The Swedish Golf Federation and Scandinavian Golf Event Management (SGEM), the company behind the country’s bid to host The Ryder Cup, have decided to withdraw their candidature for the 2018 contest and switch their focus to the 2022 event.
The organisers cited a weakened economy and insurmountable challenges in terms of sourcing the necessary finances – including lack of Government funding – as the reasons for their decision to pull out of the race.
France, Germany, Holland, Portugal and the city of Madrid are the other parties involved in the bid to stage the biennial match in 2018.
Jacob Wallenberg, Chairman of SGEM, said: “The Ryder Cup is a fantastic event and it is regrettable that it was not possible to resolve the funding for 2018. However, Sweden needs major events and one of these may be The Ryder Cup. We will work to ensure we can make a new application for 2022.”
Richard Hills, Ryder Cup Director, said: “We fully respect Sweden’s decision to withdraw from the bidding process for The 2018 Ryder Cup. These are challenging times and we appreciate the complexities of preparing a submission which meets all the necessary criteria.
“Swedish golfers have played a leading role in Europe’s recent Ryder Cup successes and we hope that Sweden will be in a position to make a vigorous bid to stage the event when it returns to Europe in 2022.
“Meanwhile we look forward to receiving the official bid documents from the five parties still involved in the 2018 process, namely France, Germany, Holland, Portugal and Madrid.”
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