Artur Mas, President of Generalitat De Catalunya, formally backed Spain’s bid for The 2022 Ryder Cup by welcoming Ryder Cup Director Richard Hills to Barcelona.
The formal reception was a conclusion of the evaluation visit originally conducted by Ryder Cup Europe in March 2015 – the schedule for which was curtailed by the Germanwings disaster.
President Mas was joined by senior leaders from across the region of Catalunya to reinforce the institutional support for bringing The 2022 Ryder Cup Match to Spain.
Speaking of the visit, Richard Hills said: “For us, political support is important and something we take into consideration when making our evaluation. It is encouraging to see institutional support, led by President Mas, for bringing The Ryder Cup to Catalunya”.
Speaking of the Spanish bid, Mr Hills added: “The Costa Brava Barcelona 2022 bid has many strengths and I am impressed by the progress made to date. In July, we will make a further evaluation visit to PGA Catalunya Resort. Spain has an obvious important historical link to our event through Severiano Ballesteros and has some very patriotic support from Sergio García, Miguel Ángel Jiménez and José María Olazábal.”
Spain is the only country on mainland Europe to have previously hosted a Ryder Cup. When asked about this, Mr Hills replied: “The fact that Spain played host to the 32nd Match at Valderama in 1997 is no impediment to hosting the event again”.
When questioned about the other bidding nations, Richard Hills concluded: “We have four very strong candidates. I foresee narrowing it down to one being the hardest part of this process.”
Ryder Cup Europe will announce the successful host for The 2022 Ryder Cup Match in Autumn 2015.
Find out more about the bid: www.costabravabarcelona2022.com
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