the summer, Ryder Cup Europe undertook a period of evaluation and validation of the bids, while maintaining dialogue with the five candidates venues, who in turn took the opportunity to review and, if necessary, revise their bids to follow in the footsteps of this year’s host country, Wales, and Gleneagles in Scotland in 2014.
Ryder Cup Europe were, once again, deeply impressed by the commitment of France, Germany, Holland, Portugal and Spain and their meticulous approach to the Bid Documents, which each carry the unique stamp of the nations behind the bids.
The prime objective of the recent Bid Review meetings was to review and discuss the bids with the key officials working on Ryder Cup 2018,; to provide feedback on the bid and any potential shortcoming or areas of concern; to identify the areas where Ryder Cup Europe would wish the candidate to formally consider altering their bid response; to discuss any questions in relation to the draft contracts drawn up by Ryder Cup Europe and to confirm the next steps.
The panel, comprising Ryder Cup Director Richard Hills, Edward Kitson, David MacLaren and Jonathan Orr met, in chronological order, Holland, Portugal, Germany, France and Spain at Wentworth and were struck by the dedication and commitment of the five candidates before, during the after the Bid submissions.
Hills said: “We continue to be impressed with the quality of the Bids for 2018 and take great comfort from the status that The Ryder Cup clearly occupies within so many prominent European countries.
“All five Bidding Nations have met the key criteria set, and it is fair to say that we have more than one bid which could be described as quite exceptional. We said at the very beginning of this process that we ultimately face the challenging assignment of making the right sporting and the right commercial decision, and the quality of these bids has given us both an exciting opportunity and a monumentally difficult task.
“A process of legal consultation will now ensure with the five Bidding Nations that will lead to the signing of conditional contracts with each of the five candidates by the end of the year.”
The contract with the successful candidate will be formally activated prior to the announcement of the winning bid in April 2011.
European Tour www.europeantour.com